IT'S IN THE BASEMENT

What do you think of when someone mentions the basement? Perhaps you grew up in a home with an unfinished basement sporting bare bulb light fixtures and spider web-filled window wells.

Today's basements are nothing like those of 10 or 20 years ago. They are dry, warm and bright places, favored by many as a hang-out, movie or party spot.

Trends and Terms

• lookout or walkout - the basement is either half out of the ground (lookout) or fully out of the ground (walkout) at the rear of the home. This makes the space feel much brighter and more livable. It also typically adds to the cost of the home and some people may feel it adds another entrance point to the home, making it less secure
• radiant heat - heating coils (electric or fluid) are placed in the flooring, allowing the heat to radiate up from the floor, making the space feel much warmer and warm feet=warm body
• finished square footage - normally only the rooms with finished walls, floors and ceilings are included in the home's total finished square footage (TFSF) calculations

• egress windows - to be a legal bedroom in the basement, many municipalities require an exit route from the BR in addition to the door. If the basement is a full basement(completely below ground), there will need to be an egress window installed which is comprised of an over-sized window well and a full window
• utility room - normally includes furnace, air exchanger, water softener, water heater and possibly washer and dryer
• drain tile - this is a system of a corrugated pipe installed at the base of the wall and sloped to a "sump basket" to collect any water that drains along the outside of the wall, preventing it from entering the living space.



• poured or block foundation - foundation walls are normally either poured into forms or laid block by block. Advantages of one over the other vary depending on who you ask. Many of the larger homes use poured walls simply because they require less labor to install
  

Watch For

• vents - ensure there are supply and return vents in each room
• dampness - some of the common signs of a wet basement are water staining on the flooring or the walls, warped wood trim or efflorescence (a white powdery substance of minerals) on the inside of cinder block walls or possibly a mildew smell or mold and mildew on the walls
• gutters and grade - with the proper slope away from the home (ground NOT rocks or other cover) and gutters all the way around the home, many wet basement problems can be resolved
• cracks in flooring and walls - some cracking is normal and to be expected. However, if the cracks are large or separating--height difference or larger in the front than in the rear of the crack, this signifies potential problems left best to diagnose by a home inspector or structural engineer
• damage to the upper level flooring - if the basement ceiling is unfinished, you can see the condition of the flooring and whether there has been any water damage (i.e., from leaks in kitchen, entry or patio doors or bathrooms)
• type of floor trusses

I beams - slightly stronger and more $$$ than the older 2x12 floors and is the most rigid per foot of all the systems

Engineered trusses - these have open spans, allowing mechanicals such as plumbing and heating ducts to be run through the ceiling, allowing for a higher and cleaner ceiling

2x12 - these are the traditional method of building the ceiling/flooring and are lower cost and perfectly acceptable

Cost to Finish
If the basement of the home is unfinished and you will want to finish the space, you'll want to budget for the construction costs. Plan on a minimum of approximately $30 per finished square foot unless you plan on doing a large percentage of the work yourself.

Bsements provide a great place for the adults or kids to get away and raise some noise with friends, a common place for a hobby or workshop area or for storage. They're not just cold and dark anymore!