Whether you’re planning to remodel your basement yourself or to hire a contractor to do it for you, you’re going to need a design and a set of plans to work from.  A good set of plans will help you identify all of the materials you need and will be helpful when you submit your permit applications to your local construction office.

The best place to start your design work is to see if someone already completed it for you.  Many new construction home builders offer a finished basement as an optional upgrade.  That means they already have plans for finished basements for every one of their home models.  Instead of reinventing the wheel, you can try to get a copy of those plans.  Most of these homebuilders have already spent money to figure out the best use of the space, so chances are you won’t need to make many changes.  You also don’t need to get the actual blueprints for thei basement plans.  A simple layout design that you can download in a PDF is sufficient.

If your home is not new construction, then you’ll probably have to come up with your own plans.  There are a few ways to do that.  The easiest way is to simply draw out your basement on paper.  Make sure you annotate the drawing with the dimensions of all of the walls, locations of doors and windows, as well as the electrical devices like lights, outlets, and switches.  It won’t be perfect, but it’s probably good enough for planning purposes and for permits.

Design a Finished Basement with Software

If you prefer a more professional set of building plans for your basement remodel, then you can use software.  The best free software available for home design is SketchUp.  Visit SketchUp’s website by clicking here.  SketchUp comes in both a professional level plan, which you can purchase as well as a free level for people not using it for work related drawings.  The professional level version has more features, but you can easily plan a basement remodel using only the basic version.  SketchUp is easy to use and doesn’t take very long to learn.  For help with learning how to use it to plan a home remodel or a room layout, you can check out my video here: https://youtu.be/n20TYBlcvqI.

If you don’t mind spending a little money for a software program that gives you a superior design experience, then I highly recommend you check out Home Designer (Click here to visit the Amazon link to the product I use).  For well under $100, you can purchase and download this home design software that was built for homeowners looking to design their next remodelling space.  It’s simple to use and produces both build-quality plans that you can submit with your permit application as well as a 3D rendered view that you can walk-thru virtually as if you’re actually in the finished space.

To help you with the Home Designer learning curve, I put together this helpful video on how to use it to design a basement remodel.

I hope this blog post helped you design a finished basement for your home.  If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment on this blog post or on the YouTube video.

This blog post is one of a series of posts we’re writing as we remodel our basement.  Here are the other basement finishing blog posts:

1.  How to Install a Basement Egress Door

This blog post contains Amazon Affiliate links.  While you won’t be charged any additional fees for a purchase you make using these links, I will get a commission from Amazon if you make a purchase.

The post How to Design a Finished Basement appeared first on Our Home from Scratch.

One of the main objectives of this home improvement blog is to help others get through their challenging home remodeling or DIY projects.  To make that goal easier, a few years ago I created a free Facebook group for our readers so they can ask questions and share their stories and projects.

Since that time, the number of members has grown considerably.  There are now well over one thousand people in the group.

It’s an amazing resource that you can and should use.

Back when I bought my first home, I was very inexperienced.  I grew my skills by attempting a project, failing at it, and then trying something else.  I spent hours watching reruns of This Old House and New Yankee workshop.  Television shows were super helpful, but I never learned as much as when I worked with other more experienced home improvement professionals.

To make that steep learning curve easier to handle is why this Facebook Group exists.  It’s another resource I wish I had when I started working on houses.

The free Facebook group is called the DIY Home Squad and you can join it by clicking here and asking to join.  You’ll be prompted to answer a few quick questions when you ask to join.  Those questions are aimed at discouraging spammers from joining.

As soon as you join, you should introduce yourself and tell the group what project you’re planning or currently working on.  The group members are very encouraging and impressively knowledgeable about a wide range of home improvement projects.  It’s a great place for a sanity check if you’re not sure about something or if you just want to share some photos of a project you just finished.

As the manager of the group, I’m going to start conducting weekly Facebook Live video sessions, which will be broadcast into the group.  For example, this Fall I’m finishing my basement and I’ll be broadcasting Facebook Live sessions discussing the details of that project and answering your questions.

I hope to see you inside this awesome Facebook Group.

The post DIY Home Squad Facebook Group appeared first on Our Home from Scratch.

Last year I started a new video course to help DIYers design and build their own kitchen cabinets and custom built-in projects.  That video course is called “Cabinets from Scratch” and you can check it out at CabinetsfromScratch.com.

