Do’s and Don’ts of basement develpment

Finishing up a basement might be just the right decision for your house if you’re looking to extend but are actually afraid of the building process. It’s one of the best chances to add some living space to your home and design one or even multiple rooms without having to commit to a full building site. However, the idea of such a big empty space to do up can be overwhelming, especially if you’re not experienced in such renovations and your head is full of ideas and possibilities. We compiled some of the do’s and don’ts that might just help you get through the process and actually tackle this project from start to finish.

Do think about functionality

Since the basement is usually the storage space, the utility area or some kind of workshop, you can’t just forget about it during renovation and put a nicely done living room there, leaving out all the functionality of the basement behind. Consider functionality and enhance it rather than taking away from it. As you consider your new basement layout, remember that you can put light walls to cut some areas out and get them hidden or more private (e.g. walling off a space for your water heater and pipes from the living room you’re building). Where possible, leave plumbing and electrics untouched to cut on renovation costs – with spaces designed in an industrial style this would be great look anyway.

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Don’t underestimate the construction

Cutting corners where you can and skipping things like moving pipes in your project can quickly turn to your disadvantage. Finishing a basement is easier because you’re basically starting from scratch, but remember that there is a lot of work to be done if you want it to be a properly heated and insulated room. Most people find themselves surprised when they need to hire a contractor to do-up the basement but believe us, you don’t want paint going straight on the basement works without properly prepping them.

Do accept the open space

You can obviously wall off some areas of the basement, but it’s a good idea to leave it as open space as you can. It will not only allow the little daylight you have there to spread across the whole basement, but it will also make everything look more put together and give you easy access to the space as a whole. If you take aesthetics into account and really thing about the design of the basement as one room with several ideas thrown in, you should be pleasantly surprised.

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