How to Finish Your Basement: Prep Work

Finishing the basement can add real value to your house both through your own use of the space and when selling the house. It is estimated that homeowners can recoup nearly 80%[i] of their basement finishing costs when sell their house. So how do you do it? Do it yourself or hire a contractor? How do you pick a contractor? What do you want to do with the basement space? What else do you need to think about when finishing the basement? In this series we will cover all of these topics. In this installment we will discuss the preliminary questions that need to be answered and preliminary work that needs to be done.

When planning to finish your basement, the first thing to decide is whether you will do it yourself, hire a contractor or maybe somewhere in between. Hiring a contractor will cost more, but the basement will likely be finished faster and you don’t have to do the work. On the other hand, if you have experience then doing the work yourself saves a lot of money. There is some middle ground too. Hire a contractor or handyman to do the framing, electrical, drywall, major plumbing and insulation, but do the final plumbing fixture installation, flooring, and painting yourself, for example. Good do-it-yourself guides are available at most hardware stores with Lowe’s and Home Depot having extensive book sections to offer help. The employees at hardware stores are also a great resource for information.

Next step in finishing your basement is prepping it. Prepping the basement means getting stuff out of there. It’s a pain, but see this as an opportunity to purge and possibly gain some extra cash. Go through everything and see what can be thrown out and what can be sold at a yard sale, on Craigs List, or eBay. Whatever stuff is left will need to be stored in the shed, garage, or guest bedroom while the basement is being finished. If you plan to store any of this stuff back in the basement when it is finished, then be sure to factor storage space into the basement design.

Waterproofing is an important part of finishing the basement. Ripping out your new basement drywall a year or two down the road to fix a crack or replacing your flooring due to water damage would not be fun. Once the basement has been emptied, closely examine your walls for any cracks or signs of water. If large or multiple cracks are found then it’s a good idea to call in an expert to check out the basement and make repairs. There are different choices for filling cracks, but the gold standard today is polyurethane injected into the crack to thoroughly fill it. If only 1 or 2 thin cracks are found, then you can potentially save yourself some money using a do-it-yourself polyurethane system. They are relatively easy to use and much less expensive than paying someone to fill the cracks. Research this option carefully though as cracks that are filled incorrectly will still allow water to enter the foundation and your finished basement and potentially cause damage.

Today, several companies offer basement finishing systems that will finish your basement more quickly. These systems typically cost nearly twice as much and often leave visible seams in the walls, but if you want to have the basement finished in only a few weeks, then these systems are a viable alternative. If you go this route, then find a contractor who is specifically associated with the basement finishing system that interests you to get it installed.

So, the initial work is done and basic decisions are made; now what’s next? Picking a contractor. In the next installment discover how to find contractors to interview, then how to choose which one is right to finish your basement.

[i] Remodeling Magazine Cost vs Value Report 2006