To make cabinet building even easier for my students, I’ve created free downloadable PDF woodworking plans.  So far there are two different kitchen cabinet plans, but I’m adding a new set of plans each week.

In late July, I’m also re-opening enrollment in the Cabinets from Scratch video course.  The course will be open for enrollment for just a few days this summer and likely won’t re-open until sometime this Fall.

To get access to the free kitchen cabinet plans and to get on the Cabinets from Scratch waitlist, you can click here and opt-in for the plans:

Get the Free Cabinet Plans

There’s also a quick video where I discuss the plans and the course you can check out here.

Ideally, if you’re interested in building your own kitchen cabinets, these free plans will help you get started.  The plans aren’t customizable, but they are set to common sizes.  Cabinets from Scratch subscribers, however, have access to MS Excel versions of these plans that they can fully tweak to build whatever size cabinet they need.

So far, I’ve added free kitchen cabinet plans for a base cabinet with double doors and a single drawer and a base cabinet with a single door and a single drawer.  I’ll be adding upper cabinets plans this coming week and then move into a corner cabinet as well as plans for a double wall oven cabinet.

You’ll have access to the free plans for life, so make sure you opt-in to get them.  You’ll also have access to all of my other woodworking plans including the workbench, the router table, office cabinets and many others.

I designed the plans to be easy to follow and simple to build.  They’re based on the same kitchen cabinets I built in my first home.  Back in 2007, I built around eleven different kitchen cabinets and only spent around $2,000.

Download the free plans and get on the course waitlist today!

Get the Free Cabinet Plans

The post Free Kitchen Cabinet Plans appeared first on Our Home from Scratch.

First, you can watch this tutorial video we filmed while the work was in process.  Click here to watch the video on YouTube.

There were a couple of reasons why we installed this egress door.  For starters, we wanted our upcoming basement remodel to go smoothly and we didn’t want to mess up our main floor while the work was being done.  The existing stairwell to our basement from our first floor takes a hard, ninety-degree turn halfway down the steps and it’s a real challenge to bring something very long or wide into the basement.  By having a direct shot into the basement from the outside, we can bring in all of our lumber, drywall and plywood we need to finish that space.  When the basement is done, we’ll also be able to bring in furniture or an air hockey table or pool table.

The other big reason for adding an egress is the safety factor.  Once the basement is finished, we can put a bedroom down there and not have to worry about someone getting trapped there in the event of a fire or other emergency.

We considered installing an egress window instead of a door.  The window would work really well as an escape route, but it won’t help us bring in larger items.  The big advantage of an egress window over a full-size entry door is the cost.  We got quotes as low as $3,000 for a simple 4′ x 4′ egress window.  If we added in a low-point drain and a decorative well, the cost was closer to $6,000.

When we first started calling contractors to get quotes for this project, we were talking to basement specialists.  If you google “basement egress contractors,” you’re going to get a list of companies that specialize in egress windows and basement waterproofing.  The ones that also provide door installation services tend to only install Bilco style doors.  While Bilco doors are useful, we wanted something larger and more integrated into the house without a cover.  For basement contractors that install Bilco doors, that work tends to be on the expensive end of their services.

After getting four or five quotes for egress windows and doors from basement and egress specialists, we switched strategies and started calling contractors that specialize in concrete and foundation work.  It was a bit counterintuitive at first, but every concrete contractor we talked to had experience with egress work.  Eventually, we picked a contractor that had both the best price, understood what we wanted and was interested in getting it finished sooner rather than later.

With our contractor selected, we filed the permit applications with our local township and two weeks later we were rolling.

We picked the side of the house opposite of where our patio door is located.  We want to make sure that the egress doesn’t interfere with any future deck or patio work.

The work started on a Monday and on that first day the bulk of the work was performed.

The contractor excavated the dirt away from the foundation wall.  We were able to save money by keeping all of the excavated dirt on our property so we didn’t have to pay for removing it.

With the dirt removed, the cut for the doorway could be made.  We centered the doorway under the dining room window.  The door we picked is a 36″ x 80″ pre-hung entry door.  That’s a pretty standard entry door size.  We were able to buy it from our local Lowes and had it delivered along with the pressure treated lumber for the frame.  The rough opening for the door needed to be 38.25″ x 82″ to accommodate the door.  We then needed to add a few inches for the 2x framing lumber.  The final cut dimensions were 41.25″ x 83.5,” which doesn’t include the lintel.

