Should I do a basement conversion? Post Reply

[moo moo]

Help! Is it worth doing a basement conversion? Is it worth the cost and hassle?
Please let me know your experience?

[nvmof3]

Absolute nightmare living in the house with babies while it was done, but totally totally worth it in hindsight, both from an added value to the house perspective, but more importantly getting all the children's stuff out of the kitchen and sitting room and giving them a space where they can charge about, be messy and do stuff that children outside London take for granted. Not to mention my favourite room in the house - the laundry room. So good not to have smalls draped over all the radiators upstairs! I love love our basement.

[AJ2012]

We were thinking of doing a basement conversion but also not sure whether it is worth it! I remember reading somewhere that it depends on the value per square foot of your property. Any ideas on cost per square foot or metre? Also, can anyone recommend any good companies for a basement conversion?

Thanks!

[moo moo]

Thanks so much for your thoughts - it sounds like a lot of effort to live through, but worth it in the end! Would you recommend your basement company ? There are so many, I haven't got a clue where to start.
Thanks again.
Moo moo

[seagull]

We had our basement dug out a year and a half ago. It was expensive, but completely worth it as it has made a massive difference to our lives - lots of space for the children and their friends to play table tennis, pool, ps3, lego etc, loads more storage, guest bedroom, shower room and of course the laundry room, the busiest room in the house! Great for my husband to have all his mates round to watch the rugby etc on weekends too! We used Estbury Basements for the digging and Avian Construction for the fitting out, both of whom I would recommend. We lived in the house throughout and it was dusty and noisy for the 8 months it took from start to finish, but all forgotten about once we saw our beautiful new basement! We were happy to save money and stay on site to keep an eye on the project, which was also reassuring for our neighbours too as they knew they could speak to us or the builders at any time. I think about £2,500 per sq.m is a fair assessment of costs. Hope this helps!

[jonathan @ hamptons]

Absolutely worth it!!

I recently had my own house done by Estbury who were absolutely fantastic - very polite workmen, clean & tidy and very hardworking. We looked at a few different companies and looked at several of their ongoing jobs and all the owners were complementary about them. We didn't use Avian for the fit out but I've heard good things about them too.

I'd allow around £2,000 - £2,500 per sqm as a general rule of thumb but this will very much depend on what you want to use the space for. It shouldn't be an issue if you live around SW11 / SW12 but do remember that square footage / meterage space in a basement is only valued at about half that for the same space on the ground floor or above.

The space has completely changed our lives as with two children we really do have loads of room for them, and have now reclaimed the grown up space on the ground floor. It's like life before children again...!!!

Good luck,

Jonathan

[Scottov]

we did it, thoroughly recommend doing it.

one thing, we moved out (as we were doing a lot of other work) cannot begin to imagine living there during.

just move out for a while

[batterseaorbust]

If you're thinking of a basement conversion there's some great ideas here:
http://www.theartofbespoke.com/tag/extension-ideas/

Also worth checking out these guys:

http://www.theartofbespoke.com/sourcebo ... nsultancy/

[sw11_]

Hi moo moo. I'm just where you were last year - thinking hard about doing a basement but not sure if it will be worth all the hassle and upheaval. Did you end up doing yours? Was it worth it?!

[jamie @ dRAW]

Hi moo moo,

Did you end up doing your basement conversion?

sw11_, basements can be very tricky as you simply never know what you're going to find down there until you start digging. If you do one or not depends on two key factors at the early decision making stage. Are you thinking of doing one to increase your living standard in the house, have more space etc or are you looking to do it to increase the value of your property?

[flobot]

Personally, I would say unless you are thinking of living in the house for a few more years and you really need the space - no. You won't get your money back on it in the short-term.

If you don't need the space buy a flat and rent it. Get someone else to pay for your footage.

[SazAnderson]

We did it and it was a huge upheaval. Also the costs spiralled as many unforseent hings were found. I guess its pot luck. If your foundations and pipework are not a problem it could go through nicely. But get reputatble builders otherwise it can become a real headache.

[moo moo]

Hello,

Thanks to everyone who responded - in the end, we decided not to go ahead with a full basement conversion - we just modernized our existing basement. We thought the costs we're far too great, given the ROI. Good luck to those of you who do go ahead with a basement conversion!

Moo moo