Protect The Investment Of Finished Basements
Finished basements are one of the favorite major household projects that homeowners take on. There are all kinds of benefits to this kind of project. You'll end up with a huge amount of additional square footage in your home, which you can do anything with. You'll also increase the total value of your home, and help it to stand out from other houses should you ever need to sell in the future. However, many homeowners also fail to do everything in their power to protect the investment of their finished basements.
You may be thinking, what would I need to do to protect a finished basement, it seems pretty maintenance free. While for the most part this is true, there are some very important side steps you have to take to make sure everything goes smoothly. Most of these should be done in the planning and construction phase, because trying to make patchwork fixes after the fact is going to be more costly and frustrating.
One of the major concerns with finished basements is keeping them safe and pest free. You need to treat termites before you finish your construction, or else you can end up wasting a ton of money. The wooden stairs leading in and out of your basement are prime targets for termites, so be sure to have them thoroughly inspected beforehand. If necessary, get your entire basement treated by an exterminator. If you have to treat termites on your basement stairs or anywhere else, safe is certainly better than sorry.
Another major concern that you'll have to pay attention to is moisture. If you've ever had flooding in your basement before, you need to make sure first that it won't happen again and second that you completely clean everything out to make sure there is no lingering mold. If you lay down some carpet and there is still mold hiding away, you can end up in big trouble.
Make sure all of your drainage systems are fully functioning and upgrade as necessary, you may to install extra pumps. Once the basement finishing project is finished, you may then want to install additional moisture protecting systems and measures. If there are any water problems after the fact, be sure to act as quickly as possible. That way you may be able to salvage everything before it's too late.
Don't forget to do a quick check for all of the structural integrity of your basic basement and foundation. Everything should be solid, but once you put up drywall, flooring and ceilings everywhere, basic problems will be harder to spot. So you want to make sure everything is good to go beforehand.
Moisture and pests are the two major concerns for finished basements, besides the overall project design and completion. If you take care of these two areas right in the beginning, you'll really be saving yourself a lot of hassle and headache down the road. Take all of the precautions in the beginning so you can rest easy later on, enjoying your newly upgraded finished basement.
