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Why Renovate Your Basement

Develop Your Untapped Space

There are many reasons why you may be considering either a basement development from scratch, or a basement renovation in Edmonton. This article will help you decide what rooms to create in your basement, including options you may have already considered, and probably a few that you haven’t.

If you have a basement, it’s likely home to your furnace, hot water tank, boiler, HRV, and electrical panel. It may even have these important items housed in a mechanical room. But what about the rest of your basement? What do you use it for, other than storing castaways from your upper levels? Consider that a finished basement can be more, and it’s a great opportunity to invest in your quality of life.

1. Growing Family

If you have limited space in the main part of your home, have a teenager craving some personal space, or need room for extended family to visit, an extra bedroom and bathroom in the basement would be a great option. Adlyn Construction helps transform cold, poorly lit spaces into more functional areas for growing families. We help you plan out your space, to utilize it as efficiently as possible, typically generating 30% – 45% more useable living space in your home.

2. Home Office

During Co-vid, we all witnessed the push to work from home. Unfortunately, many people were ill-equipped to do this, often turning their kitchen table into a makeshift workspace or shoving a desk into a corner of the primary bedroom. The new reality of hybrid workspaces (time at the office, time at home) makes it even more important to locate a dedicated space in your home to do your work. The rising costs of rentals, leases and travel expenses has also pushed many small business owners to their homes to run their businesses.

It’s probably not surprising to learn that home offices were one of the most requested spaces for home renovations in 2021.

A dedicated home office, built the way you want it, can be a tremendous upgrade from not only that desk in the bedroom, but even from the traditional office you were accustomed to attending. Built to suit your exact needs with lighting where you want it, USB plugs where you need them, and even soundproofing, a home office can increase productivity and quality of life when done right.

3. Home Gym

Another new high scoring request is a home gym. Once again, we have Co-vid to thank for making this home renovation trend explode since gyms were required to shut down for extended periods. Even now, people have witnessed the convenience of working out at home seeing how their most precious asset, time, can be preserved. No more driving to the gym, waiting in line to check in, finding a locker, and then driving home again. If that extra hour per day is valuable to you, consider a home gym. Think how easy it would be to head downstairs, crank that music you love, lift, ride, run, stretch, whatever! Then jump in your brand-new shower and get your day started! With an Edmonton home gym renovation, you can work out with the equipment you want, when you want it, and Adlyn Construction can help put it all together for you.

4. Laundry Room

Do you currently have a laundry room in your basement, or is it more of a laundry “area”? Are there even walls? Do you have cabinets to store everything? Is there even a finished floor in there? Let’s face it, most people don’t enjoy doing laundry, and a big part of that is because the room they’re doing it in sucks. It’s ok, we get it.

Having a dedicated laundry room has been one of the most notable points of feedback we have gotten over the years. People always seem to love their new laundry room, often more than any other part of their new basement. Here are a couple examples of some, dare we say, life changing laundry rooms we have built for our clients in the past.

Laundry is a necessity, you need to get it done. Wouldn’t it be more enjoyable if the space you’re doing it in is clean, organized, warm and well lit?

As you can see, it’s not necessarily the payday that a suite in Canmore or Jasper would generate, but comparing to a full-time renter, an Airbnb can easily generate the same revenue in almost half the time.

Before

After

Before

After

5. Bedroom & Bathroom

Captain Obvious, coming at you! What’s a basement renovation without a bathroom and at least one bedroom? We have never renovated a basement without incorporating these two rooms. Typically, if you need the space, it’s likely due to needing a bedroom. If you have a bedroom downstairs, you definitely need a washroom as well. Who wants to walk up and down the stairs to go to the bathroom?

If your bathroom has been roughed in, you can either keep it where it is or moved it to somewhere more appropriate. With equipment like jackhammers and concrete saws, moving plumbing is possible. The basement bathroom can usually go wherever you want.

6. Playroom

Do you miss your adult living room? Kids driving you nuts? Say no more. A playroom can be incorporated into a basement renovation quite easily. It can be a sectioned off area of the main room, a full-on bedroom style room, or how about using that space under the stairs that is always a tricky area to keep organized?

A playroom can be fitted with USB chargers for devices, built in bookshelves, a tv, a craft station, ping pong table, a dedicated Lego table, and so much more depending on the space you have. Whatever your children are into, we can come up with some super fun ideas to create a space just for them. If it’s time to restore order to your living room upstairs, or de-clutter the kids’ bedrooms of that mountain of toys, Adlyn Construction can help keep the adult living space, just that, and bring a small slice sanity to your life with a basement playroom for the kids.

