The Basement Remodel Project (Premium)

If you are unfortunate enough to listen to First Ring Daily, you will probably have heard Paul and I talk about my basement remodel once, or maybe twice, during the past six months. With the project now 99.7% complete, here is the writeup of the process including how I approached the project, steps we took to complete the basement, and the cost associated with the remodel.

Standing in my daughter’s hospital room on a Friday after she had surgery to put a couple of pins in her elbow after falling off the monkey bars, a contractor we hired to install a sump pump in our basement said they could come on Monday if we were ready – we were not ready. Reluctantly, I said yes, and in mid-October, the basement remodel project began.

Before we could get started, there were several projects that had to be performed first; primarily fixing the water issue in our basement. Thankfully, we do not have any issues with our foundation bending/bowing, as determined by the contractor, but we did have static pressure leakage. Meaning, water would come up through the cracks in the slab of the home and seeing as we didn’t have a sump pump in our basement, it was time to add one.

To do this, everything in the basement had to be removed which included the ‘old’ podcast studio, my video editing rig, and items we stored in the basement. To fix our water issue, the contractor with a crew of about six people and four jackhammers, dug a trench around the inside perimeter of our basement to drain water to the sump.

This process creates a huge mess and was incredibly noisy but was a requirement to help keep our basement dry. Before the install, our basement did not flood but water would seep in and naturally flow towards the center drain in our basement. The floor was sloped gradually to this drain and was never really a major issue until we wanted to spend more time down there and you can’t finish a basement in a wet environment.

After this process was complete and a few good spots of rain later, the basement was staying dry and the humidity in the basement was at a level that was below that of mold growth even on the wettest of days.

Another part of the project that was outsourced was having a plumber fix a drain that was in the shower that was not functioning. The bottom of the P-trap had rusted out/broke, this was replaced and new concrete poured.

With the basics out of the way, there was ductwork that needed to be moved, waterlines to an outdated water softener to be re-routed, demoing the old walls (picture above), remove old lighting, and getting the basement to the point where framing could take place.

And if you are wondering if maybe in another life if I built homes or worked in construction? Nope. I did remodel my kitchen with help from family about 10 yrs ago and understand the basics but looking at the old unfinished-basement, how hard could it be?

Starting with the demo, prior to my daughter breaking her arm, I ...

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