Turn Your Dark Basement Into Welcoming Livable Space

Turn that dark basement into welcoming livable space

A lot of older homes have dark unwelcoming basements that end up being glorified storage for all people’s stuff.

Newer homes are designed with larger windows or with walkout basements.

Short or rebuilding the basement walls for larger windows and re-grading the landscaping around the house to accommodate the bigger window wells you will have to renovate the basement in a way that will make it feel light and airy.

There are many things that you can do to make your basement light and airy;

• Paint. Paint is one of biggest things that will affect the feel of your basement. You don’t have to pick white for the walls and the ceilings but a light colour and earth tones will give a warm and welcoming feeling.

• Wall treatments. You don’t just have to paint all the walls and the ceilings you can do wall treatments, wallpaper or textures on at least one feature wall. This will bring a sense of drama and artistic flare to the area.

• Lighting. The more light that you can put in a basement the less it will feel light a basement. Pot lights work really well because they are flush with the ceiling, spotlighting on certain parts of the basement also help. All main through fares need to be almost over lighted.

• Bulkheads. Try to keep the bulk heads that will be in the basement to a minimum. They are a necessary evil especially in an older home but if you can try to keep them to certain area’s or towards the outside walls then they can look more like a feature of the ceiling and less like a bunch of drywall installed to hide ductwork.

• Flooring. Stick to a lighter stained or coloured floor and the ceilings will feel higher and less closed off.

• Storage. It’s a basement you’re going to want storage, have built in cabinetry that matches the wall colours or the wall paneling. It will help give the allusion of being upstairs.

Whatever you choose to do to your old basement you should make sure that you don’t have any water or moisture problems. There is no reason to do any work at all in your basement until those kinds of issues are resolved and resolved permanently.

Rob Abbott
Village Builders Inc.

You will get a 67% return on your basement renovation

67% is the cost that realtors estimate you’ll recoup from finishing your basement.

Finishing your basement doesn’t just add more liveable square feet to your home it also increases the value of it. Getting a 67% return on your renovation in your basement means that you are not wasting your money when you decide to have it finished.

In today’s real estate market people are always looking for more liveable space, with modern technology you can make a basement warm and dry. Basements aren’t thought of as dark and damp places that are just there to store ski equipment and grandma’s couch.

A lot of realtors today list a house by the “liveable” square footage instead of just square footage. When you list a house and you say it is a 2000 sq ft home that sounds like an average Canadian home, if you were to list the home as having 3000 sq ft of liveable space then people become interested because they think that it is a larger home. These two listings would be priced the same but the one with the larger "liveable" square footage is going to get more interest and will probably sell faster.

Renovators today have the ability with new specific products to fix water problems, reduce dampness and circulate the stale air. With modern lighting, your choice of paint colors and things like gas fireplaces can turn a basement into a wonderful liveable space where your children would love to play.

With modern home theatre systems becoming popular, people are also opting to turn part of their basement into a movie theatre and in a basement it is easy to limit the amount of artificial light allowing you the ability to recreate that dark movie theatre atmosphere.

Doing a basement renovation is one of the easiest ways to raise the value of your home and as long as you don’t make the space too elaborate then you will be able to keep the cost at the lower end. The resale of your home will be greatly improved.

Make sure that when you want the renovation done you hire the proper contractor so that you do not end up wasting money on a job that is not done properly or to the finish level that you were expecting.

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

Statistics for this post were found in the 2013 February issue of Canadian House and Home.  

When you give a price per square foot on building a new house does that include the basement?

Q:

When you give a price per square foot on building a new house does that include the basement?

A:

When we give you a price to build your new house we do not price the house per square foot. We give you a total price to build the house. For example if you had a 3000 sqft house and we quoted you a figure like $600,000 to build it, then that would mean that I would be charging $200 a sqft.

When a home builder or real estate agent tells you the square footage of a home it never includes the basement. So in the price for your home at $600,000 that would include the basement as well.

So to put that in perspective if your 3000 sq ft house has a basement that has 1000 sq ft and it was finished then you would have a house that has 4000 square feet of livable space. If you were to calculate the amount of livable square footage compared to the price of the home it would be $150 a sqft for the livable square footage.

Any price that you get for a house will include whatever level of finish that you have speculated in the basement. The more finished square feet in your house the more that your house will cost.

This is the reason that I have always stated that you should only use a contractor that will give you a detailed quote that explains what you are getting in your home for the quoted price.

Thanks for your question,

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.