Very rough basement remodel cost?

12 years ago

Hey all,

So we're getting an estimate for our basement this coming week and I was hoping for a little insight into the sort of cost we could expect.

Our basement is currently habitable. We have lights, outlets and plumbing for the washer/drying. However, all the walls are just brick, the floor is just painted concrete and the ceiling is exposed.

All we're hoping to have done is get the walls studded out with a moisture barrier, and dry wall put in place on the walls and ceiling. I'm assuming that we'll need some sort of sub-flooring installed too. But that's all we want done, with the assumption that we'll do the finishing work later as we go (which I have experience in).

We live in Baltimore, MD in a townhouse. The basement in question is no more than 450sq ft.

Any ideas on what sort of cost we may be looking at? I've read estimates online that almost always state $25-30 per square foot for a finished basement, so really have no clue what a roughed in job would run.

Any thoughts would be very welcome. Thanks!

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Comments (4)

scrappy25
12 years ago
Be sure you get all electrical and plumbing finished before you close up the walls! If you are thinking of reselling you will need permits also.
We are in Baltimore too- finished our basement several years ago. Can't answer your cost questions since we had it completely finished. However, we were able to use carpet (with pad) and laminate (with pad) directly on the concrete with no problems at all. No subfloor needed.
s_carroll
Original Author
12 years ago
So as a follow up, I thought I'd post where we are currently on this project, in case anyone else in Baltimore is looking to do something similar.

We have hired a company (Arocon) and they quoted us $5000 to frame, drywall and tape/mud the entire basement, so that it's totally paint ready.

I also took scrappy's advise and since we wanted to install a laundry sink, have rough plumbed the entire sink in (water supply, drain etc). I was able to do the whole thing, sink included, for under 200 bucks.

Also, after talking with others who've done a similar remodel (and based on scrappy's experience - thank you :), we've decided to just carpet over the cement floor and possibly do an interlocking tile flooring in the laundry room.

I'll post again after completion. Any other ideas are very welcome though.
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Hey bobyoe! Glad you straightened that out for everyone! However, your comments do raise an issue that "$ per sq. ft" obsessed folks need to think about when they talk to a builder. It's the cost of the whole project that counts, not just the cost of the house. Plus, the features, finishes, and location of the house within a market area can make a 10,000 sq ft house cost less than a 6,000 sq ft. house. No one gave us a good ballpark estimate for things like professional fees, permits, impact fees, drainage systems, or site work before we started. Most of those items were not related to the size of the house. Those costs will end up being about 18% of the total project costs. No one could convince my "$ per sq ft obsessed husband" that the features he wanted in our house were equivalent to building multiple luxury kitchens. He is convinced now :-). Same thing goes for the outside entertainment areas. He thought the covered areas should be priced like a garage. Wrong. The spec'd finishes bring the entertainment areas to a higher cost for build out than any non-plumbed room in the airconditioned space. The thing that I think we could all agree about is that you can buy an existing home at a significantly lower cost per sq. ft. in today's market. Major builders are dumping new 5 and 6 bedroom 8,000 sq ft homes in our county for $600-$800K. Yeah, they are in outlying areas on small lots, but they are brand new homes. So, in addition to size and features, you have to price in: 1. supply and demand, and 2. location within a location. We are in Palm Beach County, Florida. Our lot costs vary from $20 million per acre on the ocean in Palm Beach, $10 million per ocean front acre 15 miles south on the same island, $2-5 million per acre intracoastal waterway on the same island, and $50,000 for a 1/4 acre builder's lot 15 miles west of the ocean where the national builders are dumping their inventory. Why bring lot costs into the discussion? It's because builders will hit you hard for building in an area of high land costs. I guess they think they are entitled to a big premium if you are paying premium prices for your lot. That's my 2 cents for the day!
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The moldings, bench, cabinets, and counter could probably be installed by the same carpenter (just make sure he's done laminate before - don't let your project be his guinea pig). The flooring by a tile guy. The painting by a third guy. And that's it. As long as he is not making the cabinets (just installing them), I'd say the carpentry work is maybe $2500. Painting the room, moldings, and bench should be under $1000. Maybe $700? Cost of your tile labor should be around $700 too, assuming the floor is not crazy out of level and you demolish the old floor yourselves. So say $5000 in labor to give you cushion, plus the cost of materials, which your choice of cheap vs. expensive tile, cheap vs. expensive paint, etc. would affect greatly. Since you are not moving plumbing or electrical and would have so few subs, this might be one you want to GC yourselves to save the money you would pay for project management. You could come in under $10,000 easy. Possibly more like $8,000.
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HVAC planning is regional. We hide it in the corner here. Tap into drain? Here is a thought, water needs to flow with gravity. Usually a basement is below grade - which is probably the definition. I've seen city connections of course that are below a walk out basement but that isn't the norm. Of course you could have a septic field in the back yard. Either way, YMMV - so find out where your waste is going. PVC is super cheap - don't worry much about the vertical movement. Bathroom - In your drawing the back corner space is tight for mechanicals so it will probably be wasted. Consider a bathroom attached to back yard. At least consider it - will you have a pool? Will you carpet the basement and will people come in muddy? Perhaps not but at least consider it.
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"...We are contemplating a custom build. Before jumping straight into buying a lot, I would love to get a feel for building costs in our area by talking to some local builders, to see if we can get close to what we want in our budget. We plan on engaging with an architect and all that jazz but before we get in too deep would it make sense to give a builder this example floor plan and some finish parameters to get an idea of local costs?..." This is a real and common situation faced by almost everyone who is considering building some sort of custom house, as opposed to a tract or builder's house. But answer to such a question is much harder to determine. "...to get an idea of local costs..." means many things to many people. As responses here illustrate, an "idea" of local costs could range from $90/SF to $300/SF, maybe more. And that's the challenge of asking open ended questions like this...no one really knows what the answer will be. Thus, checking on the current costs of houses of similar size and finish, as suggested, is one way to get a sense of current costs. But then, of course, one has to calculate what the escalator factor may be if building two years hence. And there are influential factors not related to floor plans at all. For example, site purchase and improvement costs...local approval and permit costs...contingency sums...and on it goes. As I (and others) have said before, if one is considering a truly custom home, then one of the best cost-control strategies is to select and architect and a compatible builder to work together in "charrette" mode for a week's time and expense to come up with a specific design concept which fits a particular site, responds to an owner's specific needs and can be estimated in a reasonable manner. Anything else is gonna take a lot of Kentucky windage...
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scrappy25
12 years ago
just saw your update!
Be sure to get pictures of your rough plumbing and drainage and anything else inside the walls. I know someone who had to get permits after the fact and they found a plumber who would certify based on pictures of what was done. Also that prevents mishaps in future modifications.

