Finishing Your Basement

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About This Video
Finishing your basement could mean adding hundreds of square feet of living space to your home.
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CommentsComments on "Finishing Your Basement"
Is your basement more optimized for storage than living? Have you finished a basement before? We'd like to hear your stories. 


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Tonya H. from Horse cave, KY on 07/07/2008 at 04:27 PM MT
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I would love to see my basement turned into a space much like an apartment that has a kitchenette, bathroom and both living and sleeping areas. It already has a shower in one corner. I am planning to have a yard sale in a couple of weeks to get rid of items that have not been used in 6 months and that I do not foresee use in the next 6 months. Other than having the yard sale, I do not know where to start.....Overwhelmed.
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sandi c. from Tacoma, WA on 03/15/2009 at 04:05 PM MT
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I've done alot of remodeling, and building from scratch since I was 5 yrs. old. Now I'm too old and sickly to hammer and saw and tool around. I wanted a ball park figure on what it costs now a days, telling me it's great to have a finished basement...well I already know that. So far the men who I have talked to think I don't know anything about anything, well I do know that talking plain English and being honest about the cost of things should be number one, getting a straight answer has bedcome very difficult for some reason. Trying to hurry an old person like me to spend my dollars just makes me wonder if maybe that basement of mine can just stay the way it is, till I find the right person who can give me a REAL quote that is fair for both partys.
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tracy c. from Granger, IN on 06/23/2010 at 04:45 AM MT
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We finished our basement using a contractor found through this website and we were greatly disappointed!
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theodocia c. from Brooklyn, NY on 06/24/2010 at 05:58 PM MT
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yes but it need some work done but i;am not sure that those guys you send can do it
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Daniel G. from Grapevine, TX on 06/30/2010 at 11:21 AM MT
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We finished two basements before moving to a part of the country where basements do not appear often. Each time we began with a complete B-Dry system, the only way to guarantee that a basement will not be moldy and damp and smelly; that was expensive, but each time we had the only dry, non-smelling basement in our neighborhood. One time,we put in an indoor playground for the children...no kidding, a swing and all!, together with an arts and crafts room. Another time we put in a workshop for me, a huge walk-in cage for the Ferrets and a room divider made of a large terrarium for the snake, so the media room was interesting. The B-Dry people made all the difference.
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Video Transcript for "Finishing Your Basement"
Dave Lupberger on finishing a basement: Every year, people are proving that basements are more than just a place to put things you'll never use again. Hi, I'm David Lupberger with ServiceMagic.com... the nation's leading online source for homeowners looking for prescreened contractors. If you're tired of using one of the biggest rooms in your house for storage, then you should think of your basement as a blank canvas... ready for you to put the finishing touches on it.

Lupberger: Your junior high school yearbook... an old computer monitor that may or may not function... and an old gaming system that surprisingly does... all doing something you're not... spending time in a room that could be so much more than what it is. An empty basement is one of the most popular rooms in the house to finish or remodel. Transforming one into a dark area used for storage... into a usable living space could very well increase the value of your home... and will definitely add to your enjoyment of it.

Stacey Chapman/Homeowner: There was no way we were gonna have three kids without having a finished basement because otherwise the toys are everywhere.

Lupberger: Stacey Chapman and her family just finished their basement... and they already have a plan for it.

Stacey Chapman/Homeowner: This part over here is gonna be where we set up the TV. It will go along this wall and a tv watching area over there. And then this area will be a rec/play area. Right now it will just be all toys, but when the kids get older I'm sure it will be a ping-pong table or something like that over here.

Lupberger: Finishing a basement yourself means you can almost always build it to fit the needs of your family... It can be a spare bedroom, a poker room for the man of the house, or a TV room big enough for the whole family... and then some.

Brevan Adams/Accent Design Build: Most of our initial consults with the customers are involving most of the family because everybody's got a say on what's important to them to get into that space.

Lupberger: Brevan Adams from Denver's Accent Design Build is a prescreened ServiceMagic professional who says most of his clients come to him because they want to tap into their homes unused square footage.

Brevan Adams/Accent Design Build: They bring a lot of flexibility in terms of where the family can come together and do those kinds of family activities that they don't want to do any more in their living room or their dining room. It allows them to leave their stuff laid out, be a family, have some playroom and not have to clean it up so much at the end of the day... just close the door of the basement and it's done.

Stacey Chapman/Homeowner: It's really opening up the rest of the house to be more of a grown-up area because now we can set that up for adults and this can be the family/kid area, so it's a huge difference.

Lupberger: Finishing your basement can mean you're finally unlocking your home's full potential... It can also mean creating a great living space for you and your family. To find your next prescreened home service professional for your basement, or any other home improvement project - check out ServiceMagic.com. Home Improvement, Hassle-Free.
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