Get matched with top basement remodelers in Sutton, NE

Some older homes have toilets in the basement to combat sewage backups. This type of toilet, also known as a Pittsburgh potty, acted as a safety valve over the incoming sewer line. If a line backed up, it would back up into the toilet because it was the lowest fixture in the home, keeping it out of sight and away from the finished areas of the house.

Basement toilets were also used by workers with messy jobs, like those who worked in coal mines or steel mills. This way, they could clean up and avoid tracking dirt through their home.

It costs an average of $32,000 to finish a basement, and most projects total between $15,000 and $75,000. If you just want to make the space look a bit nicer and don’t need to convert the basement to legal living space, you could spend as little as $3,000 to install drywall and flooring. On the other end of the spectrum, your costs could rise to $100,000 if you want to make structural changes to the space, repair existing structural damage, waterproof your basement, or install a kitchen and bathroom along with living space.

Whether it’s more affordable to gut a house than build a new one depends on the markets where you'd be buying and selling. However, it’s usually less expensive to renovate a home than to build new construction. 

Most homeowners pay between $100,000 and $200,000 for demolition and remodeling costs, whereas the average cost to build a new home is between $139,000 and $531,300.

Although homeowners often use the terms basement remodeling and basement finishing interchangeably, they are quite different terms. 

Finishing a basement is the process of taking a basement space that is not habitable and adding elements to make it usable. This includes adding plumbing, flooring, and insulation.

Remodeling a basement means taking an already existing finished basement and changing it, often by adding or removing walls, adding plumbing, or changing the existing flooring.