Al Heavens is a Haddonfield, N.J.- based, nationally syndicated, home-improvement writer and author whose newspaper columns, magazine articles and books have been the first word on remodeling for 50 million readers for more than three decades. He is the author of What No One Ever Tells You About Renovating Your Home and Remodeling on The Money: Fifteen Innovative Projects Designed to Add Value to Your Home and was “The Gadgeteer” on Discovery Channel’s Home Matters program.
I have just spent the last three weeks cleaning our basement, the first time this has happened since 2011.
The reason for the marathon effort was my grandson’s fascination with trains. Almost 30 years ago, my wife had given me a set of Lehmann Gross Bahn – Lehmann’s Big Trains in German – that I had kept on a basement table until 2014 when they were replaced by wedding presents that my son and daughter-in-law are unlikely to never bring to London, where they moved shortly after they were married.
The box the trains were stored in became hopelessly lost as the basement filled with everything that broke or proved extraneous to daily life. Finally, after more than a month of searching, I found the box and set the tracks and train on my pool table until I could relocate the presents to shelves filled with stuff that first needed to be culled.
That took three weeks. The result was a large, well-organized, comfortable space that, thanks to a huge expenditure of money by previous owners, remains as dry as a bone in an area known for its high water table and damp basements.
In this week’s article, we’ll discuss how you can properly insulate and maintain your basement space.
My last two basements were damp affairs, and moisture eventually damaged and rotted many valuable possessions. When we were looking at houses 20 years ago, this one met our three major criteria: a top-notch kitchen for my wife, and a dry basement and garage for me.
Except for that nerve-wracking Sunday afternoon in February 2002 when the 1950s vintage GE sump pump gave up the ghost as 15 inches of snow melted at once during a heavy rainstorm, the basement has remained desert dry. Fortunately, thanks to the quick response of my plumber with a new pump, the water never made it to the top of the sump.
Still, never taking anything for granted. Everything I have done to the basement since has been “flood-resistant” – from my office (built in 2011) to the workout room added in 2015. There are spots in the floor that occasionally need to be scraped and repainted when the moisture beneath it produces efflorescence, but that falls into the “maintenance” category I believe is important to homeownership generally.
“Always act as if you will have to put up your house for sale tomorrow and you will never go wrong,” is what I have told my readers for the last 50 years, and it is as true today as it was then, and more so as the climate changes.
In addition, I increased the home insurance coverage for basement water intrusion last December to $20,000 from the standard $10,000, which only costs $20 a year more. I would recommend that if you are planning to remodel your basement or just use it for storage, check with your insurance agent first. This is not flood insurance but “sewer backup,” including the sump.
South Jersey is wet. Some areas are so water-logged that basements do not work no matter what. Houses with basements often sell for much more than those without, however. Basements that are dry enough to be safely remodeled will bring even higher prices.
How much does it cost to finish a basement? Prices vary depending on the location and contractor, but Home Advisor’s 2021 calculations suggest $7,000 to $23,000 for a 1,000-square-foot basement, with an average of $15,000.
Per square foot, then, $7, which seems low, to $23, which seems high, with $15 probably just about right.
Much of the cost is for keeping the basement dry. It could, as in the case of my basement, involve waterproofing the exterior walls of the foundation as deeply as possible, then digging perimeter drains that feed into a French drain and then into the sump so that it can be pumped safely outdoors and away from the house — perhaps into the garden or a rain barrel system that can store water for use on plants in dry and hot months.
Two ways to ensure that all of this costly work to keep the basement dry is not in vain: Make sure your gutters are cleaned regularly and that your downspouts carry the rain and meltwater well away from the house. In addition, do not plant trees and shrubs with wandering root systems up against the house because they can dig into the foundation and open cracks that will widen over time.
My basement is only partially finished, primarily because the height of the ceiling is not consistent, and I occasionally bang my head against ductwork in a couple of places. My 22-foot by 8-foot home office IS finished, from floor to ceiling. It replaced a desk and bookcase in our guest room and includes a desk I designed and built and a sofa for afternoon naps.
Although most contractors will recommend that finished basements have dropped ceilings to permit easy access to shut-off valves for water and gas and wiring, my office ceiling is drywalled. What I did instead, however, is build trouble doors to the shut-off valve for the refrigerator water dispenser, for the shut-off valve for the water to the kitchen and the outdoor faucets, and the gas line. In addition, there are access doors in the back wall to reach the crawl space and the cleanout for the kitchen drain.
The workout room, the storage units, the HVAC, my pool table, and the washer and dryer all have spots in the larger, unfinished part, where there are other ways to access utilities.
I did a lot of preliminary work, including asking the home inspector if the basement could be finished. I turned my attention first, however, to the 18-foot-by-18-foot cedar-sided two-car garage, which I had been eyeing as a workshop and testing area for new products.
The garage was then just a couple of years old. The wall studs were 16 inches on center and sat on a six-inch-by-six-inch pressure-treated lumber frame that, in turn, rested on a concrete foundation well above the soil. It has a steel door, an insulated double garage door, two high-end Anderson windows, and working electricity with GFCI outlets. It is so well insulated that on a 20-degree winter day, my oil-filled electric heater can get the workshop to 70 degrees in an hour.
I finished the workshop in 2002. It made all other projects, including the basement office, possible. It also served as a studio for my online do-it-yourself program.
Now the basement has a dehumidifier that is designed for the size of the space – 800 square feet. It is only used from May to November, the warmest and wettest time of the year in my area. Without it, the ductwork would sweat, and there goes the bone-dry basement.
Part of the planning involved determining how much moisture was present in the basement. I placed a few sheets of plastic on the floor and the exterior walls and waited several days. There was nothing on the sheets on the floor nor, at first, on those on the cinderblock walls, but since rain was expected after a dry two weeks, I left them on for 24 hours longer.
While the sheets on the floor were still dry, one of those on the wall showed a bit of moisture. I sealed the small section of the offending wall with Drylock, and when I framed out the wall, nothing – plastic sheeting nor insulation – touched the cinderblocks.
After 10 years, there is still no evidence of moisture in the interior walls or behind them.
The office is both useful and comfortable, and that should be your goal whether you are refinishing all or part of the basement.
Some homeowners look to the basement as a place for a third or fourth bedroom but be very careful. Before you move from moisture proofing to actual construction, you or your contractor must be fully aware of the building codes governing basement refinishing.
While they can differ slightly or greatly from one municipality to the next, the rules affecting things such as ceiling heights and room sizes are fairly standard.
For example, habitable rooms shall have an area of no less than 70 square feet. and shall not be less than seven feet in any dimension, according to guidelines published by ConcreteNetwork.com. Habitable rooms, bathrooms, hallways, and laundry rooms shall have a minimum ceiling height of seven feet.
Existing stairways may need to be modified with new solid risers or toe board, with possibly new replacement treads having nosings (when solid risers are provided), with new graspable handrails, and/or with new intermediate balusters for open stair guards to meet current code requirements, according to the website’s guidelines.
There are all sorts of requirements for windows, ventilation, bathrooms, and finishes. If there is a bedroom, it might require two exits.
This, of course, is the reason why you hire an experienced contractor. He or she has the background to understand the rules and to handle relations with the local building department, including permits and inspection schedules.
They also know the best moisture-resistant materials to use and can keep a sharp eye out for possible problems.
Even the websites that promote do-it-yourself projects strongly suggest using licensed plumbers and electricians for such things.
Always have a good idea of what you want the final product to look like. If it is simply a place for storage of someone’s wedding presents, it should be dry, well-lighted, and safe.