Basement renovation - how much should this cost?

[Anonymous]

We are doing most of this, PLUS digging down 6 inches but MINUS the bump out/deck work. It’s costing us about 85k. If I were you, I’d seriously consider not doing the extension. Definitely not worth 100k+!

[Anonymous]

Sounds about right to me.

[Anonymous]

The basement quotes we got were itemized. Are yours? Seem like the bump out and deck are the most expensive things, and it doesn’t matter so much how many extra space you’re getting because most of the cost is structural.

It can’t hurt to get another quote but this sounds right to be. What you’re talking about is a ton of work.

[Anonymous]

We are doing a fairly high end remodel in the DMV. Our contractor estimated $200/Sf for remodel, $250/sf for new addition at the high end. Our actual ended up lower based on our design/work needed, but using those estimates your project would be $135k? So even assuming your contractor is charging a premium for a small project and including luxury finishes, your estimate seems high. That said, I would guess your addition/deck are accounting for a lot of cost. We added a large deck/porch 5 years ago and it was around $45k

[Anonymous]

Wow. In 2019 we fully gutted a row house, put in new electric and plumbing, new HVAC, new roof, new finished on site hardwood floors and quite a few other things for about 200k. Times have changed obviously.

[Anonymous]

you can put wood laminate over tile which would reduce costs. Just had it done in our kitchen and looks amazing

[Anonymous]

Renovation of the basement can cost exactly as much as you are willing to spend on it. I think that there are at least several options to solve this issue. In the first case, you do all the work yourself, spend your time and money on materials. You may have to redo everything again. Or you can find specialists on the Internet, such as https://csgrenovation.ca/aurora/basement-renovations/. Of course, it all depends on how urgently you need to make a renovation. I'd rather find specialists.

[Anonymous]

In the current environment, $250k doesn't sound insane, at all. But you should obviously have at least 3 quotes, perhaps more, for work of this scale.

BUT... knowing only what you've posted here, I'm highly skeptical that putting $250k into your basement will be anything nearing a sensible ROI. Think about what you could sell your house for as it stands now, add $250k to that, and see what you could buy.

Put differently, this renovation--while costly to do--probably adds something like (very roughly) $50k of value, if that, to your house. If you have the $250k you are willing to spend, buying a new house may be a much better use of money. Doing this work will get what you want, but it will be immediately losing a large chunk of value.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are doing a fairly high end remodel in the DMV. Our contractor estimated $200/Sf for remodel, $250/sf for new addition at the high end. Our actual ended up lower based on our design/work needed, but using those estimates your project would be $135k? So even assuming your contractor is charging a premium for a small project and including luxury finishes, your estimate seems high. That said, I would guess your addition/deck are accounting for a lot of cost. We added a large deck/porch 5 years ago and it was around $45k

This sounds about right. The quote of $250K is way high

[Anonymous]

Should be 100, 150 now with prices. Contractor don't won't to work so they are high baking

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the current environment, $250k doesn't sound insane, at all. But you should obviously have at least 3 quotes, perhaps more, for work of this scale.

BUT... knowing only what you've posted here, I'm highly skeptical that putting $250k into your basement will be anything nearing a sensible ROI. Think about what you could sell your house for as it stands now, add $250k to that, and see what you could buy.

Put differently, this renovation--while costly to do--probably adds something like (very roughly) $50k of value, if that, to your house. If you have the $250k you are willing to spend, buying a new house may be a much better use of money. Doing this work will get what you want, but it will be immediately losing a large chunk of value.

But the costs of selling a house and moving can be huge too > $100k so that has to be factored in too.