Unlock your home's potential with a functional and stylish basement remodel by Arciform.

It means being exempt from a new law or rule if your structure complied with codes at the time it was built. 

Legal living space is defined by zoning and building codes for occupancy purposes. If your basement was used as a lounge when the house was built, it will count as a lounge/family room today. If it was unfinished, and you want to add a family room, you will, at a minimum, have to comply with grandfathered in code for anything that is existing. For anything you are adding you will have to comply with current code. 

Any legal living space needs egress points and passage to them in case of a fire. These need to be large enough for firefighters in full gear to enter and exit the space via at least two different routes.  A legal staircase with direct access to the outside counts as one egress point.  Most windows in older basements were for venting purposes, and will not be big enough for egress. They can be increased in size or a new window will need to be added. There is additional code that has to be followed for hallways, stairs, doors, and windows to meet egress requirements. 

Yes, you can. Bathroom additions in basements provide great added flexibility. Arciform usually starts this process by getting a sewer scope done to determine how best to connect to the existing sewer line. The results inform the best location for the new bathroom, mainly the location of the toilet as the options for tying the toilet drain to the sewer line can be limited. Sometimes a sump pump is needed to help move wastewater up to the sewer line.  Beyond that, adding a bathroom in a basement has to follow the same codes as any other bathroom addition. 

The first floor of your home may have a lot of traffic, and footsteps are surprisingly loud. We suggest adding sound insulation for your basement remodel. 

Also, the basement often houses your furnace, water heater, ducting, pipes and electrical, as well as other equipment. If these behind-the scenes-necessities are not in good working order, covering them during a remodel can make future changes more difficult and expensive.  Arciform will thoroughly investigate and help you make smart decisions regarding what to update and when. 

If you want to do future remodels on upper levels, you might want to hold off on remodeling the basement. Electrical and plumbing often tie into the main panel, supplies, and sewer in the basements. A new toilet upstairs my require new pipes. This might trigger changing something in the basement. Also, structural loads bear down on the foundation walls, posts, and beams.  If loads above change, we often have to add structural elements in the basement.

There are ways to do a basement remodel first and keep things efficient down the road. One option is making the utility area accessible.  Another solution is to create a master plan for remodeling, allowing all phases to be planned wholistically.

Yes, Arciform often adds hold-down brackets that connect the framing floor to the foundation walls, as in old homes, the framing often just sits on top of the foundation walls.   We can add steel reinforcements if the foundation walls are too porous or have cracks, can add connections between posts and beams, add footings and in general execute on anything our engineer suggests to improve the integrity of the original structure.