What to Expect When Finishing a Basement: How to, Time Involved, and Cost

I will preface this blog post with a note that our home is near D.C.

Which is another way to say things are absurdly expensive where I live compared to almost anywhere else. Your mileage may vary when it comes to cost.

If you're not interested in the process, skip to the before and after pictures here.

Simple Cost Breakdown

When we purchased our home, we knew we wanted to finish most of the basement. When we bought it, the home had three bedrooms and two and a half baths. It's a traditional colonial with a formal living that opens into the dining room. The front doors lead past a hallway into an open kitchen-family room combo with an eat-in kitchen area as well.

We intended to add an additional living space as well as a bedroom and bathroom in the basement for guests. Our laundry is also in the basement so I didn't want to keep hauling our clothes down into a concrete hole. It was functional, but not inviting in the least.

To get started, I called in contractors for framing, plumbing, and electrical. The electrician is also a general contractor so he wrote me out a mock expense sheet for what it would cost for him to come in and manage the project from start to finish and deliver a turnkey result.

The ESTIMATED cost was $40,000. 

However, I always intended to act as the general contractor and keep track of projects and tasks myself. This resulted in significant cost savings.

Our FINAL cost for finishing approximately 570 square feet of the basement was $27,370.

When I relied on basic calculators available online for estimating costs, I consistently got $18,000 if I managed it myself. I bumped this number up to about $20,000 in my mind since I know I live in a more expensive area. Then I realized I forgot to include the price of insulation in my estimate, which bumped the DIY estimate to $21,000.

So where did the remaining $6370 go? $800 of it was the egress window. I knew the average was $2500-$4500. I was hoping for $3500. In my area, every contractor quoted me $4300 or higher. I also underestimated the trim labor costs and materials. I anticipated $1750, but the final cost was $2440. That's another $690 in overages.

I also didn't anticipate the city requiring me to produce engineered plans for the egress window. Despite already having support beams in place for the existing window, the city requested an engineer's stamp of approval, which cost $400. The permits themselves were an expense I didn't account for and came in at $449.

We also discovered three cracks in the wall, one of which actively leaked because it extended from a window. It cost $600 to repair it. Point of note: There are several different types of cracks. Ours were the straight up and down variety, which are normal to see in concrete walls. Pressure + time = cracks. Horizontal cracks or cracks that look like steps are a much bigger, much more expensive concern.

In addition, we did not have an existing stack for the toilet. All of the plumbing calculators I checked assumed the stack was already there. Jackhammering up the floor to lay the plumbing, backfilling, and pouring concrete added $1500.

The above accounts for $4439 of the overages. The remaining disparity in cost ($1931) related to certain services surpassing the estimate because of surprises no one could predict as well as choosing more expensive finishes.

Steps Involved to Finish a Basement

Our basement was a concrete hole when we started this project. In some ways, that's easier. There is no demo of existing structures. A family friend who works for a construction company in general contracting gave me the following outline of the proper order of things for finishing a basement. 

• Obtain building, electrical, mechanical (HVAC), and plumbing permits
• Framing
• Plumbing
• Groundworks inspection (checking the plumbing before covering with concrete)
• HVAC (exhaust fan in the bathroom)
• Electric
• Concealment inspection (looks at plumbing, HVAC, and electric work before concealing it behind insulation and walls)
• Insulation
• Insulation inspection
• Install drywall
• Prime drywall
• Lay tile in bathroom
• Lay flooring
• Trim and set doors and windows
• Paint
• Plumber returns to set vanity sink
• Electrician returns to install outlets, switches, and fixtures (i.e. ceiling fan, bathroom vanity lights)
• HVAC returns to set registers and intake vent
• Install bathroom fixtures (i.e. towel bars, mirror, toilet paper holder, etc.)

That is a very basic outline and each of those steps involved several additional steps to move to the next phase.

Ways to Save When Finishing a Basement

Even though we went over what I had hoped to spend on the basement renovation, we still came in $12,630 under what the contractor quoted us if my husband and I decided to hand off the project to a general contractor. Some of it would have gone to overhead and profits ($5323), but that still leaves $7307 in savings. 

A lot of that savings came from our personal time and labor. Examples include drafting our own plan for permits, comparing numerous material vendors to find the best price, ordering materials and having them delivered, transferring materials from the garage to the basement (this is highly labor intensive as wood for framing, flooring materials, and drywall are extraordinarily heavy), opting for slower trades in favor of cost savings, laying the floors ourselves, performing some of the tiling ourselves, and sanding/staining the stairs ourselves.

When it comes to vendors you can have good/bad, fast/slow, and expensive/inexpensive. Some of the combinations are fairly typical. Fast and good will often be more expensive. Slow and good will usually cost less. Which you choose will depend on your timeline and budget constraints. The one to be most wary of is fast and inexpensive as that is more likely to produce lower quality results.

Reusing trades can save money as well. Our egress window trade also specializes in waterproofing basements. He offers crack repairs as one of his services and gave us a break on the price because he'd worked with us before.

In fact, the egress window trade saved us a heap of money when he pointed out we could feed our drywall through the egress window hole, which allowed us to purchase bigger sheets. The more seams, the more labor costs. Bigger sheets mean fewer seams. Moving the drywall was the most labor intensive part of the project for my husband and me. He and his brother carried two sheets at a time (which weighed around 120 pounds), a middle man stood in the egress hole to help feed it through, and then I along with another of my husband's brothers carried the drywall over to where we were staging materials for the project. 

My father in law and yet another brother showed up halfway through to help as well. In total, we moved about a ton and a half of drywall that day. 

