How about basement remodel?

[HHSTigerFan]

After seeing the kitchen thread, what have people been spending to fix up their basement? We are starting from scratch, need to frame it out, electric, possible plumbing to add a bathroom (not roughed in), drywall, flooring, bar..

 

[katie111]

I'll be following this thread. We're waiting for an estimate to come in from our contractor today. Lesser scale than your project though, unfortunately no room for a bar or a bathroom.

 

[HHSTigerFan]

We are doing about 700 SF, though planning on doing it in steps as we can afford it.. Bathroom, if we do one, will be the last part.. The rest of the basement will remain unfinished for storage etc..

 

[platamama]

We had our basement finished this last summer; it was previously just concrete everywhere but had rough-in plumbing already done by the homebuilder.

Finished space ~ 600 sf. TV/Media area, code-conforming bedroom, 3/4 bathroom, storage closets, small wet bar. Ended up around $40K, with the GC taking care of most of the work. I separately found and paid the flooring & granite people, and bought fixtures online either thru eBay or Amazon since the prices were better. While I tried to match the finish in the rest of our house, it does seem overall nicer in the basement.

Even with the rough-in, they still had to have the concrete floor cut for them to lay plumbing for the shower.

Met with two other GCs during the interview process and went with the GC that was in the middle pricewise and attitude-wise. The lower-cost one had the attitude that he'd done so many that he knew what we would want and directed all his attention to DH rather than me (guess who is the picky one). And the other high-priced one could only meet on alternating Thursdays in the middle of the day...seriously.

Love having a finished basement!

 

[zoemurr]

be all over the place. Ours was 700+ sq feet. I believe our estimates were between $12k and $30k. We ended up adding some custom things and our total was around $16k.

Do you have an exit window? That is a big expense that you should consider if kids will be spending a lot of time there alone. (We already had one.) We did a 3/4 bathroom, loft, playhouse under the stairs, stage and art area. The art "room" has a pergo floor and the rest has inexpensive carpet. Dropped ceiling, can lights and custom shelving.

Have fun! Now the kids are older we have a cool theater down there w/a big TV and a popcorn machine. It's quite a hit w/the teen crowd.

 

[kkandaj]

Our basement is roughly 900 sq ft--an L shaped room with nothing special. No bathroom, because it wasn't roughed in and our drain isn't under the floor--so we would be required to have an upflush toilet, etc. DH/friends spent about $1k on framing/electricity and we spent about $5K on walls and carpet. We did the painting ourselves. So a pretty basic basement for under $6K. It was the best money we ever spent.

 

[wendow]

I agree that your estimates will be all over the place from people on this board. We have about 1000 sqft in our unfinished basement with just a concrete slab & rough-in plumbing is in place. We were given an estimate of 20-25k to finish a bathroom and then basically keeping the rest as open space with a few storage closets. We already have 3 windows with two having escape ladders so we could use the space for bedrooms if we wanted. If those were not already there, add about 3k to add one.

You are asking about having someone do it, right? My dh will probably finish ours if we ever do and he can do it for about 10-15k. We'll pay for electric to be ran and that is it.

 

[TaraPA]

We just finished an 1800sq ft basement with custom wet bar, 3/4 bath, workout room/extra bedroom (no closet though so not classified as one). Pretty high end fixtures, granite, tile, carpet. The total was around $75K. We also replaced the double french doors leading outside. Now add in the toys DH got - pool table, shuffleboard, foosball, 70-inch TV (and another 42-inch TV for behind the bar because OMG you may need to have on the race AND the game at the same time)....add another $15K on that.

I was NOT on board with it, I wanted the basic walls & floors, TV & video games. This was DH's dream so I pretty much let him run with it. I will say though that he & the boys are down there ALL THE TIME...so I have the rest of the house to myself, alone. Best $75 ever spent....

 

[bethy]

We are just finishing up the planning for a redo of a finished but outdated basement. basically we're making it into a desirable man cave/teenager cave. It's only 450 sq feet and is a daylight basement. We are doing none of the work ourselves besides placing a few orders for light fixtures, etc.

We have to fix a crack in the foundation that currently allows water in when it rains hard. We are replacing a sliding glass door. Ripping out a wetbar and one small wall. Painting everything. New trim and millwork. Adding all new tile floors with radiant heating ($$). Built-in shelves and desk (but not super high quality). Big screen TV. replacing a couple of pocket doors. Adding and/or fixing various lighting. Doing California closets.

It looks like the total without finishings like area rugs and window treatments will be roughly $28k. We live in a fairly high COL area. Our house is only 1850 sq feet so we are trying to maximize every square inch. It's much cheaper than moving.

 

[bdcp]

We finished our basement about 1.5 years ago. We finished 1100 of an 1800 sq ft basement. Large rec room, media area, bar w/granite,sink, cabinets, refrigerator, bedroom/office and nice size bath with shower. We tried to keep our costs down and put in inexpensive carpet. There's ceramic tile in the bath, bar and at the back door. The media area is wired for 55 in flat screen tv and speakers which we installed. We spent about $35,000. We did what we needed to to keep costs down. Cabinets are not custom-Home Depot, granite bar isn't as wide as it could be. Basic paint. We love it though and can always upgrade later if we want. We have neighbors who spent twice what we did with their upgrades.

 

[seashoreCM]

If you can do some of the work yourself you can save a lot. But in most cases you need to get building permits and there are a lot of rules (such as the National Electric Code) you need to follow.

Also in some cities there may be restrictions on what you can do yourself.

It is a good idea to cure all problems with water seeping up into the basement before you start the project. This could add a whole new section (perimeter drain, sump pump) to your project.

I lost track of how much I spent for a partial basement finishing of about 250 square feet, all do-it-yourself.

More: http://www.cockam.com/theater.htm

 

[Muushka]

We have a crawl space (in NC, but very high ceilings). It has plenty of area for windows and is a nice, large area.

I would love to finish this area.

My question to all who have done this project. Did the area you finished count as living space in the house?
My next door neighbor's does, but then others don't. Just wondering. Thanks!

 

[scrapquitler]

After seeing the kitchen thread, what have people been spending to fix up their basement? We are starting from scratch, need to frame it out, electric, possible plumbing to add a bathroom (not roughed in), drywall, flooring, bar..

We did ours about 9/10 years ago, and spent about $10K. Ours was like something out of the brady bunch...it had slate floors and brick walls and a bar that was totally in the wrong place. We knocked out all the brick and put in sheetrock, we put in a floating floor over the slate, since it's a walkout basement we replaced the windows (4) and got rid of the slider and put a regular door to the outside. We added about 18' of kitchen cabinets and a double sink with laminate countertops for storage and a craft area. New lighting, paint.