Basement

…are the first things you’ll need to look for. Things like lowered ceilings, and ductwork can negatively affect your overall ceiling height.

Rather than dealing with the issue of the “trouble” spots many homeowners choose to go with dropped ceilings. Unfortunately this can really reduce the height of your ceilings giving your newly remodelled space a real “this is just a basement” feel.

Instead consider drywalling around the ductwork in your ceilings. The more ceiling height you have the better the finished look in your basement. Just remember to plan in some access points to valves, kitchen and bathroom plumbing traps, etc.

Uncontrolled moisture has the potential to cause a number of dangerous and damaging problems in your basement including the growth of mold.

Perimeter drains may be required and the basement walls may need to be sealed prior to renovating.

The next thing to consider when remodeling the basement is the placement of the mechanical equipment such as water heaters, and furnaces.

Will they need to be moved to achieve your desired results? With careful planning some of this movement, and thereby increased renovation costs, can be minimized.

If you’ve chosen to add a bathroom or wet bar to your basement renovation you’ll need to consider the issue of plumbing. Are the necessary plumbing pipes and drains in place already or will they need to be added?

A pump up waste water system may need to be added and if so a section of your basement’s existing concrete floor may need to be removed to make room for the drain lines and pump-up system.

Many people are including home theatre systems in their basement renovation plans. If you’ve chosen to do this you’ll need to pay particular attention to the electrical wiring requirements of your specific theatre system.

Besides electrical wiring, you’ll need to think about the speaker wire, cable wire, and Cat-5 wiring that’s typically required for a quality home theatre system – you’ll need to plan out the placement of all these before getting started.

Lighting is another important aspect to consider when remodeling a basement.
Most basements have little or no natural light – so you’ll need to give this area some careful consideration.

If natural light, such as windows, can be installed, then I’d highly recommend doing so. Besides letting light in, your new windows will add character to your newly renovated basement.

You should also consider adding some ceiling lights – the more the better – you can always turn some off – it’s pretty difficult to add more lighting after you’re finished renovating.

Finally, workspace lighting should be added where ever necessary. Each set of workspace lighting should be controlled separately so you have the option of energy-saving.