Basement Gut and Rebuild for under $4000

in today's episode of reality renovation we are renovating a basement now it's not we it's actually they the homeowners are gonna do it they're gonna use all of our videos as their template and their guideline I'm just here to consult and have a quick walkthrough and make sure that their plan is solid I think we're gonna increase value in this kitchen this is not acceptable Matt is money in the bank this is where it gets fun right at all it's not the time they're putting out the big dollars Thank You Olli there's another tool you won't need to buy perfect every time [Music] well this is really reality renovating in there my goodness let's check out this basement we have got ah looks like about a 40-year old home it's been renovated it's completely finished this is what we would call a classic homeowner special I don't even want to call it a DIY because it's not quite up to even do-it-yourself standards but this is the kind of thing you can expect to see and a lot of finished basements around the round town bottom line people don't have the skills or the understanding but they want to try to finish the space so it's livable so what we have here is an l-shaped basement that's got carpet direct check on Crete there's a moisture thing going on down here so we don't have proper insulation and vapor barrier probably no ventilation we don't have a lot of lighting so the windows are small there's just so much going on here but you can see the one thing that I love about this is the incredible attention to detail although it's done poorly you can see that had this homeowner had access to the right information they probably could have done a fantastic job but because they don't have the skills you get this it's a it's a collaboration of effort and in ignorance it's a perfect combination of that anyway we're gonna have a quick walk through take a look at all the things that were done improperly and what could be done differently and I'm here to consult today because the homeowners are actually going to follow all of our video processes and they're gonna renovate the space so I'm just here to have a look maybe point out a few dangerous areas and things of concern and come up with a few ideas to help this function a lot better okay so let's just take a look at a few of the things here that we can highlight just to bring some understanding I mean the windows have been renovated you might recognize that I actually did that in one of our videos so at least the windows are new the in the concrete's no matter what we do for renovating here that doesn't have to be touched just refinished around the trim we do have room lighting setup we have a smoke alarm I don't know if the batteries ever been changed in this yeah peasant we have a bulkhead which I'm glad sometimes I'm a little bit shorter than my kids but this would be a bump head if you're more than 6:1 it's been really built down below the ductwork now one of the challenges in this room is the ceiling is not a full 8 feet it's more like a 7 so when you add your your your ducting here for your heat runs in the air-conditioning it can get quite low so what you want to do is find a way to cover it up but have it lifted up as high as possible so I'm gonna show them how to get that done other than that I mean the exterior walls we've got this cute little finish on it it looks odd to me like right off the bat I can see that the line here in the drywall that says that's the edge of the sheet and this wall is recessed yeah see I got a sneaky feeling that this is the original wall that the Builder put together remember we're in a four-season climate so we had a building code that required about four feet down from the ceiling to insulate and then they would hang these half walls okay and insulate them in vapor barrier so it looks like the homeowner might have done something to finish the bottom by themselves that's where yeah there you go [Music] yeah that's definitely okay so we've got a few different layers of history here there's a black plastic here that would make sense so yeah definitely that's the case so this was originally finished in a paneling paneling panel emails lots of lots of hand nails oh my goodness yeah someone took a lot of time with the hammer and nails put that together and I'm thinking is that the same thing I'm seeing across the way over there so this was really actually quite common that's that's pretty solid stuff so that was probably in the 70s that paneling used to be quite thick nowadays it's so flimsy you have to go over another wall board but back in those days they made it to go on the frame of the wall independently so at least that'll come off easy it's just a bunch of these little tacked on nails but you got to love this the wallpaper over top of a finished panel that's spectacular what a great way to change the look to something rustic okay so now I know that this is all part of the original part of the house to this point we want to just see let's start from the bottom and work our way up this is a loosen well it was tacked in it has a proper yeah even the under pad is feeling moisture in it and there we go okay that's a twelve by twelve stick on tile direct pun to concrete and depending on which system we use it's not necessary to remove it you know a lot of the older ones I've got a really high level of the dangerous kind of asbestos with the little