As living spaces continue to command a price, more and more homeowners are converting parts of their houses to increase the livable space.
One good way at home management to increase the livable space is to look at your basement. Basements being a usual storage area are that part in the house that are damp, dingy and are usually the most neglected pulling down the home value.
Basements, provided you do not have an absolute need for it, are good areas in the house that once remodeled as a game room, a family room, an extra room, an office, a media room center, or combination of rooms, could make the space bright and cozy making the house much more attractive not to mention so much larger.
Unlike adding an extension to your house, where you will have to build using the same procedure in constructing a new unit, a basement already has walls floors and a ceiling that you could increase the livable space for a fraction of the cost. What is more is that in many instances, basements are usually as large as the total floor space of the house granting that the house is a one storey unit. When this is the case, you can literally increase the livable space to twice the square footage of the house dramatically increasing its value.
Adding an extension to your house or remodeling a basement to increase the livable space has its issues. For one, almost all basements are damp that increases depending on the part of the year. If you must use the basement to increase the livable space, you would want to water seal the walls. Water sealing will not only prevent water damage to your paneling it could also stop damage to your sheetrock. The floor of the basement is also another area in your priorities. In some instances, the floor of the basement gets very damp especially on rainy seasons. If this is the case, a good idea will be to install removable floor coverings that you can easily remove during the rainy months. In most cases though, constructing a sub floor and installing vinyl will suffice to stop the damp while at the same time reinforce the flooring. Still in many instances, applying a floor paint stop the dampness. If water seepage is beyond the measures installed, you may need a sump pump to increase the livable space using the basement.
After waterproofing, your next step is insulating the walls. Insulating walls could be a little tough if this is your first time. If you are a newbie, do not attempt to install insulating materials that you could usually buy from hardware stores. Typically, these are the kind of materials that expands several times once you slit the box open. If you do not know how to handle this kind of insulation, it could be itchy, difficult to install and could create a lot of mess that the chances for you to finish once started may be slim. Instead choose a kind of foaming insulation that you could spray and be done with quicker. You may spend a little more but then you will not have wasted time.
To increase the livable space of the house does not necessarily have to be expensive. For small projects, usually all it takes is a little investment but the benefits derived are very good.
Author Resource:
Low Jeremy latest article published at http://www.bluearearugs.net talks about how to choose blue area rugs to give it an unique feel. Do you know there are more than 5 styles of blue area rugs for you to choose when designing your home??
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/rss.jpg "XML Feed For RSS")