Planning a Basement

DIY Basement Planning just got a whole lot easier!

Planning is the first step to creating a beautiful basement. It is important to measure your basement space and decide what you want various areas used for. Planning for your basement is also an important part to creating an inviting living space. Your goal is to make the best use of that basement space. You do not want to design your space to look like a boxed in chopped up basement in any way if possible. Click here to watch a Video: Planning your Basement Design

Some basements can be very complicated to plan due to duct work, pipes, poles and other obstructions. You want to try and plan for a nice flowing open floor plan that fits your lifestyle, budget and ideas. Hopefully the books and software listed on this website will help you with planning a basement that will fit your individual space.

Planning a Basement

Step 1. is to measure the available space. It is important to measure the space and decide what you want various areas used for. Measuring most basements is relatively easy. With a little practice you can easily work out the total square footage of the space you have to work with. Having the square footage available is also very helpful when estimating the materials you will need.

Rectangular rooms are relatively simple to measure. First sketch out the room, marking the position of any existing windows, doorways, stairs and utilities. Please be sure to also draw in any poles that may be used for support. Measure the length and width of the basement remembering to include the depth of any alcoves or other recesses. You may need to split your space up into more manageable squares in order to get a more precise square footage. After you have made your simple sketch, just multiply the width times the length to calculate floor space and repeat the same process with the walls to calculate wall area.


Now you are ready to take your sketch, make a few copies and start deciding different ways to divide up the space and get the most use out of it. Try to be as creative as possible with your plans. Consider home theater rooms, custom bars, exercise rooms, playrooms, mini kitchens, baths, workshops, and hobby rooms as well as extra bedrooms and storage areas. After you get a floor plan together you can go on to the next step which is layout of your basement.


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