Many of us haven’t the slightest idea of how much it really costs to undergo a basic home renovation, let alone a complete overhaul.
In our
Renovating Costs series, we outline how much you can expect to spend for just about any project you plan to take on.
Your
BASEMENT can be far more than a
storage den. It can provide ample
entertainment space,
exercise room, and area for
children to
play. If you are living in a home with an unfinished basement and are planning on making it livable, you might have to underpin (dig deeper for sufficient ceiling height). Underpinning is $300 per linear foot. Once you have attained pleasing
square footage you can then begin insulating and wall construction, electrical, plumbing and finishes.
Many of us like to indulge in custom built-ins, an overall pleasing feature to any household. Basic built-ins, from
stock lumber with no drawers, no doors, without special features (e.g. glass, metal,
hardware), painted or stained on site (i.e. no
shop work) would start at $1000. I would suggest that you find a crafty carpenter with an artistic eye to able to bring it together, to make it look top notch.
Within a medium price
range you can find prefabricated, manufactured components, including doors, drawers,
hardware, and some special features. With a good design and some expert carpentry
work on site you can create a high-end built in look. To complete the project consider painting all the individual units the same color. For this approach,
prices range from $3000 to $5000. Painting is additional and will cost anywhere from $600 to $2000.
Finally, a top-of-the-line built-in that would require a design drawing (i.e.
shop drawing), similar to custom
kitchen cabinetry, is respectively most costly. You would be looking to have specially designed components for
storage, media units, counter top materials, exotic wood,
hardware, doors drawers, built in desk,
TV, lighting, electronic equipment, lacquer finish, etc. Design
shop drawings are approximately $1000 to $2000 (dependent on the size of the project). Cabinets cost $50 to $200 a linear foot, and doors and drawers are $100 each. Installation is around $1000 to $2000, and
TV installation is approximately $300 to $1000.
It is therefore realistic to plan a basic
budget for built-ins from $5000 to $10000, but truthfully, the sky is the limit!