Whether you want to turn your basement into a great living space to add extra value to your home while selling, or just feel like your home is not big enough, doing so will be a great thing to do. Creating an extra bedroom or bathroom can really help you spread the items you have lying around in your home. It is also an amazing way to solve your clutter problems. This is why we have created an article to help you with just that. So, turning your basement into a great living space will be easy after reading this article. Let us see what is the best way to do so!
Turn your basement into a great living space 101
There are many factors you have to think about when you want to turn your basement into a great living space. Some of those factors are ceiling height, insulation, ventilation, and so on. All this will increase the value of your home on the market. Maybe you just moved into a new home and waved your local movers Los Angeles goodbye and you want to increase the square footage of your home. Or just feel that it will be a great addition to your house. Another good idea you can consider is renting this room to someone. A simple, yet rewarding way to increase your profit. In addition, statistics report that around 70% of the money you spent on renovating the basement will be reimbursed to you should you decide to sell your home.
There are a couple of more things that you need to think about when you want to turn your basement into a great living space. These things can be viewed more as problems than just factors to increase your home value on the market. Things such as high humidity, low ceiling, bad plumbing, the lack of natural light are all things you absolutely need to fix before even thinking of making it a living area or increasing the home value.
Fixing the ceiling height
This is a must-do if you want to turn your basement into a great living space. Basements usually have low ceilings and are pretty hard for tall people to get around. Me, personally being 6’7″ can attest to that. Since you obviously cannot increase the ceiling height by tearing down the roof and making it a few inches higher since you would be “digging” upwards into your home, you should consider digging into the ground.
When you do this, you will have to dig through the foundation of your home. There will also be a lot of dirt and excess concrete during this process so make sure you have enough cleaning products to sustain this work in progress. After you dig through, you will have to set a new layer of concrete and then lay your new floor on top of it. You may also need to find some storage service if you have stuff in your basement. It is not smart to keep those things inside your home while the renovation process is going on in your basement.
The second form of egress
This is needed if you want to rent out this space. Building inspectors will also have to check if you have a second form of egress. This is because you need to have another point of entry in your basement if you see it more as living space instead of laundry or something strictly functional. You will also help your residential movers Los Angeles if you want to move away and then sell the house. The best way to do this is by digging on one side of the house. Then you can create a descending stairwell with a door leading to your new great living space.
Plumbing
Plumbing is important if you want to turn your basement into a great living space. This is because your new basement room will probably be below the sewer lines. That is why you need to install a pump to get all the waste out safely and without much hassle. In addition, people may want to make their basement into a new bathroom. This will add a lot of value to your home. In order to do this properly, you will need to put the pipes under the concrete floor. This way you will be safe if any of the pipes burst and you will prevent flooding. You may even get some more home improvement ideas while you are renovating your basement and turning it into a great living space.
Insulation
If you are in an area that flooding is a common occurrence, then you need to pay more attention when doing your waterproofing and insulation. If not, it is still really important to properly waterproof and insulate your new basement living space because basements are known for being dark and damp. Dark and damp are, as we know, the favorite place for pests. If you do not want your professional workers to get all the materials, you can buy insulation materials online. There you can find many products that will help you from keeping the mold and humidity at bay, especially if adding a bathroom.
Ventilation
Another thing you should do if you want to turn your basement into a great living space is add ventilation. This is very important in order to prevent toxic mold from forming. The windows are probably going to be non-existent or really small to rely solely on them to keep the air clean. The basement being below ground will also make it more susceptible to dirt accumulation. This is why you will probably need to extend your HVAC system to the basement. You can also add a vent that is set up to activate when the humidity reaches a certain point. You can also set it up to activate when you turn on the lights. If you want to use a humidifier, make sure to connect it so the waste water gets directly into the sewer line.