This is an almost fairy tale basement design story where upon investing in a large house just off the high street in Sutton Coldfield, Sophie become suspicious of the rather large drop below the floorboards. Upon taking up a few floorboards, we discovered that the drop was nearly 3 meters under every room of the ground floor.
This was an empty space with no access and upon completion, the basement included
a new wooden stair case,
a front bedroom with a bay window light well,
a shower room,
a toilet,
a utility room,
a kitchen area,
powered by 2 Saniflo systems,
a hallway,
a living area,
a large dining area,
a French door access to a stairwell leading to the garden,
thin wall insulation,
humidity sensing extraction,
floor insulation,
underfloor heating with a manifold and pump,
70mm screed solid floor,
wall and floor water management membranes,
as well a full concrete pad with a drainage imprint,
using 80mm wide, 50mm deep channels,
guiding any water to the powerful sump and pump system.
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This large house in Edgbaston was under total renovation with every room including the basement was being rebuilt to this ‘IT experts’ exacting specifications. For example, the whole house was wired with CAT 5e and CAT 6a network cables which were colour coded depending on their use and which room they were for.
This basement was going to house a large amount of plumbing, pipes, electronic equipment, cables and we had to plan the work of several trades and contracts to achieve a water management system that could accommodate the customers requests in safety and ensure the continued safe operation of the equipment being installed.
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There was always one room in the house that could not be used. Anything that was stored in the basement became damp. You would not want a visitor to see the room and the upstairs landing door was kept shut at all times.
Then the team at Basement Design converted the basement into a useful storage and hobby-room. The step was kept and used as a worktop. A radiator was added to provide heat using pipes that passed overhead. The unsightly consumer unit was placed in a cupboard designed to allow instant access when required.
The finished room was safe, dry, odourless and bright, with new and safe lighting, power and heating. The room could then be used for any domestic purpose such as storage, a living room, home office, work area or as a playroom.
Now that this Walsall basement was clean and inviting, the panel under the stairs was removed and replaced with a new newel post, handrails and spindles to allow a lot more light and air to flow into the new room.
Now the basement feels like it is a normal part of the house and not something to be hidden away.
We had no idea when we visited this basement for the first time, how impressive the completed photos would be. Previously the room had been used as a storage room, but some items had been lost to the damp and there were signs of water on the floors.
You have to admit that the before and after photos of this basement conversion are very impressive. This finish is due to the hard work and taste of the customer.
The confidence that the room can be used just like any other new room in the house is down to us.
This is a perfect demonstration of the opportunity and potential that a basement conversion can offer anybody. No wonder we are using the completed basement photos as our main photos on this website.
This amazing cellar with a large vaulted ceiling provided us with a challenge, as the water management system had to perform perfectly, whilst allowing the fantastic vaulted ceiling shape to become the great light reflecting feature of this basement conversion.
There was a large utility room and the stairs behind a door at one end and a pre-existing light well with steps at the other end of the large room.
End to end full height mirrors were to be fitted to the walls which made the room feel very large. The room was to be used as a gym, so the floor was screeded to add strength and durability.
After being painted the room was warm, bright, safe and a useful addition to an already large home. Colour changing LED lights and a TV completed the rooms conversion into the perfect games room.
An older basement conversion had rendered this space useless. You had to duck under several building features and pipes to gain access into the basement. The previous basement system had failed to control the water and a modern water management system had to be installed.
The man of the house was easily over 6 feet tall and the access to the room was just over 5 feet due to a low frame which had water and gas pipes attached to it. The customer didn’t ask as they thought it wouldn’t be possible, but commented that ducking under a low feature affected their decision to covert the basement as the completed basement would still have this fault. We didn’t think that this was acceptable.
Without the customer knowing, we moved the gas and water pipes around the room and raised the frame by removing several lines of bricks and installing new lintels to create a normal hallway which no visible frames to allow easy access for this tall dad to his kids play room.
This large underground space offered plenty of space with desirable design features. The house was large enough and the space was not required for any specific reason. The basement was however useless in its present state and let the rest of the house down. Several attempts to remove the empty safe were abandoned and the safe was buried under the concrete pad.
There were so many suggestions of how the basements space could be used to its best potential. The steps were kept as potential worktops or shelves and a large radiator was added to the large room to provide a cosy feeling. New lights and power were installed and tested. And finally, the stairs were opened up to the rest of the house, which was a great compliment and the rest of the house was amazing.
We converted this basement into a safe, useful, dry and warm room whilst retaining the space and the unique features. The customer could then decorate and furnish the basement to the standard that they desired in safety.
I know, you are not supposed to have favourite customers, but we have visited this lady several times since we installed this basement.
This basement was prone to flooding and when we arrived the floor was under several inches of water. The structure had to be repaired so that it provided the primary defence against the leaking water from the neighbouring property.
Our water management system was installed to control the water that made it through the walls and the floor. Over this, a basement conversion allowed the room to become dry, warm, safe and useful.
We were delighted to see how warm and cosy the customer had made the basement feel with their decoration. This busy lade needed an area that provide her with peace. We have copied the wall light idea in other basements, back lighting the walls with no light being directed to your face.