hooks on it so if you're at all concerned about the old tile that's a direct bond to the floor if it's attached to the floor my advice there is just put in a subfloor system we have a video for that just put the dimpled plastic new plywood over top and leave it where it lies it's not going to hurt anything and because it's vinyl means it's made from an oil-based product it's not going to rot so we'll just get rid of all of this old wooden trim work and be able to pull this and move forward so that's the good news No look at the size of this box eh you gotta wonder why they didn't just build a wall all the way across to make this room functional because right now with this L shape that's all got to be traffic that's the door to the mechanical room it doesn't leave you a lot of space left by the time you leave room to get around the building nothing functions here at least if you had a wall here you'd be able to have furniture and TV living space but all right all right let's take a look at this I don't have my hammer ami we'll have a quick peek yep okay so we got waistline oh look at that we do have something here insulated a vapor barrier right to the floor it's regular wood on the plate on the floor unfortunately all the wood is directing contact with the concrete so it's all sitting there rotting and that will be the source of that smell remember if you're going to go wood direct on concrete make sure you use the pressure treated lumber so it won't rot it's still good in our area for building code but even better than that is used a plastic silicon or so plate of some sort so you have a separation so moisture can't go from the concrete which is in direct contact with the ground underneath this house and comes right up into the wood it makes a hell of a mess okay so this is our heat duct painted lots of drips that's gotta love that now these are these staple on tiles careful when you're working with this stuff you're always going to find your droppings from your neighborhood rodent collection and I'm sure it's gonna be all over the place you're actually the benefit here is that this is all just strapped together with these little nails so this will all come apart relatively simple I think this whole basements gonna just kind of fall apart to be honest with you Wow falling on somebody's head with all the papers there we go okay so somebody at some point decided that they were gonna semi finish the space and paint it all the duct work yeah and then the next person came along and said no we're gonna close it all up they're only around there now listen folks I mean this kind of construction this takes a lot of time and energy like I said this is I would rather have a homeowner renovate something in their house because at least if they're given the right information and the right tools and the right materials they're gonna put the time and energy into doing it right this is why I'm believing that you know teaching people how to build stuff is gonna be so much value to them because look at the effort that goes into this there's thousands of nails down here done with the hammer give this guy a little bit of a handbook and a manual and maybe an air nailer amazing what he could have been able to do it's really amazing here that what the thinking that's gone into this because you've got the i-beam and this is painted so this you can't get any lower any any higher than this it comes across the ductwork is lower so they finished the ceiling way up tall here then they came back down because there's a water line way over here but they still get two and a half inches of space here three inches when you add the tile the ductwork and the funny thing is this ductwork it's hanging almost an inch off of the floor so there's actually room to lift the whole ductwork up as well and when you're in a really tight space like this taking your time to maybe tighten some things up and then reconstruct this thing or finish drywall is right off the bottom that extra few inches is huge amount of space oh especially we got kids as tall as mine I just wanted to point this out I took a quick glance at the amount of electrical that's down here and we have the proper amount of room lights we have a three-way light in the stairwell there's an independent switch for the around the other side of the L there's a plug it seems like every 10 feet maybe even smaller so it looks like all that wiring has been done to code this just makes you wonder because the irony is is here we have this ivory-colored plug with a Browns cover plate this makes you think why had the brown cover plate why not take the time to switch this over maybe this was wired originally with this yellow painted ductwork and every back everything done at that point was all beige and then we added the wallpaper and then just changed the color of this so it wouldn't stand out so much but I'm thinking this might be actually wired legally just at first glance and that would be a treat all right now I can't wait to show you this let's take a look up at the ceiling this is awesome yeah it just laid back and have it quick like wow this is like the most intricate large size parquet floor on the ceiling I've ever seen in my life ah where to begin again you know we have the evidence here that somebody really was trying their best which is awesome we have all these little pieces of wood that we've been ripped through a table saw they've got all