Five Tips To Get The Most Out Of Your Basement Renovation

CFI ELECTRIC LTD. | Feb 17, 2020

Basement remodeling can enhance the beauty of your home and increase its value. So if you are considering carrying out a basement renovation, you can save time and money through meticulous planning. To help you achieve this, CFI Electric Ltd. has put together a list of five tips for a successful basement renovation.

#Tip 1: Power
All your appliances require a source of electricity to operate. When renovating your basement, you have the added benefit of including additional circuits to your basement, usually at a lower cost if you don’t have drywall.

Whether you are thinking of creating a small workshop or a gaming center, it’s always a good idea to have additional, dedicated power outlets for your electronics or power tools. Some of the latest generation power outlets even come with built-in USB charging ports!

If you are considering converting your basement into an apartment, then dedicated circuits are a must. It ensures that neither the tenant above nor the tenant in the basement will get left without power. It’s a little more effort, but you can enjoy the peace of mind that your home’s electricity will operate normally.

#Tip 2: Bright or ambient lighting
Basements can be dark if there isn’t adequate lighting. So taking the time to choose what’s right for you is crucial, and it all depends on what you intend the basement to become.

If you’d like to convert the basement into an apartment, there is quite a selection of pot lights with LED bulbs that you can choose from to add a touch of luxury to the living space and make it more attractive to prospective tenants.

On the other hand, if you wanted to turn your basement into a gaming center, then selecting Wi-Fi controlled multi-colored LEDs would be the way to go. It’s a lighting style that can produce white light when you need it as well as a colored ambient light to set the mood for relaxing or hopping onto your favorite gaming console.

#Tip 3: Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
To ensure the safety of all the people in the home, having your basement equipped with a smoke detector is not enough nowadays. The latest electrical safety standards highly recommend that you install a smoke and carbon monoxide detector so that you benefit from an early warning in case of danger.

In the past, these got sold as separate units, but now you can acquire a two in one smoke and carbon monoxide detector for less! The next upgrade would be to have it hard-wired and interconnected with the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors on the main floor and second floor. The advantage is that if there is an issue in the basement, all the alarms go off simultaneously. It guarantees that all persons in the house are alerted to a potential hazard at the earliest.

#Tip 4: More power!
If you are keen on converting your basement into an apartment, then we would recommend upgrading your electrical panel from fuses to breakers and consider going from 100 Amps to 200 Amps.

Having an old electrical panel converted from fuses to breakers has many advantages. The first among them is that you don’t need to buy fuses anymore! Breakers are designed to limit the power to a circuit, which acts as a fuse. If too much power gets drawn, it cuts the power, thereby tripping the breaker. When the breaker is “tripped,” you need to find out why it skipped before flipping it back to the ‘‘on’’ position like a switch.

If you want to make sure you can have the up-stairs oven and basement oven able to cook at the same time, you’ll need at least 200 A (amps) to have the peace of mind that the breaker(s) will not trip due to the simultaneous power demand. This type of electrical panel upgrade will also support your power needs throughout your home and garage, as well!

# Tip 5: Heating up the basement
Winter is upon us, and we all know what that means. Heating your home is easy when it comes to the main floor, second, and even third floor, and yet, the basement stays cold!

Taking the time to consider investing in heat sources that can be easily controlled by a timer or thermostat is always the way to go if you use the basement often or infrequently.

Whatever the case is, you want it to be comfortable, and so, we recommend high-efficiency baseboard heaters. These heaters are built into the walls at ground level (or a couple of inches higher, depending on what you prefer, especially if you have carpeting) as it can get controlled in many different ways. You can heat a single room, like a bathroom or bedroom, or the entire basement. There are also many options to choose from, and making sure you are cozy this season is definitely worth the investment.

Basement renovations can be tedious, but if you follow this guide, you will be relieved. To get on top of the electrical upgrades in your home, reach out to CFI Electric Ltd., in Toronto, Ontario. We are experts in troubleshooting and carrying out short and long term projects. We specialize in residential electrical services, commercial electrical services, industrial electrical services, and electrical maintenance.

To learn more about our services, please click here or get in touch with us by clicking here.