What May be Alive Behind your Finished Basement Walls
When additional living space is needed for your growing family, basements are a great space to finish. Basements can add more square footage at an affordable cost, because the basement floor, walls, and ceiling are already in place.
Additions are another way to add finished space; however, this option can be very costly. The reasons additions can be so costly are due to the contractors needs, such as excavators to dig a hole, pouring a footing and building foundation walls for a crawlspace, finishing the outside of the addition, and putting on a roof. This adds more materials, time, and labor, which adds to the cost. According to the latest Remodeling magazine’s “Cost vs. Value Report”, an addition can range anywhere from $190 to $270 per square foot depending on the features included. Finishing a basement, however, is much less, costing approximately $100 per square foot depending on selected features.
Clearly, basements are great spaces to finish. Due to the environment of a basement the area does need to be treated a little bit differently than upstairs. Here are a few things to consider when finishing your basement, remembering a few may already be in your basement:
Challenge #1: Water Vapor
Basement walls are surrounded by backfill soil. Backfill soil is not as dense as virgin soil and when it rains, water will penetrate the backfill soil and build around the foundation. Concrete is like a hard sponge, soaking this moisture into the basement. When the basement is unfinished, this may not be too much of an issue. The water vapor penetrates through the concrete walls and dissipates into the large open space. When the basement is finished, however, you are framing a wall right in front of the foundation wall, which changes everything.
With traditional type finishes, water vapor comes in contact with insulation, wood framing, and drywall. Mold needs two things to grow: moisture and something organic. The paper on fiberglass insulation, the wood framing, and the paper on the front and back sides of drywall are all organic materials and are like mold candy! With your now finished walls, you have a dark environment which can speed up the mold growing process.
This creates an unhealthy living environment for you and your family. Often times, people don’t realize they even have a mold problem until someone gets sick, the basement begins to smell, or when the mold begins to show itself on the front of the drywall. Mold begins to grow on the back side of drywall first and by the time it shows itself on the front side, the back side is usually completely covered in it!
Basement slabs are also porous, and water vapor penetrates through the slab coming in contact with your flooring materials. Often times this can lead to smells and additional mold growth. This makes selecting the right flooring for the basement environment important.
Challenge #2: Water Seepage
Water seepage can cause havoc to your finished basement. Once again because of the loose backfill soil, water penetrates through the backfill and will build around your foundation walls and footing. As you get more and more water that penetrates the backfill, water builds hydrostatic pressure and will seek the path of least resistance onto your basement floor. Exterior footing drains are supposed to collect this water, if installed, but frequently fail due to improper installation or sediment and silt that clogs the system. Besides being a nuisance, when this water comes in contact with traditional basement finishing materials, the real problem starts. Mold growth and ruined finished items can come with a high cost.
Challenge #3: Plumbing leaks
What is up must come down. If a plumbing leak does happen, all of the water is going to the basement. There is a lot of plumbing above a basement, and it is capable of ruining a basement in a hurry. The #1 and #2 home insurance claims every year are washing machine leaks and hot water heater leaks. Again, when the basement is finished with traditional materials that are organic, plumbing leaks create serious issues.
Water restoration and mold clean-up are big businesses these days. Check your local yellow pages or try a Google search and you will see how many companies are in your area. A water restoration company in our area states that one in seven homes each year experiences a plumbing leak.
Though basements can come with challenges, there is good news. Through 38 years of experience in the basement environment and helping over 40,000 homes, Thrasher Basement Systems has witnessed first-hand these challenges in the basement environment, and has come up with solutions that give you the peace of mind that if you want to finish your basement, your investment will be protected, and it will remain a healthy space, and a space you can be proud of. Contact us today for a free, no obligation consultation. Within a few hours you can have a basement plan and an estimate right in front of you.