Hi,

Finger in the air time, we are considering buying a property with an "unfinished basement". It has access and windows but is just bare. The area is about 1200 square feet. We would like to put in one bathroom, two bedrooms, one tv room and one games room. What sort of costs are we looking at for this (ballpark figures)?

It should be a straight forward job of partitioning, plumbing for bathroom and electrics. If the bathroom adds significantly due to connection to the septic we'll probably scrap the bathroom idea.


Thanks,
CB

PS, Happy New Year everyone

Can't offer any advice on costs, we're looking at finishing our basement in the near future, but will be doing most of the work ourselves (have never done anything like this before, currently don't even own a hammer, but have been told that framing and drywalling a basement is pretty straightforward). Just a comment about bedrooms in a basement though...if you have any bedrooms in a basement, they must have windows of a size that could be used to escape in case of a fire. If you haven't got a window, the room can't be used as a bedroom.

A basement bathroom could be an issue. You will likely discover that the sewer pipe is not conveniently located. There are ways around that, but not always that easy. There are pumps available (not your traditional sump pumps) to deal with those issues. They'll even handle the 'ugly' stuff.

As for costs, that's a pretty open ended question...it depends on how plain or how fancy you want to go, what materials you will use and the rates charged for such work in your area. The one thing you need to be sure of...especially since you do not yet own the property....there are no leaks or water seepage in the basement. You will doubtless need a good dehumidifier and the walls need to be appropriately insulated. And the previous poster is correct about the window issue, unless there is a direct exit from the basement to the outside. There will still need to be windows, but if there is an exit to the outside, the size will not be that important.

You also need to take into account permits. In Canada you need permits for everything. You would need one for plumbing work, one for electrical and one for structural. This also means that all that work needs to be inspected by the local inspector during and after completion to make sure it all finished to code.

We have just finished part one of our basement renovation, most of which we have done ourselves, but as my hubby was a qualified electrician in the UK he found it hugely annoying to have to bring someone into do the electrical work which he could easily have done himself. But because he is not a registered electrician in Canada could not.

Our basement was doen about 2 years ago

sq footage approx 1300
we had bathroom and small kitchen built, 1 bedroom , 1 office , 1 store room and rest is basically rec room , cost us approx $30k

Depending on where you are, it is possible to do electrical work yourself, but it cannot be closed in, or activiated until inspected and approved by the inspector.
You would be amazed at how many people perform such renovations without any permit (I'm sheepishly raising my hand). I didn't tackle electrical except in very minor ways, but did plumbing. Problem with electrical, if you screw up and have a fire? Big problem if they trace the problem to uninspected work.
In spite of having done bathrooms, rec-rooms, bedrooms and deckwork (also requires a permit, believe it or not) I do not encourage anyone to follow the same policy without requisite permits. Just remember that such renovations (and the reason many people do not obtain permits) can increase the taxation value of your house.

ONE THING IS FOR CERTAIN: If you hire someone to do the work...make damn sure they get the required permits. A bit difficult to go after them for shoddy work when the work was done basically illegally.

I was quoted $26k to finish a basement in Eastern Ont, with one bedroom, one full bathroom and a lounge area. This was a new house, I would imagine that makes a difference. I could mess up changing a lightbulb, so paying a tradesman to do the work is always my only option....

Thanks for the info everyone. We were thinking about $30k ish should do it.

Just best hope we get visas sometime in 2007 now.

I forgot to mention costs in my previous reply. As we have done a lot of the work ourselves, by the time we have finished, I estimate we will have spend around $18k on the project.

This gives us a very large family room, bedroom/office, sunroom, utility room and one other room which will be used as a library/chill out room - can't think of what else to use it for!

All is complete now except the family room which we will tackle in the new year.

Damn that's a lot of money. Glad I have some abilkity in that area and never had to spend it. But if you have a good contractor, and please get references, the money would be well spent. In this area it is often easy to end up with someone who shuttles between projects and takes forever to get yours done, and then not to the standards you would like. So by all means, try and verify the quality and timliness of their work before signing your hard earned cash away.

Well we have one large bedroom for the lad to move into with plenty of room for desk and settee etc if he wants.
Kitchen area in living room, and a "luxury" 4 piece bathroom which is going to be gorgeous. We had a contactor to do the lot as we have neither the time nor the skills nor the inclination to try and DIY. It is going to be beautiful but has cost around $50k.

I know this sounds like a lot, but folks I knew back home paid 25k pounds for loft conversions, extensions etc which didn't add half the living space, so although it is a big chunk it'll be worth it for us!