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							General Contractor Tips - Basement Remodeling Ideas

Depending on the size of your home you may be able to actually double the living space by finishing your basement
with a general contractor. With all that room you can't just decide to finish the basement. Like the upper floor of
your home you'll need to sit down and decide how to layout your new living space, what rooms to include, your
design goals, what you want out of the finished basement, etc. Here are some of the most common and popular
additions when building home basements.

The Large Recreation Room - A rec room is almost a given in a large basement. Some homeowners choose to
segment the recreation by creating a play room for kids, another room for watching tv, another for gaming, another
for musical instruments and so on. To save money on your remodel you may enjoy doing one large recreation room
similar to the great rooms in big estates.

Having a large rec room gives you the opportunity to have larger "toys" (a billiard table) and more open space for
running and playing; that's a must when you have small children. Instead of building numerous walls you just need
to figure out how to cover the lally columns. Carpet, boxed wood pillars, etc work and carpet is particularly safe for
children running in high gear.
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The Home Theater Room - With the flat screen craze some homeowners are ditching the projectors and projection
TV's to go with flat panels that are mounted on the wall. If this is on your mind then there's some things to consider
for the sake of authenticity; fabric on the walls (darker fabric), a space with no windows and minimal lighting, a
separate utility room to house the electronics and keep them out of view, speaker wiring and component wiring
before drywall, etc.

Basement Wet Bars - While a bar is a great addition to a finished basement and perfect for entertaining company and
friends, its name indicates that you're going to need plumbing so it's not exactly the easiest DIY project. Because
plumbing is needed you may have to cut into the concrete floor for drainage as well as running new pipes. For a
project like this it's often best to invest in the services of a general contractor.

The Utility Room - When finishing a basement a lot of homeowners actually leave their utility room unfinished. It
makes sense since it's only utility space for laundry and storage but why not continue on and stay consistent? This
would make it much easier to do laundry, more comfortable to rifle through for Halloween decorations, etc. You
don't need to run carpet right up to the furnace and water heater - for those areas you can build a finished enclosure
that gets these items out of sight.

Consider every corner of your basement and remember that remodeling is about comfort as much as it is about
convenience. Work with a general contractor to help you plan the layout for your home, especially if you're having
a hard time locking onto to design ideas of your own.
Copyright Stefan Kayhill


Virginia General Contractor