Should I Renovate My Basement?

There are many things you should factor into your plans when adding plumbing to your basement renovation. For instance, you probably need to decide what is the main purpose of your basement. How much or how little plumbing you require depends on whether you will need a sink, toilet or tub. Also you should consider if you’ll need a water line for a refrigerator or plan to do any cooking in your basement. When you know what you want to do with the space, you can bring in a contractor like The Reno Pros to help you plan the basement renovation and create some diagrams and a blueprint. Toronto is a city that deals with lots of cold weather during the winter, so insulation is a big part of keeping your water flowing and not cracking pipes. In order to determine if you need plumbing and to what extent in your basement renovation, you might ask yourself the following questions.

Will I need a full bath or just a half bath?

This is really determined by whether you will be using the basement as a separate living space like a rental apartment. Obviously a rental property will require a full bath and we will discuss that in more detail later, but if you are not creating an apartment, you may be able to get by with a sink and a toilet. Going the route of a half bath requires a minor “rough in” by a master plumber and it can be done in a matter of days and cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $1500-2500 depending on how accessible your water lines are and the fixtures you choose.

Will there be plumbing on a wall away from the foundation walls?

This is a good question because it can make a big difference in cost. The plumbing will require extra fabrication and quite a few more hours of labour from your master plumber. A scenario that might require building plumbing where a previously installed line cannot be tapped into would be if the homeowner wanted an island with a sink, or perhaps a working bar that friends and family could sit at. For these options the plumber would demo the foundation to get to the existing water lines or possibly create a column and run them from lines above. The structure would then be built around the lines and connections can be made for sinks and faucets.

How do I run a sprinkler system for safety purposes?

The responsible homeowner cannot overlook fire safety when exploring basement renovations. Luckily this necessary part of your basement renovation and finishing project does not have to be extremely expensive and requires no demolition. When you bring in a plumber, he should be able to build a piping system by connecting to existing overhead lines and easily mounting them along your ground level floor joists. Once these pipes have been run, you can hang your drywall and later install the sprinkler heads for a relatively small cost. Overall the plumbing aspects of basement renovations should not be much more difficult than electrical installations, and they both require the use of certified and licensed contractors. The Reno Pros are one example of a contractor in the Toronto area who can come out and give you a realistic estimate of what you can expect in the way of time and cost for adding plumbing to your project. The key is deciding how much plumbing is needed.