Cost to Finish your Basement | BasementCostEstimates.com

Your family is growing, but your living space is not. While it may be easy to determine the cost of a tent for the backyard, how do you determine the cost of transforming your unfinished basement into additional living space? Enter the matching service. Without leaving the comfort of your computer, all you have to do is answer a few online questions about your desire to finish your basement, and the matching service will provide you the names of three or four local builders or remodelers who are interested in the project.

After you have been matched, the builders will begin calling. As you take a few minutes to talk with them ask yourself: Are they personable? Did you get a good feeling? Do they sound confident and professional? Take a moment to browse their websites, read customer reviews and see if other customers had a good experience. As you look at their work, does their design style match your vision? Does the quality of their work meet your expectations? Are they licensed, bonded and insured?

Builders don’t charge by the hour, so when you speak to one you like don’t hesitate to schedule a face to face meeting. Share your thoughts and concerns and get their professional opinion on the project. Take them for a tour and explain your needs. Most builders and remodelers are able to design and build, so there’s usually no need for an architect. They will also handle all the permits, acquiring the materials and coordinating the subcontractors, so be sure to let them know exactly how much you want to be involved in the project.

Since it will take multiple meetings and phone calls to work out the particulars, it’s probably best to settle on a particular builder before you get too deeply entrenched in the project. That doesn’t mean, however; that you are committed to the project because you still don’t even know the cost! Eventually, the builder will provide you with a set of plans and a written cost estimate. If the price seems reasonable, you may wish to proceed, but you are still not obligated to use them if you want to continue to shop around. The builder may agree to sell you the plans, or you can just go through the same process with another builder. The tricky part is to be sure you compare “apples to apples” between builders. There is a great deal of thought and emotional energy involved in comparison shopping in the area of builders and remodelers, but you are the one that ultimately has to be satisfied with the product and the cost. At this point, your biggest investment is your time.

Now that you know the cost of finishing your basement, you can quit looking at sale ads for tents and start looking forward to decorating your new additional living space!