Home Renovation Tip - Utilizing The Underground Potential Of Basements

By The Home Renovator

Many home owners decide not to have their basements finished when they build their new home ...

How long has it been since you looked at your basement? Really looked at it not for what it is, but for what it could be with some expert renovation? It's very satisfying to take a dull, dingy basement that consists of concrete walls, ceiling and floors and turning it into a fully functional den, family room or home office. Why let this unused space collect old toys, washing machines and dryers, old freezers, car parts, and everything else you can't decide what to do with when you can use this space to expand and beautify your home?

Many home owners decide not to have their basements finished when they build their new home. It's not inexpensive to finish a basement, and new homes usually take about a year for the home's foundation to settle. If there are cracks in the foundation or leaks in the basement, this is something you need to discover before you decide to strip an already finished basement. This is a situation that would only serve to add additional costs and sleepless nights!

If you decide to renovate your unfinished basement, the first step is hiring a contractor to visit your home and examine the basement for structural security. Once this is done, it's time to draw up plans for the renovation. The final transformation is entirely up to you, based upon what you want and what you can afford. There are many companies that specialize in basement renovations. Changing that dingy, bug-infested concrete slab into a fully functional room is quite an undertaking; the first step is deciding exactly what your plans are for the space, and are those plans "do-able."

Are you planning to use the basement for entertainment? Do you wish to add a full bathroom that you can afford? Would you like a children's playroom? How about another bedroom, a home office or a "media" room? Perhaps you simply need a lot more storage space.

Design and planning are the most important steps in the renovation process. You can tackle planning your renovation yourself, but it's best to bring in the professionals to help evaluate and overcome challenges such as limited headroom, a lack of natural lighting, insulation, and structural support columns. Contractors will also give you an estimate on your project, as well as a concept layout. Once you have the layout, you may want the contractor to finish the job, but sometimes, you have enough information to then tackle the project yourself.

To transform your dingy, unfinished basement into a lovely and valuable addition to your home takes time and money. Design a room that won't destroy your budget and flatters the remainder of your home. If you decide, at some future point, to sell your home, a finished basement will add value to the property. Your basement can become a lovely and much-used area of your home.

Next article: Home Renovation Tip - Flooring Ideas

Email this page to a friend


Featured Home Renovation Product:

Handywoman's Guide To Home Repairs image

Handywoman's Guide To Home Repairs

If you're a woman, learn how to stop waiting for Prince Charming to get those odd jobs done around the house and start fixing them yourself like a professional repairwoman ...

Click here for more details ...


More Articles About Home Renovation ...


How To Make Money With Home Renovation

Some homeowners undertake a renovation project with the hope of increasing the value of their home. They see the various jobs as a means to increase the balance sheet's bottom line. But how much profit...

Affordable Bathroom Remodeling Tips - Budget Luxury Bathrooms

If your master bath is your only escape from a hectic life, then treat yourself to a delicious space that top notch spas would envy. Many items that used to be found only in luxury bathrooms have come...

Home Renovation - Making The Decision

No doubt about it - home renovations are expensive! Depending upon the complexity of your renovations, you could be living in a home that's constantly in a state of disarray until the work is complete....


Recommended Resources
Find the perfect hand tool for the job at Cornerhardware.com!

Audiobook Review: The Sky's The Limit

Author Steven Gaines takes us from New York's most expensive condominiums and co-ops to the offices of its most powerful real estate brokers to reveal the outlandish displays of ego, bad behavior, and status hunger that come into play when the best addresses in the city are on the line.

With his signature elan, Gaines weaves a gossipy tapestry of brokers, buyers, co-op boards, and eccentric landlords and tells of the apartment hunting and renovating adventures of many celebrities - from Tommy Hilfiger to Donna Karan, from Jerry Seinfeld to Steven Spielberg, from Barbra Streisand to Madonna.

Here, too, is a fascinating chronicle of the changes in Manhattan's residential skyline, from the slums of the nineteenth century to the advent of the luxury building. Gaines describes how living in boxes stacked on boxes came to be seen as the ultimate in status, and how the co-operative apartment, originally conceived as a form of housing for the poor, came to be used as a legal means of blackballing undesirable neighbors.

A social history told through brick and mortar, The Sky's the Limit is the ultimate look inside one of the most exclusive and expensive enclaves in the world, and at the lengths to which people will go to get in.

For more information about Home Renovation-related resources, see our Home Improvements resources section, subscribe to our Home Improvements Newsletter containing news, updates and insider tips, or go to more articles about Home Renovation Basements.

***

Related Topics ...

***

Search for more information on "home renovation basements" below:

Google

You are here: Home » home-renovation » Home Renovation Tip - Utilizing The Underground Potential Of Basements

The owner, contributors and/or advertisers may derive financial benefit from sales of items advertised, reviewed or linked to from this site.