Develop Your Basement

Do you want to do more than store your kid's unused toys in your basement? Maybe you want a pool table down there? A couple guest bedrooms? A basement development can really help complement the rest of your house.

Plan. Plan. Plan.

Basements can have multiple purposes, but understanding their primary purpose helps you to focus on creating a layout that serves you best.

If you want a great entertainment room with a large screen television you might be better off with a floor plan that has fewer, but larger, rooms. If you want storage, consider a dedicated storage room, perhaps built off of a space that is not really usable for much else such as under the stairs. Do you intend to hide the kids down there? Don't have their play area be right in front of your laundry room, because you'll be tripping over their toys.

Make sure you create a proper floor plan, it will be required for the permit (which I strongly recommend you do get... our last house sale almost fell through because of issues with an inadequate permit). Permits don't cost much compared to the overall cost of the basement development and they'll save you headaches later. Additionally, good inspectors can offer suggestions for getting the most out of your basement development.

Once you draw a floor plan you should chalk-in all the rooms. Basically just draw out all the rooms with a piece of chalk and walk through the area. Draw major furniture items (couches, bathroom fixtures, et cetera). Are you going to have enough space for everything? If things look tight, don't be optimistic and hope they'll work out in the final build. They probably won't.

We had a small bathroom but it looked like we'd "just" be able to get a shower and tub in it. Once the tub was installed it was clear that the few inches clearance we had between the two had disappeared and we had to go with a custom (and more expensive) solution to get a shower in there. Had we planned a bit more thoroughly we could have moved the wall the bathroom shared with the bedroom back a foot to add more room. Likewise, we ended up with a closet that was too narrow to hang things. Simply laying down a close hanger on the chalked-in room would have shown things were wrong.

Keep in mind your basement window locations while planning your space. They can influence how far out a wall can go. Also most building codes do not allow you to have a bedroom unless there is a window in the room.

Pocket doors (the ones that slide into a wall) require less clearance than normal doors but they often do not give you any more usable wall space for shelving because the area they slide into cannot have shelves on it.

Remember, plan ahead, and have patience. It might take a long time to get work started, especially if you are hiring contractors. Developing the basement is not something you should do on the spur of the moment.

On Using a Contractor

My first basement I did myself. After that experience, I realized I wanted a professional to do the next one. I had the choice between an older, well-established company that was a member of the Better Business Bureau and a newer company. The new company was ready to start work immediately; the old company had a year-long wait list.

I went with the new company. I checked their references. They were punctual, very organized and had professional looking diagrams. They offered many suggestions. They went bankrupt halfway through the development.

Always use businesses that are members of the Better Business Bureau (or your location's equivalent). Business that register with the Better Business Bureau stick around, and if they don't, you have access to arbitration services. Get quotes from several contractors. Don't just phone the references -- ask if you can see the work the contractor did.

And if it is going to take a year before the best company can start, accept it. It took a lot longer than that for me to finish the basement on my own.

Electrical & Lighting

Light switches should not be installed behind doors! It seems obvious, but if your contractor never gives you an electrical schematic (like ours) you might not know where all the switches will go. A good electrician obviously should know better. But you might not get a good electrician. Make sure you agree upon an electrical diagram, where all the plugs and switches will go, before wiring starts.

Plan your lighting. Basements are often quite dark but properly planned out lighting can make your basement as attractive as your main floor.

Data Wiring
More and more people are expecting their homes to be wired for data use (multiple computers can share a home network and gaming consoles like the Xbox360, Nintendo Wii or PlayStation3 all can use your home internet connection). Many satellite receivers need a phone line to connect to for ordering pay-per-view movies.

Surprisingly, your electrician (who is likely going to be the one doing the wiring) might not know a lot about data wiring. The one electrician we used, when wiring for Cat5e and phone lines ended up piggy-backing them onto the same physical wire, meaning each room can now only have either a network connection or a phone line but not both. Obviously that was not our intention.

Warmth
Basements can be cold. For warmer floors, always build a sub floor, never put your flooring directly onto the cement. Carpet on top of the sub floor is the simplest method to keep your feet warm and cozy.

But if you, or your children, have allergies, it might be better to have a laminate or linoleum floor. Unfortunately these materials tend to be colder to the touch. There are products, such as DriCore, that are effectively a snap-together flooring solution with a plastic base that creates warmer floors. I have used this flooring in both basement developments and highly recommend it, especially if you will be installing laminate on top of it.

If you have the space, a basement is a great place for installing a gas fireplace. Instead of wiring the fireplace to an on/off switch instead hook a thermostat to it and you can ensure that your basement is always at the perfect temperature. If you do install a fireplace, a built-in fan is a must, to ensure you circulate that warm air.

Strategically placed area rugs can also help warm up linoleum and laminate floors. Get ones with a tight weave and you'll have fewer issues with them collecting pet fur and other allergens.

If you are developing your basement yourself, I found it easier to install the sub floor before walls, and then to install final flooring before installing doors. Might be obvious to contractors, but in my first basement I had no clue.

Before you close up the walls

Before putting up your walls take photos of where all the wiring and piping are located. With a felt marker draw a "ruler" on the studs to help give you a more accurate reference for later. This will help you plan future developments.

Also, putting up blocking (pieces of wood between studs) is a great idea, especially if you later plan on installing heavy wall hangings.

Creating a conduit from room to room is also something to consider in case in the future you decide to run more wiring. There is tubing available at home improvement stores that can be used to do this. Once the tubing is installed, run a string through it. Later when you want to run wiring, just tie the wiring to one end of the string and pull it through.

The Ugly Stuff

Try to build a room around your furnace and gas water heater. These are eyesores (and are often noisy). Check with local building codes as there will generally be rules on how close walls can be to the furnace and how wide door openings need to be.

Sometimes due to the way your house was made your electrical circuit box might not be in the utility room. In our current house it is in our entertainment room! When developing the basement we built a box around it and planned to install a custom built door over it... but instead we realized that kitchen cabinet doors would work just fine and look better. We used two side-by-side doors. Their swing takes up less room than the single, larger door would have.

If You Finish Your Basement... Finish It!
Don't be one of those people who started their basement and years later, it is still half finished. During the planning phase make sure you are aware of all that needs to be done. Schedule it. Do you have time to do it? Even when using contractors you'll be spending a lot of time meeting with the contractor, choosing materials, and inspecting the work.

If you can't finish it all at once, break into steps. At each step the basement can still be usable (so all the stuff you store in the basement, doesn't need to be cluttering the rest of your house).

Step #1. "Floor + Laundry". Install your sub floor across the entire area. After this stage the basement can be used again, for storage. This makes using a basement laundry room more comfortable than walking across cold cement.
Step #2. "Drywall Done". Once you install your walls and the drywall is finished apply 2-3 coats of paint primer. Though it will be drab and ugly looking your basement can now be used!

Disclaimer
I do not have any specific construction knowledge beyond my own basement developments. These observations are just based on my own experiences. You should always consult your own local building codes and laws before starting a basement development.