Basement Work

[Prototype]

I'm new to this, but I'm gonna be building a house in Coventry soon... Well, not me personally, but I'm buying to build... if that makes sense...

Anywho... The basement will be unfinished, and I can't stand the look of an unfinised basement. For those who have finished their unfinished basements, what's the costs? I know that's quite a general question, but I'm looking to see what kinda trouble I'm getting myself into.

Basically, it's a 600-700 sq ft basement. I can live with just walls and carpeting, but I'd like to add two or three rooms down there. One is going to be a bathroom when I'm done too.

The layout for the main floor and upstairs is HERE.

To the left of the stairs, I'd like to put up a wall and a door for a future theater room, which will need sound proofing. Then, under the living room, I'll have my "sports den" which wont need doors or anything, but there's everything I'd need to build a bathroom in that area too on the SE corner, which will need a wall and a door, and a door beside that to get to the furnace and a little bit of a crawl space.

I don't know if any of that helps without a visual, but those are the plans.

If anyone can help me out with ball parking price, I'd gladly appreciate it.

[The Goon]

This may or may not be helpful, but I have started looking into the same process myself, and I've been getting some ideas/instruction from this RONA site:

http://www.rona.ca/renovation/finish...finishing.html

[Shazam]

If you're contracting out, I'd say about $15000 to infinity.

If you're doing it yourself, I'd say from $8000-$9000 to infinity. You really can't do it for less than that.

I'm doing my basement right now and the biggest costs are going to be flooring and the bathroom.

[Prototype]

PS... the plan for the "sports room" is Flames colours!!! Thought I'd add that in there.

Goon, that's totally going to help!

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

Funny, I just completed my basement last weekend.

If I were building again I'd have the builder do some or all of it I'm sure.

I'd say you're looking at ~ 10k on your own, plus huge time. Whatever it costs for the builder I'd be shocked if a contractor can do it less expensively after the fact.

[Frank the Tank]

I finished my basement myself about a year and a half ago. The biggest expenses will be sub-floor, carpet and studs.

Sub floor and carpet you'll have to decide on which product you are going to use and ballpark it from there. Studs will be anywhere from $2.77-$2.99 per 8 foot stud (Ontario price there, adjust accordingly) and you'll have to decide if you want to build your walls with 16" or 24" centres.

[Shazam]

Whatever you do, don't get anyone from that big store with the orange logo to any any kind of installation work.

[redforever]

In terms of rooms and layout, visualize what your plan shows in the upstairs bedroom area, and go from there. It will be about that same square footage, and your bathroom will have to go close to where existing plumbing comes down from upstairs. If you wish to have a couple of rooms plus your media and sports room and a bathroom, keep in mind, that will just about be it and you wont have any large area for storage etc.

You will have stuff like furnace, hot water tanks etc down there too, so can pretty well knock off one room for that.


When we built, we originally were going to do the basement ourselves too, but in the end, decided to go with the builder and I think it was maybe even cheaper in the long run. PLUS, you dont have the mess in a new house for doing add ons as soon as you move in. Not only that, you will have carpet from the same dye lot and all that kind of stuff you really should think about.

Your flooring will depend on a few things. If you want a comfy basement development, you really should think about infloor heating. We have that, it is wonderful, and we have large airy windows and a walk out, we went with 9 foot walls in the basement, so as light and warm etc as upstairs. BUT, with an infloor heating system, you will have further flooring costs. ie: you cant nail your studs to the floor now, you need special glue or cement to do any of that, cause of course, you cant take the chance of nailing or screwing into any of the infloor heating tubing. You can however, put down carpet etc as normal.

We also went with an open stairwell, just opens up things tremendously and the stairwell is 4 feet wide too. This really does make it very convenient for moving things up and down, and also, does not seem like you are taking a tiny walk down into a dungeon.

If you go with your builder, the cost should be approximately the same or a bit less as what you are paying for your square footage upstairs. So work out your costs from there. It all depends on what grade of carpet you use and all that kind of stuff. Also, how much electrical and tech stuff will you require in your media room? You can pay a lot of money for those types of rooms. There is not just a standard price, kind of goes with what class of house you are building.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Prottotype

I don't know if any of that helps without a visual, but those are the plans.

You know; it does. I actually happen to own the exact same house and I'm in the process of renovating the basement.

I always thought I was going to make the bigger half the rec room and the smaller half a bedroom and maybe a bathroom. But after looking at my layout options I decided to make the bigger half the bedroom, bathroom and also laundry room- and the smaller half the rec room.

