If your house is feeling too small and crowded, take advantage of space you already have and finish your basement. A basement is a great location for a family room, a home theater, a couple of bedrooms or even to rent out as an apartment. It can increase your square footage and your home’s value as well.
Windows
If your basement has tiny ventilation windows, you may want to add egress windows in their place – in fact, some building codes require it if people will be sleeping in those rooms. Egress window are large enough to let a person crawl out in the event of a fire, and also allow a good deal of light into the area. A daylight basement is more attractive and feels less like it is underground.
Storage
If you cannot spare an entire room to use for storage, you can build in cabinets or closets with sliding or folding doors across an end wall in order to camouflage a storage area. Storage construction can be a large job and should be finished with care to ensure that it looks nice and not like an afterthought – exactly the type of carpentry services Casper handymen have to offer.
Floors
A basement needs to be sealed thoroughly against any cracks where water gets in before flooring is laid. It may also need to be filled with leveler in some places to prepare it for wood flooring if that is your choice. Carpet with a nice pad laid beneath it may not require that step.
Heating and Cooling
You may be able to cut openings in existing ductwork in order to heat or cool the basement rooms. Alternatively, you may install a heated grid beneath a tile floor such as in a bathroom. You can also use wall-hung electric heaters, but you should give some consideration to where they are placed so they are not directly behind where an upholstered sofa would be settled.
Lighting
Different types of bulbs produce different types of light. You can find bulbs that cast a yellow, pink or blue light. Choose lighting that flatters the area and compensates for any other lack of light. In a basement you may want to place a couple of motion sensor lights that come on quickly whenever someone enters to light their way and prevent falls.
Once you have finished your new basement, you may prefer to call it “downstairs” as that sounds more like a part of your home. Once you see how much space you have gained, you may wonder how you ever got along without it.