The cut was made using a gas-powered concrete saw.  Because the thickness of the walls is over 7″ thick, they needed to make a cut from both the inside and the outside.  We hung up plastic in the basement to keep the dust down and used a fan blowing out of one of the windows to help keep the air in the house clean.  After the cuts were made, the concrete wall needed to be chiseled out in pieces with a jackhammer.

By the end of the first day, the footer areas were excavated, the rebar was positioned and we were ready for our footer inspection.  The footer inspection was performed by the local township inspector and on the afternoon of day two, we had the concrete in the footers poured.

On day three, with the footers squared away, the block walls were installed.  We also had a low-point drain added that directs rainwater into the yard.  Better into the yard than into the basement!

On day four the stairs were poured and the hole was backfilled.

On the fifth day of the job, the block walls were parged and our contractor was done.  All that was left was to frame out the doorframe and install the door.

We framed the doorway out using 2′ x 12′ pressure treated lumber.  The lumber is intentionally wider than the thickness of the basement walls to account for the future interior framing we’ll add when we finish the basement.  The inside surface of the door will need to be flush with the inside wall once the room is finished.  By using a wider piece of lumber now, we’ll make that job easier once it’s time to frame the interior.

The pressure treated lumber got fastened to the basement walls using Tapcon screws.  Make sure you use the hex-head fasteners and not the phillips head screws.  It’s very difficult to apply enough torque on the phillips head screws without stripping them.  You can use an impact driver on a hex-head fastener and get much better results driving it into the wall.  Once the framing lumber was installed, the doorway was caulked to keep out water.

Before we installed the door, we made a modification to the trim.  We removed the standard brick molding and installed a PVC 1″ x 4″ strip around the perimeter of the door.  This trim is wider than the brick molding and will cover the opening including all of the pressure treated lumber.  The brick molding was too narrow and is mainly designed to conceal a standard stick framed entryway.

The door went in fairly easy.  Once it was secured into place, the trim was caulked to the foundation wall and the locks were all installed.

The next thing we’ll need to do is add a permanent railing to keep people from falling in.  We’ll also need to dress up the area with some river stone.  It’ll be much better than having grass in the area between the house and the egress.  We also need to install a handrail.

Overall, this project is going to go a long way to making our basement much more functional for both us and our kids.

The post How to Install a Basement Egress Door appeared first on Our Home from Scratch.

It’s been several months since my last blog post and while I haven’t been too busy working on our home, I have been super busy with some other online projects.  Just a few months ago, I launched a subscription-based video course that teaches people how to design and build their own cabinets.  With that project going well, I’m now able to devote more time to developing content for this platform.  So expect more blog posts and videos in the coming months.

One other thing you might have noticed: I updated the WordPress Theme for my site.  In my spare time, I’ve been doing a lot of website development and coding, so I thought this old blog could use a facelift.  If you see any glitches in the matrix, shoot me an email or a tweet and I’ll fix it.

In today’s post, I wanted to let you know that I’m making the PDF version of my ebook available for free.

 
 
 

Get the Free eBook

 

The book is Renovate Your Kitchen the Smart Way:  How to Plan, Execute and Save Money During Your Kitchen Remodel.  I wrote the book a few years ago and have sold it both on a dedicated website as well as on Amazon.

If you prefer an e-reader format instead of the PDF, you can still purchase the Kindle version on Amazon for $2.99.  To get your free copy of the PDF ebook, click the button above.

Here’s some info about the book.

I wrote it after having renovated my own kitchen and assisted in many other kitchen remodels.  Although I’m a HUGE DIYer and prefer to do nearly every aspect of the remodel myself, I recognize that’s approach is not ideal for everyone.  So instead of writing a hundred different tutorials on how to do every single project in a remodel, I wrote a book on how to renovate your kitchen even if you’re not a handy person.  If you wanted to, you could easily find a tutorial

If you wanted to, you could easily find a tutorial or a video on how to do any project involved with renovating a kitchen.  YouTube is full of DIY videos on tiling, plumbing, flooring, cabinets, etc.  However, there aren’t many videos or tutorials on how to plan, start and finish a kitchen remodel.  The book is a blueprint

The book is a blueprint on working with general contractors, coming up with a budget, picking materials and avoiding costly budget overruns.

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