Excavation

Finished basement: cost/ideas?

I have dreams of finishing the basement of my townhouse (16.67 x 45 feet). Currently, it has a dirt/cracked concrete floor; the ceiling is probably under six feet high, so I assume we’d have to do at least some excavation. It’s not perfectly dry but there’s been no flooding. We wouldn’t want a fancy renovation—just…

by basementalist
02/27/2009

I have dreams of finishing the basement of my townhouse (16.67 x 45 feet). Currently, it has a dirt/cracked concrete floor; the ceiling is probably under six feet high, so I assume we’d have to do at least some excavation. It’s not perfectly dry but there’s been no flooding. We wouldn’t want a fancy renovation—just a dry space with a floor that we could use for a play/rec room and some storage.

I’m sure the cost can vary widely depending on what you have done. But if anyone here has done it, how much did it cost? Can you recommend workers? And are there considerations you think it’s important to keep in mind? Potential pitfalls? (Thanks; I did a forum search on the topic but didn’t find much.)

Excavation

Comments

  2. Excavation–not always such a good idea. My architect fiance and I were just discussing this today about the extra few inches of headroom we could use for the bathroom in the basement we are adding (I said, “Why don’t we just dig the basement out a few inches”) and he said that this sometimes cause the building’s WALLS TO COLLAPSE. Why? Because the lateral forces from your floor are pushing out and HOLDING UP your walls. In other words, the support posts are not the only things holding your house up. So if you dig, you have to do it in patches and shore up the walls with concrete.

    Needless to say, consult a professional before digging. And for those of you who have already dug, you might want to have an engineer check things out.

    p

  3. The excavation alarmed me since I am not an engineer, but it turns out those support posts are sunk much, much deeper than you think. I think mostly the excavation was a nightmare for the workers, since all of the dirt and the broken up old slab had to be carried out in buckets. Oh, and my neighbors hate me now because of the noise.

  4. I plan to finish basement. The ceiling is 7’2″, but there are heating system pipes all over the place. I tried to choose between digging down or replacing pipes with some neat copper pipes, hidden between joists. I guess, I will leave the floor alone.

  7. We did something similar but, luckily did not have to excavate. We had some mild water issues that were cleared up from the outside, and they did their best to smooth out the floor and we just laid carpeting with extra think padding over it, which did they trick. New walls, ceilings with high hats (sorry bstoner), new bathroom, laundry room and enclosed the boiler room. Ran us about $30K two years ago, which also included redoing two sets of stairs. Would be glad to give you our contractor’s info and you can come by to take a look at the finished product.

  8. Geekspace–thanks. Was the excavation a headache? There are support posts sunk into the basement floor and I have this worry in the back of my head that it will somehow collapse the house!

    I’m sure it will be a while before we pull the trigger, but I may take you up on the referral.

  9. We’re actually at the tail end of doing this exact thing. By far the most expensive part was breaking up the old slab, excavating the floor (we raised the ceiling by 6 inches to be over 7 feet) and waterproofing/pouring a new slab. We also did a lot of other stuff (Landmark approvals, C of O, full bath, tons of electrical work) so I don’t know that our total cost will be a useful comparison for you if what you want is something much simpler. If you like, I can refer you to our contractor who IMO has done an excellent job.

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