Make It Right: Attics and Basements

INTRODUCTION

Most of the time people don’t call me until all hell breaks loose. One homeowner I met had a contractor who wasn’t finishing the job and was threatening to put a lien on the house. Worse, the work was a disaster. The homeowner wanted to put a room in the attic. The contractor told him that he could build a liveable area because the house had a peaked roof, but you can’t build that without major structural changes. New homes have prefabricated roofing trusses that are designed to support your roof and the ceiling below. The contractor cut all the roof trusses and started to rebuild the structure in his own way. The damage to the existing structure was phenomenal, and it cost a fortune to turn it into an attic and a liveable zone.

Finishing a basement or attic the right way is a major undertaking. As far as I’m concerned, there is no other way to do it. Look at all the eye candy—the photos that look great and make renovations seem easy—but don’t get stuck there. Just start with it. You’ve got to educate yourself about your house—what it’s got already, what it doesn’t, what’s possible, what it’s going to cost. You’ve got to find the best contractor your money can buy, which means checking out the candidates by asking a million questions and making sure you know who and what you’re getting. Get ideas and get inspired. You can have the bar, the rec room, the extra bedroom—anything you want. But if you want to get the real goods on renos, you’ve got to go deeper—you’ve got to look at the world behind the walls. I’m talking about structure, waterproofing, insulation, mechanicals. That’s the key to a successful renovation.

This book is going to show you why.

CHAPTER 1

Getting Started

Years ago, when houses were built the basement was never finished as a liveable space like a rec room or even a nanny suite. The whole idea was that the basement held the mechanicals of the house and provided some storage space. The basement was not designed to be watertight or meant to be finished, which meant there would always be easy access for repairs if there were problems with the systems of the house such as plumbing, drains, or electrical.

It wasn’t much different with attics. Years ago, attics were just attics, not living spaces. They were just a cold zone and not heated like the rest of the house. The insulation was not the same as it is today, the structure was not the same. The attic was just meant as a place to put in some boxes of stuff after the kids had grown up and moved out.

Now, years later, people want to expand their homes, and they’ll take an old house and finish the basement without thinking about the original design. As you plan your renovation, remember the original purpose of these rooms.

Remember too, to slow down. Sometimes people get the idea that a reno can be done in just a few weeks or maybe a month. Well, the good news is that a lot of renos do take that amount of time, or even less. But that’s just the time on the site, at your house. That doesn’t count all the time it takes to plan everything, find the right contractor, and get the permits you need. In fact, it can take as long, or longer, to find the right contractor than to complete your renovation.

It’s important to be realistic about what’s ahead of you, so before you pick up the phone and call the first contractor you find online, slow down and educate yourself. Think through every part of the project.

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To you, it may look like there is a lot of wasted space in this basement that could be turned into more living area. I see the mechanicals of the house set up to allow easy access for maintenance and repairs.

Two furnaces? They’re not furnaces, but HRVs (heating recovery ventilators). The HRVs push fresh air through the house (one HRV is zoned for each floor). Radiant heating should have these systems too. An air cleaner, attached to the HRV, scrubs the air in the house and is a smart choice.

This may look like the plumbing system for a house with tankless water heaters and plumbing manifold (which I recommend). It is actually the system for radiant floor heating (which I also recommend). The white boxes are high-efficiency boilers. Hot water is supplied through the plumbing manifold below it.

You see a hole in your floor, but I see protection against flooding. A sump pit and sump pump are key parts of the waterproofing system that keeps your basement dry. Let’s hope that it drains farther from your house than minimum code requires.

Think About the Long Term

There are lots of reasons you might decide you need to increase the living space in your home.

For example, if you’re going to work from home, you probably need a separate home office. You need a quiet space away from the rest of the family, and maybe a separate entrance so that clients can get to your office without going through your living space.

Maybe you’re expecting a new member of the household—a new baby or an older relative. In cases like that, you’ll have to consider what that person will need.

If an older relative is joining your household, you might be looking for more than a bedroom. Maybe you want to set up a granny suite to give that person some independence and freedom. That might mean a kitchen and bathroom as well as a living room and bedroom. And, of course, whenever you design a space for an older person, you should consider access: one-level living is best, and the fewer stairs, the better. In fact, the attic or basement means this option is not in the cards—even more reason to plan with care.

Maybe your reno plans have more to do with adding luxury to your home. A home gym, a wine cellar, more recreational space to gather with friends and family? Consider exactly what you want and how much room you’ll need.

If what you’re looking for is a rental suite in your basement or attic, you’ve got to meet a lot of building code regulations and other legal requirements. Just as anywhere else in your home, any bedroom, bathroom, or kitchen that you add in a basement or attic must meet all minimum code requirements for plumbing, electrical, HVAC, etc. Electrical outlets in bedrooms must have arc fault breakers for added fire protection. Depending on where you live and the zoning, you may need a separate entrance, and a fire escape in every bedroom, which means a door or a window big enough for someone to climb through. Check with local building authorities and keep in mind that some municipal bylaws prevent residential homes from being converted into apartments.

