Basement finishing is a thought which crosses every home owner’s mind every once in a while. This idea seems interesting at first because after all, it is your basement, but many people refrain from doing anything about it for a number of reasons. One reason is the cost and being afraid of the cost might prove to be a costly mistake. If you consider your house to have a proper basement, you can easily visualize converting storage or furnace room into proper living, study or even bedrooms. Whereas you might be reluctant to remove all the storage areas from your basement, you can strike a balance between both the storage and functional necessities and spacious living.
Having extra space and bedrooms in your house significantly multiply the property value. With high values you can have high returns when you sell the house. Before you start with working on the basement, you need to realize that this is a significant decision and be wary of a few things first. Checking for leaks and humidity absorbed by wood underneath is the first step of basement design review. This step takes place before you think of laying floors or reinforce the ceiling.
If and when you can repair any probable damage to the basement before building something around it is crucial because it will save of great costs in the future. With a finished basement you will have confirmed that no slopes exist around the house which direct the flow of rain water into your foundation rendering it weak and eroding the land away. You also need to check whether your basement does not already have any cracks in structure and fix it on spot. Investing in these small details pay large and handsome when you actually start using the basement for a small land erosion, water logging or structural weakness may render your house useless to live in.
In addition to the little details, you have to check and decide on what type of material you will need that will look best for your basement. You can choose to have your basement entirely carpeted, but you may be risking it against water damage and leaks which usually occur in the basements. Easier to clean and much beautiful in look, synthetic wood and ceramic tiles are more popular. The full carpet scenario can be replicated with the use of rugs and these patches can make the basement surroundings much more beautiful.
Using real wood is also an option but it must be ensured that the wood is waterproof especially if you are installing it in the basement. For carpeting also, you need to purchase the best and durable type to sustain one water leak or damage done by water overflow. Basement finishing is a delicate and recursive process, do not be alarmed if takes longer than you had hoped. Give it time for there is a lot of work which gets done before the basement is declared good enough for living.
Working with tighter budget further limit your options in terms of time because now, you have to work with the pace of how much you are willing to spend the money. If you design your basement in phases, be sure that it will take a long amount of time.