What are you doing for electrical?
s_carroll
Original Author
12 years ago
So the jobs done, so I thought I'd recap everything that went on.

To scrappy's questions - I plumbed our new utility sink based off of the diagram shown on this site

http://www.terrylove.com/forums/showthread.php?17967-utility-sink-drain

Starting out, I had thought I could just cut into the washing machine stand pipe and be done with it, but it turns out it's not that simple. As per electrical, Arocon had their electrician move a couple of light fixtures and he also installed two new wall sockets on walls that had previously never had power, which was a nice plus.

Now that the jobs done, the basement is looking good. They left some finishing work for me, to help keep the cost down but that's something I'm looking forward to tackling. Plus, after a little light sanding, we'll be ready to paint.

So while the work they completed was nice, we're definitely not going to be using Arocon again based simply on their professionalism (or lack there of). When it came to communication, I was also the one to have to reach out to our foreman and often his answers were so vague that we were left wondering what the status of our job was or whether guys were going to be working any particular day. While not horrible, a few simple phone calls with updates would have gone a loooong way to making us feel more comfortable with the timeline and the work being finished.

The other huge issue we had was with simple, avoidable damages. Over the course of the nine days they worked, we had several problems with things being broken or damaged by the workers. Often times it was a simply a case of them not bringing essential equipment, like a step ladder. Instead of having a ladder the guys used our furniture as ladders, which meant they broke a small bookshelf and a storage bin. Also, while moving furniture upstairs to make room for other equipment they left a big gash in our hardwood floors. Other things like using our broom to sweep up wet wall mud and leaving the job site a complete mess were just icing on the top.

Long story short, while we were happy with the end result of the dry wall we were very far from satisfied with the manner in which it was completed. My reasoning is that while any construction crew can dry wall, I'm only going to repeat my business with one that treats me well.

I did mention all this in an email to the company. I immediately heard from the co-owner and while he was apologetic and asked if we wanted to be compensated for damages, the damage had already been done. No one thing was horrendous in itself but the culmination of the lack of professionalism was too much for an apology to fix.

I hope I'm not turning anyone off to having a contractor do work for them. And I would say "do your research" except that this group was rated A on several sites including ServiceMagicPros and BBB.

Very rough basement remodel cost?

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scrappy25

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Very rough basement remodel cost?

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