3 Things That Affect Cost When Finishing Your Basement in Utah
Hello, everyone. Caleb Dansie with Dansie Design Build and today I wanted to answer the question, how much does it cost to finish a basement in Utah? So we’re going to look at three things to help answer the question. The first one is the scope of work. What is it that you’re looking to have done specifically in your basement that’s going to affect the cost to complete the work? The second thing is who are you going to have to do the work? And then third is some costs that we’ve seen recently with our company to do basement finishing.
#1: Scope of Work
The first one is the scope of work and typically we see three different types of basements that people are requesting to have done.
Basic Basement
The first type is the most basic basement, most simple and easy, quick to complete and also the lowest cost. That would be the basement that is an open concept where you’re building a living room and maybe a couple bedrooms in the basement. That’s going to be the lowest cost because there’s the least amount of work involved with electrical, framing, drywall and so on.
Basement with a Bathroom
The next type of basement finish that we get requests to finish a lot of the time is going to include a bathroom in the basement. That’s going to increase the cost just right off the bat because there’s additional plumbing and electrical requirements, as well as the finishes in the bathroom. We got a vanity, tub, shower surround, tile work going on and those are going to increase the cost as well.
Basement Apartment
The third type of basement finish that we will do and that we see frequently is a basement apartment, where someone is looking to turn that unfinished space into a completely separate living space that would be rentable or that a family member could live in. That is going to include a full kitchen and a full bathroom, normally, as well as a basement walkout entrance. If they don’t already have a basement walkout entrance in their home to give access to that second unit they would need to do that. So again, the costs are going to go up because there’s additional plumbing in the kitchen. There’s also countertops and cabinetry that can significantly add cost to a basement finish. And then again, the bathroom and the walkout also has the excavation removal of the soil, hauling that off site, pouring concrete, and doing concrete cutting to actually cut the foundation wall open and put the door in there.
Those are the three types of basements that we typically see. It’s important to think to yourself what do I want and which one of those am I going to be in? Because the cost is going to significantly change depending on which type of basement you’re looking to have done.
#2: Who Will Complete Your Project?
Second, you need to think about who’s going to be doing the work for your project? The first option that you have is to do the work yourself and that can save a lot of money. You’re buying the materials and you’re taking them home and building the basement and installing those materials there. Can save around maybe 50% of the cost of the whole project, 50% labor, 50% materials. So that could really help.
General Contractor
The second option that you could do is hire a general contractor to do the basement work. Along with that you may need to consider: do I need help with the layout and actually designing the space so that it’s functional, and that it works for my goals with my family or my goals with my home and what I want to accomplish with this space? So that is something else to consider there.
Design Build Firm
The third option that you have is to hire a design build firm and that is what we do here at Dansie Design Build. The benefit there is that one entity would be responsible for the design as well as the construction, when that comes time to complete the construction and that simplifies things for you.
Also in design build, what we do is we start with the budget right from the very first part of the project and we design around that budget. So what’s designed actually meets that budget and then when we get to construction. Your project cost ends up being what was budgeted in the first place. So that’s really beneficial to a lot of our clients. That’s one of the benefits to design build also.
#3: The Finishes for Your Basement
The next thing that you’ll do is focus on the finishes of your basement. One thing that we do here is when we’re budgeting and we’re planning for a project, before we do the design, we look at the good, better, and the best options. We then let our clients choose what fits their budget or what they want to spend their money on and get what they want there.
So one example of that would be carpeting. There are a lot of different price ranges for carpet. You can get a good carpet for $15 to maybe $25 square yard price range and that would be good carpet. We can step that up maybe to a $45 to a $55 square yard price range and that would be a lot better carpet. Or we can go with a lot nicer carpet than that, that’s maybe around $120 a square yard, and that would be the best carpet that there is out there.
Those are some of the things we do in the budgeting phase so that people can choose what fits their budget and their needs before we get into the details of actually choosing that specific carpet color, brand and manufacturer, all those details. So we can get a good idea of what we’re looking at good, better, or best to meet those budgets.
Real Basement Finishing Cost Examples for Salt Lake County
Lastly, we need to talk about the actual costs we’ve seen in our company to complete these different types of basements. I want to give you a few examples of actual costs that we’ve seen and a large part of the cost is the size. So for these examples, we’ll give on the lower end around a 1,000 square foot basement and on the higher end, 2,000 square foot basement. Prices will also vary some depending on your particular situation with the size of your basement.
Basic Basement Costs
For the first type, that’s the basement with the large living room and a couple bedrooms maybe, that’s going to be right around on the low end of $42,000 and on the high end, $82,000.
Basement with a Bathroom Costs
Then moving on to the second type of basement where we’re incorporating a bathroom, that’s going to bump the prices up just due to the plumbing and additional finishes in the bathroom to around $56,000 on the low end and $96,000 on the higher end for the square footage.
Basement Apartment Costs
The third type of basement where we’re incorporating the full kitchen, full bathroom, bedrooms, laundry room, basement, walkout entrance, that’s going to be around $103,000 on the low end and $144,000 on the higher end.
Those are some actual costs that we’ve seen in our company recently to actually doing these projects.
Basement Finishing Resources for Salt Lake County
So if you need more information, you can visit our website, dansiedesignbuild.com and there we have a basement finishing cost guide that actually shows the real costs of a few different basements that we’ve completed, as well as their costs to complete those basements and pictures. So you can get a really good idea there in those case studies, what the cost is to do these projects. So hope you’ve enjoyed this video. Thank you for your time today and we’ll see you later.