The one thing I would do is make those basement windows bigger. It's probably $200 per window now, but will be $900-1000 per window after the fact.

It cost me about $400 to rough in the plumbing myself. That was materials, jackhammer rental, and concrete. Cost and PITA factored in it's better to get the builder to do it; however I got to pick the exact location for the bathroom.

When mine was built they did the framing on the outside walls right to the floor; however when I was in the showhome they didn't anymore. Ask how much extra it was; when I was looking to build with Trico before they wanted around $150 to frame to the floor.

[Rhettzky]

All I have to say is make sure that you get all the proper city permits for it. You don't want to run into problems if you decide to sell. It's actually really quite cheap to get the permits (Rough guess looking at your square footage it would cost about $120 for the building permit and $60 for electrical and $60 for the plumbing, if required) It's fairly cheap in the first place and the city will send a framing inspector, an electrical inspector and a plumbing inspector out which is included in those fee's. They also can give you some great pointers.

If you need a plan drawn up I have no problems helping you in that respect too. I think I did mine in about ten minutes.

[Bingo]

did mine myself.

I framed it, wired it, plumbed it, dry wall ... brought a guy in to mud, tape and paint and do a drop ceiling, plus another guy to carpet and tile.

since I've done a custom entertainment center and custom oak bar with keg system.

worked out great

my contractor buddy said he's quote it around 60K, but I think I probably did it for about 40% of that.

make sure you keep your options open ... lots of phone, speaker, cable and electrical through the walls for future use. Keep an eye on your gas lines in case you want to tap in first for a bbq outside, where is your doorbell line in case you want to wire another box downstairs.

And you need a special breaker for any bed rooms

[V]

Originally Posted by Bingo

And you need a special breaker for any bed rooms

What's this all about??

[Stormchaser]

Originally Posted by Dominicwasalreadytaken

What's this all about??

An Arc-Fault Breaker - about $80.00

Its new code for 2006 I believe and you won't pass inspection without it

I finished a small basement this year without a bathroom and paid about 6000.00 in total

[moncton golden flames]

Originally Posted by Frank the Tank

you'll have to decide if you want to build your walls with 16" or 24" centres.

You may as well build your furring wall with studs 24" OC. Furring walls are not load bearing, so they are only there for insulation application, and drywall. No need to waste money on 16" OC studs, its just overkill of time and money, and after sex and hockey, time and money are the next most important!

[ken0042]

I would double check with the city to see if 24" OC meets code. On their website they have examples that all show 16" OC.

As for the costs; on an 8 foot wall you are looking at 2 extra studs. So add $5 for every 8 linear feet of walls. Not a huge cost in the long run.

[Shazam]

One of the builders, Jayman, IIRC, frames 24" OC. Have been for years.

[Prototype]

I'd like to clear up one thing. There's going to be technically 4 rooms.

- Theater room
- Washroom
- Storage/Furnace/Laundry room
- Sports/Rec Room

No bedrooms... and the Sports/Rec Room will be an open area when you come down the stairs. But doors to the other rooms will be paramount. I'll try and draw up a floor plan based on the upstairs layour tonight on photoshop, so you get a better idea of what I'm looking for. Everything has been nothing short of helpful, and I thank you all for the insight... keep it coming.

[moncton golden flames]

Originally Posted by ken0042

I would double check with the city to see if 24" OC meets code. On their website they have examples that all show 16" OC.

There are builders that have used 24" OC for a while now. It meets Code, and is the minimum, IIRC.

[moncton golden flames]

Originally Posted by ken0042

As for the costs; on an 8 foot wall you are looking at 2 extra studs. So add $5 for every 8 linear feet of walls. Not a huge cost in the long run.

His floorplate is about 650 sq ft downstairs. which means its roughly 25'x25', which means its about 100' of furring wall, not to mention the walls for interior partitions. Lets say hes got another 100' of interior partition, so he has 200' total. 200 lineal feet of studed wall/8' segments = 25 segments.....25 segments x $5 per segment= $125. I don't know about you, when I do work myself, saving $125 on framing alone is a nice perk. not to mention you need less nails! theres another $5-10 bucks. hey ken0042, if you sneeze at $125, you should send some over here!

[moncton golden flames]

Also, using 24" OC studs, allows you to use your drywall on full 8' runs, where 16" OC would leave you with more wasted drywall. Wastage=Money