the binding marks so it's probably just a tiny little unit with a cheap blade right down on the home depot and they've ripped all this down and then they Brad nailed this entire thing to the ceiling and it looks like they've got it all strapped and then they added some sort of a there you go look how thin that's some delicate work this is like eighth of an inch somebody is literally taking two by fours and run them through the tableside eighth of an inch thick to create this effect Wow so here we go we got a water shot off we recommend that they change this out this is the kind it's got the handle that it has two gaskets in it and when you close it in the wintertime one gas gets compressed and then you open it and in the summer in the spring and the other gasket compresses they always end up leaking over time it's soldered right into the copper so we're gonna get that switched out to just a quarter-inch a quarter-turn ball valve that'll eliminate the problems in the future and reduce the risk of them having any flooding but we need to make sure that we put a bigger trap door on so that we can actually open up the bleeder valve and drain the water line now so important and I'm going to actually suggest that they convert this from copper and go PEX to their hose bib because in the northern climates the packs even if it freezes it doesn't explode it'll expand with the ice and then when it thaws it'll go back to its normal shape and that is gonna save you a flood in your basement [Music] you know back in the 70s and 80s there was a time there was the drywall mud having this whole Tuscan textured effect was really popular it's because homeowners didn't have an ability to do the drive woman this guy tried obviously but it's just nasty all right so everything from the framing and insulation it would have been new home here you go just a box on the wall with insulation and plastic everything else here's been done by the homeowner the framing isn't isn't proper the electrical it looks like I might have been running properly maybe it's an electrician who finished his basement we don't know so that's just a quick recap here we have structurally not any major issues some of the cosmetic framework which I'll call it closing up the walls is it needs to be addressed but for the most part I mean the stairs are done properly there's great load transfer really what we're looking here is it's just a cosmetic disaster [Music] what we have here is very very creative you never get tired of seeing this kind of stepping somebody made their own little man cave for a wood heat source which is understandable and back what was it 15 years ago over so we had a nice storm up here a ticket of power for a couple of weeks at a time for a lot of region and so people started getting creative I just got a motor on it and everything to blow the air somewhere well I wonder if it's connected back into the main deck line but this is the kind of contraption that people put together which is scary because it's a major fire hazard there's just nothing about this is done the way it should be done and it's just somebody trying to you know keep their house warm amazing so these are exterior pavers concrete I understand the concept here you know there's a bit of a design element going on but this is all gonna have to be removed and I think we're gonna end up using this space actually and hopefully putting in a bathroom that would be a great thing to add down here would be nice little tiny three-piece baths but it does really look like these are all just panels that were pre-made and then installed and then cocked in there maybe piping bag oh there's this there's plywood showing here okay yeah definitely panels makes me a little nervous to stand under here I'm gonna get out all right so just to recap what we have down here is a great space we have a mechanical room tucked into the inside of the stair turn behind that door there's a laundry facility area and some storage back there and so I would here is the living space and basically it looks like a cosmetic disaster but it has a lot of potential so it's just a matter of putting in some blood sweat and tears and peeling everything back and starting over again making sure that the mechanical and electrical or sound first get that inspected and then moving forward it's basically just drywall to finish but you have to define your space again so my recommendation would be to get rid of the l-shape put a door the middle of this wall and I would put a wall all the way across that gives you an actual living space and then a great place for an office very important to get some ventilation down here though I think we might even want to suggest putting in an exhaust fan that you have on a humidity sensor just to make sure that you have the ability to pull the air out of this basement but it's not too difficult and everything that they're gonna need is in our videos this is just a cosmetic repair so really looking forward to see how this turns out stay tuned and watch the rest of the video we'll see together [Music] so we are back at the house been about five maybe six months but the homeowner contact would just say hey we're done with all the cosmetic work want to have you come back and do a quick walkthrough and then we'll just have a discussion about what they did I think this is awesome I get it on camera I haven't seen the work yet so we're gonna get a real