[alabama24]

BUILD THE WALL (…and take one down… in our basement)! My wife and I are looking to remodel an "L" shaped office downstairs and divide it into a bedroom (for our eldest son). We are looking for estimates for either the whole project or for parts (i.e. framing, electrical, drywall etc.). Anyone in the Lynchburg area have leads?

FWIW - If we were to put up a wall, tear down a (non structural) wall and add a door, the new bedroom would be similar to the ones upstairs. We got one estimate which was too big for our budget.

[Sly Fox]

Think about the closet situation or when you go to the resale side it can't be considered a bedroom in your listing. It might be worth your longterm value to place two walls with a door in it in a corner.

[CCWMichael]

Think about the closet situation or when you go to the resale side it can't be considered a bedroom in your listing. It might be worth your longterm value to place two walls with a door in it in a corner.

+1

When we purchased our house it came with an unfinished walk out basement. Fortunately at that time I was able to do all the work myself with no inspections so we saved thousands. Times have changed here now and I would need to have plumbing and electrical done professionally. Anyhow, one of the things that was suggested to us was to thing about resale and what would add square footage. We contacted a realtor for what works and followed his advise. We added 800 square feet of value to our home and that in itself is priceless.

[JK37]

Something about it must have a window to be considered a bedroom too, right? Has to do with fire code I think?

[flamehunter]

Something about it must have a window to be considered a bedroom too, right? Has to do with fire code I think?

It has to be a large enough window for a firefighter to be able to enter with O2 equipment strapped on. Not sure what the dimensions exactly are but that's the gist of it.

[rogers3]

Something about it must have a window to be considered a bedroom too, right? Has to do with fire code I think?

It has to be a large enough window for a firefighter to be able to enter with O2 equipment strapped on. Not sure what the dimensions exactly are but that's the gist of it.

Rescue, yes, but probably not the O2 stuff; it is more for ingress and egress. This is the standard code that we use in VA and is pretty much nationwide

1. Sill height shall not exceed 44 inches above the floor.
2. Minimum net clear opening shall be 5.7 square feet
except grade level windows can have a minimum net
clear opening of 5 square feet.
3. Minimum net clear opening height shall be 24 inches.
4. Minimum net clear opening width shall be 20 inches.

[alabama24]

Thanks guys. I have already thought about the closet. There is a good sized one in an adjacent “craft” or “storage” room which we don’t use. I plan to flip the door and drywall the other side so that the closet goes into the bedroom. As for the other code issues: the room was already in code as a bedroom and I don’t see that changing by this project. There will be two windows in code in the new bedroom and one in the new (smaller) office. The current room has two HVAC ducts; the new rooms will have one each. I think that will be sufficient. At present we keep them closed all year long. The basement temps stay more moderate all year long. We have a wood stove down there in a family room which helps in the winter. In the summer the room is very cold unless we keep the vents closed.

A friend is a Master Electrician, but works as a programmer. After posting this he has agreed to advise and possibly help out. This is my current thought: I’m going to attempt the demolition myself; have my friend advise me on taking down the old electrical; contract with someone to frame the new wall & install the doors. At that point if my friend is able and willing to do the electrical, great! If not then I’ll contract it out. I’ll likely hang the sheet rock myself and have someone else finish it.

What can go wrong?

[alabama24]

Back to my original question: anyone have leads on framing, electrical and finishing?