While 120 pounds may not seem like a lot, the drywall itself is flimsy and prone to snapping if you're not careful. You also have to carry it on your fingertips, which is incredibly awkward, 

Some jobs you can do yourself without concern. We purchased next-generation plank vinyl flooring because it's waterproof, durable, and a good option for basements. Vinyl has come a long, long way since the 90s so don't shudder in fear. It's also simple to install on your own. Other jobs, such as running electrical, you should leave to a professional. No cost-savings is worth risking your life. 

Something else to be aware of: Make sure to only use licensed and insured trades. This is easy to look up online. Otherwise, you may end up with shoddy work, work that won't pass inspection, or major safety concerns that can cost big money to fix.

Project Timeline

I had hoped to have the project completed in three months. In the end, it took 4.5. We lost one week to our family vacation so I don't begrudge that. We added three weeks to the project, however, with our choice in framing trade. Our framer worked his regular framing job during the week and could only come on Saturdays (some Sundays). His son usually helped him, but an unforeseen medical problem sidelined him. A three-week project became a six-week project. This is one of those scenarios where we opted to lengthen the project timetable in favor of saving money. 

Here is how our project unfolded:

• 7/2: Obtain permits
• 7/?: HVAC to install exhaust fan (registers already existed)
• 7/10: Egress window & move drywall from the garage to the basement through the egress hole. 
• 7/14: Framing
• 7/20-21: Framing
• 7/24-25: Plumbing (jackhammering up the floor and laying the groundworks)
• 7/26: Plumbing groundworks inspection
• 7/27: Plumbing (backfilling and pouring concrete)
• 7/28: Framing
• 7/30: Egress window inspection and crack repair
• 8/4: Framing
• 8/6: Drywall materials estimate from two sources
• 8/8: Crack repair
• 8/9: Electrical walkthrough with trade
• 8/11: Framing
• 8/12: Framing
• 8/15: Plumbing rough-in
• 8/16: Electrical rough-in
• 8/20: Electrical rough-in
• 8/22: Rough-in (concealment) inspection
• 8/23: Insulation estimate (two vendors)
• 8/24: Drywall hanging, mudding, and taping estimate from two trades
• 8/29: Insulation installation
• 8/30: Mechanical inspection; Insulation inspection
• 9/11-13: Drywall installation
• 9/18 & 20: Drywall finisher
• 9/25-27: Priming and painting drywall
• 9/28: Drywall fixes
• 9/29: Painting, flooring
• 9/30: Flooring
• 10/1: Drywall finisher
• 10/2: Trim estimate; tile estimate
• 10/4: Drywall finisher
• 10/18: Trim estimate
• 10/19: Trim estimate (two vendors); tile estimate
• 10/22: Tile bathroom floor
• 10/23 & 26: Tile bathroom floor
• 10/26, 11/1-2 & 5: Trim
• 11/9: Sand stairs
• 11/10 & 12: Tile trim along floors and shower edge
• 11/15: Stain stairs
• 11/16: Final plumbing
• 11/27: Final electrical

Flooring definitely took more than two days, but I didn't make note of when it occurred. We didn't schedule the final inspection until early January because holidays happened and we still needed to install a closet system, but we were essentially done in late November.

Takeaway and Tips

I said it before, but it bears repeating. Fast and inexpensive is almost always bad or inferior in quality. 

I had a lot of problems with our drywall hanger. The bathroom was done incorrectly and the drywall hung out over the shower liner, which is a big no-no. He also drywalled over a register and an entire window in the bedroom. None of these things were huge problems to correct, but he definitely tried to make me pay additional money for fixing his mistakes. I held my ground and the original agreed upon price held, but the experience was less than desirable. 

We've also had an infinite number of nails popping post-installation. This is pretty typical as time goes on and the nails used to hang the drywall pop out a millimeter or so. It's noticeable when you look for them, but there are usually only a few. Our basement is riddled with them. They're easy enough to fix, but it's time-consuming. You have to gently tap them back in, possible mud over them, then repaint. My dad fixed the bathroom pops for me because it's more noticeable in smaller rooms. 

While the experience was irritating, it did save us money. Drywall hanging is one of those trades that you can afford to go cheap on if you're prepared to encounter headaches along the way. Hanging drywall doesn't have to be pretty—it's the finisher that counts as that individual is responsible for concealing the seams.

Another thing to be aware of when wearing the general contractor hat is to stay on top of the schedule and double check supplies before purchasing. We had to return a lot of trim because they sent me double window trim instead of half window trim and half baseboards. Placing follow up calls a couple of days prior to trades arriving kept our project on track. More than once, I had a trade write down the wrong date. A lot of projects required certain trades to be done before the next could come in so the date was vital for moving forward.

Pictures—Before and During

Here are the pictures from before and during the renovation as well as our final plans I created and used to pull permits.

The blue tape was a rough layout of what we envisioned for the renovation. 

The egress window going in:

A ton and a half of drywall after moving it:

The egress window from inside:

Jackhammering, backfilling, and concrete for plumbing:

Framing and plumbing:

It started to feel more real once drywall went up:

Progress on flooring:

Pictures—After

Here are the after pictures once the work was done:

We also did some painting on the above ground levels as well including most of the main floor, all three upstairs bedrooms, the main floor powder room, and the shutters. The red was the original color and now they are light blue.

Out of the entire renovation, the bathroom is my favorite part. I love the herringbone tile pattern and the paint color. While I'm glad we saved a huge amount of money taking on a lot of the management and projects outselves, I am not in any hurry to repeat the experience.