3 Potential Impacts That Can Affect How Long it Will Take to Complete Your Project
Hello, everyone. Caleb with Dansie Design Build here. And today we’re talking about the question, how long does it take to finish a basement in Herriman, Utah? So to answer the question, we’re going to be talking about four things that have an impact on how long it will take.
- Size of the Basement
- Elements You Want to Include
- Who is Completing the Project?
I also discuss the average timeframes it takes Dansie Design Build to finish a basement. Let’s jump right in!
Impact #1: Size of the Basement You Are Finishing
This might seem a little bit obvious to some people, but I do feel like I need to say it. The size matters. Smaller basements take less time than bigger basements.
Impact #2: Elements You Want to Include in Your Basement Finish
The next thing is the actual elements you’re looking to have installed in the basement. If you’re looking to include one or two bathrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen with a basement walkout, removing load bearing walls and replacing them with beams and footings, or adding a theater room, those items also add more time to the schedule. So that is something to be aware of. The installation of things like cabinets, fabrication of countertops, will all take a role in the actual total duration of the project. When we’re dealing with those kinds of elements in a project, we plan for those and schedule days for that work to happen.
Impact #3: Who Will Complete Your Basement Finishing Project?
You have a lot of options as to who will do the work for your basement finishing project.
Yourself
The first option you have is to do the work yourself, and this is an option a lot of people want to go with. One thing I would say is, and it might sound completely crazy, but the average time that we see it takes someone to do the work themselves is about two years. You might think that’s crazy, but in reality, most people are working a day job, maybe from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.
6:00 pm – Get Home from Work & Go to the Store
7:00 pm – Get Home from the Store
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Work on Your Basement Finish
10:00pm – Bed Time
So you got maybe two hours of work done that day. In a week, if you’re doing that five days a week, I mean, you could actually do Saturdays too. So that’s 10-18 hours a week. You can have your kids or neighbors help you, but in general, the duration of the project is going to be very, very long.
Hire a Handyman
The other option you could do is hire a handyman. That works really well if you know what you need to be done. You’re able to tell somebody and line them up on a project that maybe was going to take a day to a week for them to do, and then they can do that work.
Hire a General Contractor
The next option that you can do is to hire a general contractor. The good thing about a general contractor is they’re going to be responsible for everything that they’re including in their work. You just have to deal with one company to handle everything that they’re doing.
Hire a Design-Build Firm
The next option that you have is to hire a design-build firm like Dansie Design Build. That’s what we specialize in and what we do a little different than general contracting. We incorporate the design into the project so that one company is responsible for both the design and the delivery of the construction.
How Long Does it Take Dansie Design Build to Complete a Basement Project in Salt Lake County?
That leads us to the next portion of the work, which is our company, how long it takes to do these projects. So the design phase of a basement finish is typically about six weeks. That could be expedited if we know upfront the design and scope are for the project. But in general, we like to plan on the design takes as long as the construction part of the work. That gives us a comfortable amount of time to make design decisions and plan how we’re going to execute what we’ve designed.
You might think, “ I don’t want to spend six weeks in design, that seems ridiculous. I’d rather just jump right into construction.” But before you do that, the design phase that we do has literally saved our customers months of slowdowns. There was a time we did not offer design, we did see those projects get completed considerably slower. So adding the design to the forefront of the project really reduces the time that the construction’s taking place.
How Does the Design Phase Help the Build Portion for Your Basement?
The reason why is because everybody knows what they need to do, how much it’s going to cost, how long it’s going to take, and what the game plan is to actually produce that project. As a rule of thumb, we start with about a six-week design timeframe, and then at a minimum of six weeks for construction. With the more detailed or complicated basements that are larger or include more elements, that timeframe goes up from there. Typically, we’re seeing the projects on the simple, smaller side that are six weeks and then up towards 12 weeks for the larger, more complicated basements.
How to Get Your Basement Finished in Herriman, Utah
I hope that this has been helpful for you guys today. And if you have any questions, we’d love to hear from you in the comments section, and we’ll make another video answering those questions that you have about basement finishing and home remodeling. Thank you for your time today and have a wonderful rest of your day.
