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Basements are being converted to luxury living space with the addition of full-size windows that provide light, ventilation, and an emergency exit. Photo courtesy of Bilco.
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America’s home improvement frontier is going underground with basement remodeling. Basement design has gone way beyond the second-class space and finishes of old. These spaces bring increased value, lifestyle enhancement, and expanded living to today’s homes.
Basement Space is Found Space
Basements today are emerging as valuable found space and are serving vital roles as guest bedrooms, master suites, and home offices in addition to the more traditional role of family rec room. In fact, basement remodels account for an ever-growing chunk of the $215 billion per year spent on remodeling nationwide. And this despite the fact that, according to the National Association of Home Builders, only about 68 percent of American homes even have basements! Many of these new spaces feature eye-popping, award-winning designs. This trend is being driven by housing values.
Builders and homeowners alike are finding that utilizing basement space as living space represents real value. When you build an addition, you expand the footprint of your home by attaching new construction to your existing house. Additions entail excavation, foundation work, exterior walls, sheathing, siding, and roofing just to enclose the new space. In addition, you will have to wire, plumb, add heating and cooling, and complete the interior of the new addition. With a basement remodel, the space is already there so a higher proportion of your remodeling dollar can go into “The Three Fs”—features, fixtures, and finishes. The three Fs are the touches that can make any new space more useful, beautiful, and enjoyable—in other words, valuable.
In the 2005 Cost vs. Value Report, an annual study conducted by Remodeling Magazine in cooperation with the National Association of Realtors, the national average cost of a “mid-range” family room addition without a bathroom is just under $137 per square foot. By comparison, the same study pegs the cost of a basement remodel with a bathroom and wet bar at just under $66 per square foot. If you add the cost of a bathroom and wet bar to the family room addition, you have a cost difference of about $100 per square foot between the basement remodel and the addition. That will buy a lot of features, fixtures, and finishes. These figures explain why the modern remodeled basement is often the nicest room in the house.
Equity and Payback
Another aspect of value is equity and payback, or how the project will affect the immediate value of your home and any long-term payback for the project when the house is sold. These questions may be difficult to answer, but they should be considered before tackling any home improvement project. There are a lot of variables that come into play including location, market, quality of the design, materials, and workmanship. Getting the best value and the best payback hinge on finding the right balance for your specific needs and location. According to the Cost vs. Value Report, very few of the most popular home improvement projects yield 100 percent cost recovery, but basement remodeling holds its own with just over 90 percent cost recovery as a national average, an increase from 79 percent in 2003.
Converting Basement Space
Many of the products on the market are designed to make basements more appealing and useable, which is why mid-to-high range basement remodels are so popular. Homeowners and building codes demand adequate light and ventilation in any living space. There are several window-well products that allow the full-sized windows and some that are code-approved for egress or escape in the event of a fire or other emergency. (Learn more about basement egress.)
Bathrooms and wet bars are also top features requested by homeowners in their basement remodels. Basement bathrooms and sinks present a challenge since wastewater lines exit the house above the basement floor. There is plumbing equipment available to pump waste from basement bathrooms up to the main waste system, but beware—these systems can be costly, require high maintenance, and may even be prohibited in some situations. It’s best to check with a licensed plumber and your local building code official before proceeding.
Every basement should be evaluated for moisture and flooding, structural concerns, and radon. Invest in professional advice and remember that not every house is a prime candidate for basement remodeling.
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Text by Tom Peterson
© 2006 BobVila.com
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