Finishing a basement is one of the most common ways to increase the space within your home. There are only 3 ways to increase space in your home: going up, going out or going down.
“Going up” could be utilizing attic space or in drastic situations raising the roof to make more space. This option can be done, but usually requires a lot of work, time and money.
“Going out”, meaning adding an addition, converting a garage, or something of that nature to make space.
Finally “going down”, if you have an unfinished basement then you already have the potential space there use. Generally utilizing an existing basement this is the simplest option to create extra space in your home.
Basement Remodeling Planning
- What Do You Want? The first order of business is to figure out exactly what you want in a basement remodel. In other words is there going to be a bathroom, kitchen or both? This will determine the infrastructure considerations such as water, sewer, heat and electrical load.
- Draw It: Now take some graph paper and draw a rendering to scale. This will allow you to visualize the project. You can also use a computer for this, there are free programs you can download which will enable you to add cabinets, etc. Google SketchUp works well for this.
- Check For Moisture Issues: You should really probably do this before anything else, but the main issue when remodeling a basement is moisture. If your basement already has noticeable water issues, they need to be resolved first. Finishing a basement with water problems, will lead to quick failures, and problems in the future. Even if you aren’t finishing your basement, you really don’t want water leaking in to your basement. You may have to seal cracks in the foundation, divert water drainage away from house, seal the concrete, or whatever else it takes to fix your situation.
Aside from the moisture concern, there are only a couple differences in finishing a basement, compared to any other room in your home. The first is plumbing and heating, the second is vertical space.
Plumbing a bathroom in a basement is generally more difficult because adding the drainage into the existing plumbing usually isn’t possible. Heating on the other hand will usually already in the ceiling, you can either have it vent out of the ceiling, or run it behind the wall and down to the bottom. There are many solutions now a days for these problems, it just depends on what you need.
The vertical space available in your basement is also something to consider. You will probably lose some vertical space when hiding the ducting in the ceiling, or if you are planning on using a drop ceiling. Most of the time, this isn’t an issue, but if you are going to end up with no vertical space, then there is no real point, its may as well just a nice crawl space.
If you have any other questions regarding basement finishing, you can fill out the contact form to the right, or contact us at 567-297-3326, or at info@boyerrenovations.com