If you’re serious about renting out a unit in your basement or attic, make it legal and make it right. Find out about all your legal obligations from the building department in your municipality—they should have information on which building codes and fire codes apply to you. And check with your mortgage holder and insurance company, too, to be sure that your agreements with them allow you to rent out a suite in your home.

How much is it going to cost?

Budgeting for a reno is also about how much you can afford to spend. How much do you have saved, or how much can you borrow? If you’re planning to borrow, visit your bank and find out how much of a renovation loan you could be approved for—before you hire a contractor. Whatever you do, make sure you’ve got your financing lined up so you’ll never have trouble paying your contractor when the time comes.

Always put your own needs first during a renovation, rather than focusing on how much of your investment you’ll recoup when you sell your home. Also, pay attention to the houses in your neighbourhood, so you don’t make the mistake of overimproving.

Maybe you have no idea how much the job is going to cost. A smart move is to get a ballpark figure from a contractor. This isn’t the same thing as asking a contractor to bid on the job. It means bringing in a contractor, maybe for a set fee, to give you a quick assessment of your house and your plans, and let you know a general figure that you should budget for.

At this point, you don’t have to have your plans drawn out or your list of materials in hand, but you need to be able to say something like, We want to turn our attic into a master bedroom suite, with four new windows, a shed dormer, and an ensuite bathroom with a separate shower and bath. That’s enough detail for the contractor to give you that ballpark figure.

What can you expect to hear about the cost of finishing a basement or attic?

If you look at it by comparison to building an addition, basements and attics can be a bargain because the basic structure is already there. Where you might pay between $90 and $360 per square foot for the extra space of an addition, you can get the same space in your basement or attic for between $30 and $80 per square foot.

But keep a few things in mind.

First, at $30 per square foot, you’re looking at basic-level finishes—carpet or vinyl rather than hardwood, no luxury features in the bathroom, and no built-ins such as bookcases or a home theatre. Obviously, the more you want, the higher the price.

Second, if you do some quick math you’ll see that we’re talking about big numbers to finish raw space like a basement or attic, even if you don’t splurge. At $30 per square foot, an average basement of 1,000 square feet, including a bathroom, is still going to cost you about $30,000.

Renovating an attic can seem like an inexpensive way to get more space in your house. But keep in mind that, because of limited headroom, you will not gain much liveable space.

Third, if your reno plans will need substantial structural work, such as lowering and underpinning the basement floor, for example, you’re looking at much higher costs—probably another $30,000.

So, before you can really figure out how much your plans are going to cost, you need to get some basic info about your house.

That ties into my next point: the structure of your house will tell you a lot about what you need to do, and how much it will cost.

Will the Structure of Your House Add to the Cost?

I’ve seen it happen lots of times. A homeowner hires a contractor to finish their basement, and then there are problems—maybe there’s moisture, maybe there are bulkheads running everywhere on the ceiling and you have to duck your head to walk around. When I’m brought in, I find out that the contractor didn’t deal with waterproofing issues at all, and tried to get away with a ceiling height that was just too low for a finished basement. Maybe the homeowner wanted the contractor to cut corners, or maybe they didn’t know any better. Either way, the homeowner has spent thousands on a basement they can’t even use.

There are lots of structural issues that can make it hard to convert a basement or attic into living space. Pretty much anything is possible if you’ve got the money to spend, but do you have that kind of money, and is that how you want to spend it?

Should you do it yourself?

When you look at the cost of your renovation, you may be thinking about slapping up some studs and drywall yourself to save some money. Basement and attic renos are major projects. They take a lot of specialized skills and experience, as well as good subcontractors like electricians and plumbers to do their part too. What about saving money? sure, you might save on labour costs, but those savings could be eaten up by expensive tools, extra building materials, and mistakes. Don’t underestimate how much work there is still left for you to do in planning your reno. Hire right, let the pros do their jobs, and you won’t be disappointed.

Let’s talk about issues in basements first, because it’s important to realize that the basement is different than any other area in your house because it’s partially below ground. That changes everything.

If your house is an older one, it’s possible that the basement has some pretty severe moisture problems, and it might not have the headroom you need to finish it. Does that mean you can’t have a finished basement in an older house? No, far from it. But the cost will be higher because to get that extra height you’ll probably have to lower the foundation and underpin it, as well as waterproof it. Underpinning involves digging below the existing foundation level, then adding footings at that lower level so the structure of the house is supported. It’s a job for professionals only, it’s time-consuming, and it’s expensive. It can range from $5,000 to $100,000, depending on the size of the building, the depth you want, and access issues, like other houses that are built very close by.

In addition to getting the necessary height, you’ll need to be sure that the basement is dry. That will likely mean waterproofing the foundation from the outside. That will also add substantially to the cost (starting at a minimum $10,000 to excavate, waterproof, put in weeping tile, and backfill), but it may be necessary if you want a dry basement for any of the big plans you have in mind.

A basement that’s already full height is a better candidate for expansion. Most