reaction and then walk through talk about the changes and then at the end of the video after we've seen everything we're gonna discuss you know the costs involved the labor that was involved challenges of their ran into there may have been other things going on here that I wasn't even aware of but like I'm just really excited to see this because apparently they never had to contact me even once all the information they needed was in the video library so we're gonna go and have to check this out [Music] Wow look at how bright and oh my goodness Wow dude this is awesome love the flooring love the space look at this you've different all you got the wall across now holy cow look at the height what did you end up getting here hey you're two inches above legal that's awesome you know there's a building code you got to keep these things above seventy eight inches before it was definitely way below that this is great lots of lighting you got the LED pots in there look how simple the lines are Wow my mind you know what's amazing is this has actually added a lot of value to the home I know it took five months but in most cases you hire a contracting company and they sub all the work out it's gonna take that long anyway well might as well just do it yourself on the weekends and save your money man all right let's take a look over here this used to be this is where the rock wall was right over here so now Wow just enough clear and say that's amazing okay so this is gonna be a perfect space for a bathroom then Wow absolutely loving it all right okay look at that Oh what the heck this was never here before was it this is the mechanical look at that now you've got access in here so you can actually change the hot-water tank if you need to and your humidity controllers hooked up again well done look at that so I guess the only thing you need to do is put the railing on the stairs after you bring yourself a Downey perfect okay Wow the air down here feels so much different it is nice and dry oh you got heat in the ceiling cold air return brilliant and the smell is gone this this smells like a new house now brilliant Oh new smoke detector yeah that battery works good Wow I'm impressed you know what for a do-it-yourselfer this is this is an awesome space way to get such a huge space out of such a small space so now you got a place you can set up your sofa you got tables as a TV wall now I think it's time we should go and check out what's in the other room [Music] [Music] that's what I'm talking about Wow okay nice nice so you got it oh very cool at low low flush mount light good oh and that's your access of your plumbing note so instead of a huge box you just got this little trap door and off the corner very nicely done you got a trap door on the ceiling for your water again heat another smoke detector awesome you know sometimes when you got a small space you have nothing but corners and boxes and that's okay but it takes a lot of work to get all that done look at this space here now my goodness again even with the door shut the air in here the air quality is so good really well done Wow you know the only suggestion of my past of this space is if you take this door and just cut another half an inch off the bottom of that door that way that'll assist with the air return to the other room so that you know you're not gonna have a problem getting in this error exchange because right now you're pushing in more than you can push out okay but not bad at all and yeah I love the way you return the windows with the drywall so you don't have extra woodwork and detail and it doesn't look too cluttered nice and simple there's enough lines and everything in here already but man I don't miss that ceiling I'm just gonna flashback now back to those little wooden slats this is awesome oh my goodness and what is this is this a vinyl floor yeah vinyl floor plank this looks like that lifeproof stuff from the Home Depot nice that has a nice tight fit I'm glad I finally seen this installed somewhere I haven't had a chance to install this yet well that has a nice joint to it very good Wow okay so now that you've seen the basement we're actually going to take a minute and break down all the material costs and the challenges and some of the construction techniques that had to take place to make the transition from the old to the new so let's go take care of all that information okay so the biggest challenge that was here before was the fact that there was no air circulation turns out that the heat ducts were buried in the ceiling underneath all of that extra work and the cold air return is a zero value if you're not pushing hair into a space you can't pull air out of it so now we got the heat on we're just gonna that's the cold air return and you know you're gonna pull and you go that's just brilliant so let's just talk about the ceiling first we'll work our way from the top down in this room because the ceiling height itself the main part of the building is still the same height the difference is is because we're using those LEDs slimline lights you're able to put them anywhere even under ductwork in the ceiling so you don't have to drop your ceiling height down to make room for pot lights this isn't one of the best advantages that is on the market for basements ever because we have a seven foot ceiling so if you want to have lots of natural lighting in here and go with those white LEDs this is the best