Basement Finishing

Finishing a basement so it looks and works like another room of the house may be simple in principle, but it actually involves many different construction-related skills. These include:

 

• Planning

• Obtaining permits

• Drywalling

• Wiring

• Creating new electrical circuits

• Flooring

• Painting

• Fixture installation

• Possible others, depending on specific design

 

Getting all of the relevant contractors working, and in the right order, is a skill unto itself. For this reason alone, you will likely find it worth it to hire a renovation contractor to manage it all.

 

The planning stage may not require many different people, but unless you have a solid, architecturally-workable plan already, you will need one of these as well. A renovation contractor has the experience to know what types of things will work in a basement over the long term, and which are likely to turn out to be troublesome. For example, if your basement is usually impossible to keep dry, he or she may suggest that you use tiles instead of carpet, or choose something other than drywall to finish the exterior walls. These are things that are learned by experience and that can trip you up if it's your first time planning a basement renovation.

 

Choosing subcontractors is another essential part of basement finishing, and an experienced renovation-oriented general contractor (GC) will already know who to hire and who to avoid. This alone can save you thousands of dollars over the cost of the GC's fee because everything will only need to be done once.

 

Because of these things, we believe that while it's not strictly required to hire a contractor to manage your project, it is definitely the best way to go about it. Everything will work much more smoothly under the management of an experienced contractor.