7. Storage

The storage room, the most boring room in the house, and maybe the most boring point in this blog, but let’s face it, without storage, life is complete chaos. A dedicated storage room fitted with shelving is the most obvious way to begin a (very short) discussion about storage. Where else can you put all the holiday decorations if you don’t have storage?

Big closets, cabinetry, or clever under the stairs designs, there are many ways to get the storage you need without eating up too much real estate in the basement.

8. Art Studio

Our favourite point is coming up, but first, the art studio. So many of our clients love to create music, paint, sew, make pottery, or even brew craft beer! There are ample opportunities to create the art studio or craft room of your dreams with a basement blank slate. Cutting in larger sized windows to allow lots of natural light to flow in, installing large exhaust fans to rid the paint fumes, and even plumbing upgrades can all be taken into consideration when designing an art studio.

With the growing numbers of baby boomers retiring, we’ve found more and more art studios becoming a prevalent space in their homes. We have become known for our creativity as a renovation contractor in Edmonton, and with the help of an interior designer and the input of the client of course, we can build you a space where your passion can flourish.

9. Entertainment & Themed Spaces

Did you know that basement entertainment space does not have to be limited to a tv room or wet bar. When considering a basement renovation in Edmonton, here’s an idea for you that will bring your entertaining game to the next level.

After several years as a hobby and 7 years as a contracted professional in the special effects industry as a live production pyrotechnician and professional fireworks operator, creating themed spaced has become a passion.  Having designed, prototyped, and operated confetti, fire, and atmospheric CO2 systems for local photographers, bands and other performers, we became BIG FANS of the BIG SHOWS!

Over the years and with the help of a friend, the idea of Themed Spaces was born. Themed spaces that can be integrated into your basement renovation. Don’t worry, we aren’t looking to integrate explosives into your space, but we do want to create a fun, exciting space that people enjoy day after day.

Check out Themed Spaces on our website for more information on how you can have the entertainment space of your dreams.

10. Rental Suite

Are you looking for a retirement investment? A basement renovation can also be a great opportunity to create added income if you have the space to spare. A legal basement suite can generate monthly income, but there are specific guidelines that must be followed to develop this type of space. It’s a slightly different design/build process in comparison to a basement that you would use for yourself, but worthy of consideration if this is something you are interested in.

A few things to consider when designing a rental suite:

  • The access and exit from the basement suite cannot be through the other dwelling or through a service room. 
  • All rooms that make up a secondary suite are to be contained within the suite, and not accessed by moving through common areas or the principal dwelling.
  • A separate, independently controlled heating/ventilation system must serve the secondary suite and may not be interconnected/ducted with the remainder of the house. 
  • Sound absorbing material (eg., batt insulation or cellulose fill) must be installed in walls and floor-ceiling assemblies between the secondary suite and the principal dwelling, as well as between the suite and non-suite space where noise may be generated.

To see all of the City of Edmonton requirements, please see the Secondary Suite Design Guide on their website.

Another option for creating rental income with your basement is an Airbnb or VRBO. This option is getting increasingly popular and can generate some pretty good money if the location is desirable.

The City of Edmonton has come out with guidelines for this type of rental income.  There are some hoops to jump through as noted below.

If you’re not interested in having a full-time live-in tenant but want some added income, an Airbnb or VRBO might be a great option for you. Taken from airbnb.ca, here’s a quick snapshot of what a short-term rental suite could bring in for you depending on your location.

11. Investment Value / Resale

We aren’t realtors, so we reached out to Shauna Kinney, an Edmonton realtor, to get her take on the investment value of a basement renovation. We asked her a few questions about one of the most common concerns clients have – resale value. 

In Shauna’s opinion, the return on investment (ROI) percentage of a finished basement renovation when selling can add $15,000-$30,000 to the house list price compared to its unfinished basement comparable. This amount is based on a renovation of about $100,000 (and equating to about 15-30% of the basement cost). Various offerings including walk out, more than one bedroom, a kitchen or other extras can impact the value placed on the developed basement. As well, pricing is dependent on what’s on market at time of listing.

A professional appraiser may give you a more standard response like $0.40-$0.60 on the dollar but that would be totally dependent on what actually was renovated, and the products used in the development. 

Shauna also advised that, in her experience, when people are buying a home, more people want the basement renovated. More importantly, renovated professionally with the proper permits pulled. Some homeowners don’t realize they need an electrical or plumbing permit for their basement renovation. Most buyers would prefer to have it done so it’s not an expense they have to worry about in the future.

In the spirit of being honest, it’s safe to say that a basement renovation is not a stellar financial investment, but it is a fantastic investment in quality of life.

If you’re considering a new basement development or basement renovation in Edmonton, for whatever your reasons, we’d love to hear from you. Please visit our contact page and we’ll be happy to speak with you!

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