way to go let's stop using cans folks just go with a slimline LED and you will have as much bright light as you ever want it the ductwork itself oh my god you know the homeowner told me that they actually raised the height of the ducting itself up and then they framed it across where this is right on that ducting coming across we've gotten almost an extra four and a half inches here now I mean remember the old video I was just like right here that's just incredible that makes all the difference in the world so now when you're walking through here it's all living space where before it used to be each side of the ductwork felt like it was living space this is really amazing so the homeowners told me the process for the exterior of the wall it had to be updated completely just like we talked about in the original video it was it was kind of screaming at us that it was just a bare minimum code construction and then so what they had to do is kind of remove everything right back to the very beginning they left all the wiring intact and in place and then just reinstated a new wood which is perfectly legitimate what you can do is remove all the 2x4 studs and plate and then rebuild in place and then just staple your wiring to the backside of the stud works awesome and then now they're up to date they got a 16 inch on center they have a pressure treated plate they've got proper rock wool insulation and the narrow space between the insulation in the outside wall so that allows everything in this building because it's older and the foundation isn't waterproof it allows any moisture that gets in to be absorbed into the air cavity and transferred into the building and removed and if any moisture does make it into the inside of this cavity which is really difficult when you have a good quality paper barrier there's enough airflow down here to keep everything in a nice dry level that's why this is also comfortable it's a simple construction technique but it's very very effective and it doesn't cost them I'm gonna leg so again 16 inch on center pressure treated plate rock wall insulation vapor barrier air space between the outside wall and the inside wall and everything will go well for you and so now once that's all accomplished it's just a matter of putting on drywall and watching all those drywall videos to learn how to think so now we're just going to talk real quick because now we've talked about how the exterior of the building has been closed up and the ceilings closed that will talk about the interior of the building and you know when I was doing the consultation in original we talked about throwing this wall across here just to create a living space so the homeowner took the advice and in this wall here is actually going to be the TV wall and so what he did is he actually um and this is where it's really beneficial to know the end from the beginning we don't bite his TV mount and then made sure that he marked the center of the wall where the new where the TV mount was gonna go while he was framing and putting extra wood in that wall right where he needs it to mount his TV mount brilliant nothing worse than watching TV and having the thing fall off the wall because then drywall anchors have fallen over yeah yeah so that is brilliant so now they've got an office space over here a great little sitting space here man and you know that whole area where they had the the I don't know what was this a rock wall they had like a wood stove I guess set up in here at some point because they had closed off the heat fence they needed to add heat you know renovation after renovation so now this area goes off to the bathroom that has yet to be finished it's just a work in progress this is a step two right don't be surprised if doing the whole basement with a bathroom takes an entire year of weekends it would not be a surprise I mean it's it's really hard to stay motivated on a regular basis life is busy but can you imagine living in a house like this for 15 years and then in one year you have a completely brand-new home I think it's just really worth the investment my goodness okay so we talked about the ceiling the other side walls the inside walls let's talk about the floor because honestly in in the basement this is a real tricky subject I've done a few different flooring videos of how to do Flora covering in a basement we've covered a lot of different products from a tile to doing laminate subfloor systems yes no vinyl in this kitchen we talked to the consultation about the peel-and-stick tile that was originally on the concrete now I don't know if that was a peeling stick or a vinyl that was glued in place it doesn't really matter the point is it wasn't moving anywhere and it's not necessary to remove it first before you move forward so if you're going to finish a basement and you've got that kind of environment going on you can finish it with just a simple vinyl tile now I'm going to just say this out loud we did not get sponsored by anybody to talk about this product but this is the product that was used so let's talk about it this is the lifeproof final it's a home depot registered product line it is a full quarter inch thick and it has a really thick wear layer and a nice vinyl solid core and it also has an oil-based underlay oh that's attached to this that absorbs impact and reduces sound transfer and it makes it feel a lot better on the feet if you put a thinner vinyl plank