When Can Finishing A Basement HURT Your Home Value? TAGS: basement | basement egress windows | basement remodel ideas | Egress windows | finishing a basement | means of egress | Refinishing your basement

Finishing your basement will increase the value of your home, right? Not if you don’t do it right. With the housing market on the road to recovery, a lot of homeowners are looking to see how they can leap-frog the competition and get their houses back to full market value as quickly as possible. Finishing any available basement space is a smart way to do just that. Just think about it – creating a basement apartment, or just extra livable space in a basement, can easily add hundreds of square feet to a home’s footprint; and offer great options for …Continue reading →

Wooden Stairs Pose a Risk During Basement Fires TAGS: Egress windows | emergeny escape | Installing an Egress Window | means of egress | Refinishing your basement | safe basement exit

If the stairs to your basement are made from wood, a means of egress is especially important. The vast majority of American homes are made using simple wooden framing in their construction – and while this is an affordable, durable and versatile material; it’s also vulnerable to fire. As a result, one of the “hot spots” of fire risk has always been basement stairs. If they’re made of wood, they can quickly become inaccessible and unsafe in the event of a fire; trapping people downstairs. This is why adding a means of egress to your basement is so important – …Continue reading →

Make the Most of Your Basement: The Darkroom TAGS: Adding egress windows | basement remodel ideas | building codes | Egress windows | emergeny escape | finishing a basement | Refinishing your basement

Fashion photographer Danny turned his unfinished basement into a darkroom – and added a basement window well for several important reasons. “Film photography isn’t dead,” explains Danny Patterson, a fashion photographer from New Jersey. “It’s still a medium used in high art, and a lot of fashion magazines still love the look of a photograph taken on real 35mm film.” But Danny, who specializes in photographs taken on real film, admits that the digital revolution has changed a lot of things. “Everything that used to be commonplace has got more difficult to get hold of now, though,” he admits. “You …Continue reading →

The Home Gym: Making the Most of Your Basement Space TAGS: basement | basement egress windows | basement remodel ideas | building codes | finishing a basement | means of egress | Refinishing your basement

One popular way to maximize the space of a finished basement is to convert it into a home gym. While the initial outlay can be expensive, it’s one of the few investments that literally “pays for itself” in the gym dues you save every month – not to mention your improved health! Home exercise equipment tends not to get a lot of use. Some people even joke “it’s the most expensive clothesline you’ll ever have!” This is largely because home exercise equipment is large, bulky and needs a lot of room to use it effectively. Which is where a basement …Continue reading →

A Kid’s Playroom: Making the Most of your Basement Space TAGS: basement | basement remodel ideas | Basement Windows | Egress windows | Refinishing your basement

Somebody once equated having young kids to owning a blender, but not having a lid for it. The metaphor is accurate – most parents know how messy and chaotic kids can be! This is why finishing a basement and turning it into a kid’s playroom is an idea that appeals to a lot of parents. There are a lot of advantages. Firstly, it’s totally secure. There are no exterior doors and patio windows to worry about, so parents can leave their kids to play in the basement without them worrying about wondering off. Secondly, it’s self-contained. Kids can make an …Continue reading →

A Basement Game Room: Making the Most of Your Space TAGS: basement | basement remodel ideas | Egress windows | finishing a basement | Refinishing your basement | Sunlight into a basement

A basement game room is a popular use of your additional lower-level space. Here are some pointers: For President Truman’s birthday in 1947, a bowling alley was installed in the basement of the White House, under the North Portico. That started the American tradition of basement game rooms – which continues to this day. In many ways, a game room is one of the best uses of finished basement space. Because basements tend to have large areas of open space, it allows for easy installation of a pool table (or even a bowling alley) that wouldn’t fit upstairs. You can …Continue reading →

Flatscreen or Projector? The Basement Home Theater Dilemma TAGS: basement remodel ideas | Egress windows | finishing a basement | Refinishing your basement

One of the advantages of a basement home theater is the ability to completely control the lighting; for a true cinema-like experience. But that creates another problem; do you stick with flatscreen technology, or really take advantage and invest in a projector? Projectors used to be exclusively found in boardrooms, classrooms and movie theaters – but now they’re making a big impact at home. Projecting a tiny image onto a blank wall, blowing it up in the process, they offer home cinema enthusiasts a true “big screen” experience. But many people still prefer to stick with more traditional technology, like …Continue reading →

Basement Room Ideas: Making the Most of Your Space TAGS: basement egress windows | basement remodel ideas | Egress windows | finishing a basement | Refinishing your basement

Over the course of the next few blog posts, we’ll be examining some of the best ways to expand your home and make use of your available basement space. In our first post: Finishing your basement to be a fully-featured media room, home theater or family room. Whether grabbing popcorn for the big movie, or hot dogs for the big game, one popular venue is a basement media room. It’s an increasingly popular use for finished basement space. In many ways, a basement is the perfect space for installing a big-screen TV – one of the few places in the …Continue reading →

Smart Moves to Keep Your Basement Dry TAGS: Adding egress windows | basement remodel ideas | Basement Windows | bringing fresh air in a basement | damp basement | Egress windows | finishing a basement | prevent mold in basements | Refinishing your basement | Sunlight into a basement

Basements get damp. It’s one of the natural laws of the universe – like how when you drop a piece of toast, it always lands butter-side down. But there are things you can do to keep your finished basement dry, fresh and welcoming. For many homeowners, adding egress windows helped eliminate their damp problem – as it gave a free-flowing source of fresh air that helped expel lingering moisture. But if you’re deciding to finish your basement, there are some other tips and techniques you can use to minimize or eliminate the risk of dampness. The first is to consider …Continue reading →

Tips for Installing Tile Flooring in Your Basement TAGS: basement remodel ideas | damp basement | finishing a basement | prevent mold in basements | Refinishing your basement

Finishing your basement is a big step towards adding extra living space – and resale value – to your home. But some smart choices now can really pay off in the long run – like installing tile flooring. Many homeowners take years to work up the courage to finish their basement. There are a lot of concerns for them – not least of which is the purely mental block which makes them think it’s impossible that their cold, dank, unwelcoming basement could ever become a warm and welcoming part of their family home. But when they finally do make that …Continue reading →