on a floor on concrete you're gonna feel like you're walking on concrete it's gonna be hard on the knees if you're on it all day long and it's gonna be very very skinny you're gonna feel the impact every step this kind of thing absorbs a lot of that impact and it reduces the stress on the knees now I get questions all the time on the channel about can I just put vinyl right on the concrete yes okay what happens in case of a flood the truth is if you get a flood and you call an insurance company they're gonna come in to rip everything out and throw it in the garbage anyways so don't worry about it it's not a consideration all right what happens if you get some a water event or a spill as a water proof yes because it doesn't absorb water it's waterproof so if you have water the lands on the top or bucket falls over clean it up and don't even think twice about it but the lovely thing about this is that this is not going to happen it has no organic material ok so it does not have any any part of this no properties in this at all that are gonna rot and cause any odors over time which is awesome and because it has such a real stiff thick center core to it this locking system is going to keep it from coming apart now the only other question people ask all the time and there's a big debate expansion and contraction right these are fancy words that a lot of people especially the trolls on the internet love to use to try to make a point and make themselves sound educated products expand and contract under different conditions based on temperature and humidity since this is not affected by anything to do with moisture because it will not absorb it it won't soak it up and it won't dry out it doesn't expand and contract because of humidity because it's vinyl and because it's on a basement floor the temperature of that floor for the rest of its life is going to be 10 degrees I don't care how hot or cold it is outside if the heating system is running in this house this floor is gonna be 10 degrees there is ZERO expansion and contraction on a concrete floor in a basement now on the main floor an upper floor of a house if you have a duplex the expansion contraction that takes place on vinyl is only related to temperature and it only expands a little tiny bit in extreme heat okay so just so you know get that out of your mind compared to other types of flooring this expensing attracts about 5% of what other floors do so I call it a zero expansion contraction issue and that will help you make up your decisions as you're moving forward [Music] okay so let's just talk about the Costas project first this entire area down here complete gut and rebuild four thousand dollars Canadian which is amazing that's about three thousand thirty two hundred and American dollars now what do you get out of it you get a livable space you can actually do things down here feel comfortable bringing in furniture you don't have to worry about mold the guests didn't let's be honest is the truth is this a professional quality job clothes depending on who you call to do the job okay there are a lot of guys in the industry who aren't gonna do a better job than this right so is it perfect none is it going to detract from anybody ever wanting to buy this house definitely not if you come down this basement after touring home after home after home after DIY or after DIY or you're gonna walk into this basement and go WOW finally someone who did a really nice job of finishing a basement okay and that is the goal isn't it we don't have to try to be you know to the to the level of Picasso down here we just needed clean functional mechanically proper everything needs to work the air needs to be clean it needs to be warm and all the sightlines work here it's really a nice little space so really proud of what they've done and you can do this to four thousand dollars a few months of hard work I would dare say that the value of this home has definitely more than recovered and valued the cost of this project and he's in the red okay so in the future if you have a project you want to get done check out our video archive see if there was anything in there that you need to get your project done and if you're missing something and contact us in the comment section and we'll be glad to help you out with your specific questions okay our goal is to help you to do a professional job and make your house make you money alright okay so I hope you enjoyed this episode of reality renovation if you're new to our channel the nicest suggest you subscribe to the channel over here don't forget to hit the bell icon for notifications so you'll be told every time a new video comes and if you'd like you can click the link right here and you can binge watch all the episodes that we have on our playlist amazing information with everything DIY and de car and renovation and remodeling thanks for joining us

Channel: REALITY RENOVISION

Views: 330,924

Rating: 4.8461857 out of 5

Keywords: jeff thorman, home renovision, home renovision diy, renovation reality show, remodel reality show, renovation show, home reno, home remodel, basement gut and re build, basement renovation, basement remodel, finish a basement, lifeproof flooring, life proof, life proof vinyl, slimeline led, led pot lights, diy basement, vinyl flooring install, basement demo

Id: 5wvHBkk_-Qw

Length: 35min 24sec (2124 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 07 2020