A dry basement can be a great feature in your home, it's a flexible space which can be used for almost any purpose from simple storage to a home office or kitchen. However more often than not, you are the owner of a a damp, musty subterranean space. Damp basements are not only visually unappealing, they are home to a petri-dish of bacteria and fungi, which not only make for an unhealthy environment to live in, but also diminish the value of your home. In other words your damp basement is what amounts to a liability. This is especially true in older properties like the victorian terraces of Sheffield.
Full basement conversions not only make sound financial sense, they can also improve your quality of life whilst you live at the property, freeing up more space in the house or offering an extra functional room.
Financial Benefits
By investing in your basement you can look to turn it from a liability into an asset, adding to your home’s value and improving saleability. A basement waterproofing project or even a full conversion will not only offer you an improvement in your home’s value now, it will also offer a return on investment for years to come as house prices rise. In typical Victorian terraces in the Sheffield area, the basement often occupies the same floor plan as the living room. Thats up to around 25 square meters of potentially useable space. Adding liveable space plain and simple adds value to your home in terms of the financial gain (more square meters of living space = higher property value).A spokesman for property website house-extension.co.uk, a cellar "can add 20 per cent to 30 per cent of the value of your home".(source The Independent, 2010)
Converting your basement could even make you money while you're still living in the property. Why not consider your basement conversion as a rental opportunity? The advantage a basement has of being under the house allows for less disruption to your family's life and more independence for a potential tenant. In some properties there is the additional opportunity to create a separate entrance to the house via the basement, which could further increase rental opportunities.
Health Benefits
Studies have shown people who live in homes with damp basements are more susceptible to certain health issues, often caused by the presence of black mold. Mold spores can irritate eyes, nose, skin and airways. Breathing disorders including asthma and the onset of non-seasonal allergies tend to be more highly reported from people who have mold in their basements. Additionally some people report flu-like symptoms such as a sore throat, running nose and coughing which last for extended periods and tend not to respond to over-the-counter treatments. By waterproofing your cellar, you are not only creating a more appealing subterranean space, you are also introducing valuable climate control to curb the moisture and condensation, which allows mold to grow.
Lifestyle Benefits
Perhaps the most popular reason to undertake a cellar conversion is to improve your family's lifestyle. Being closer to other communal areas in the house, basements make for more practical and versatile living spaces which suit modern life. They also mean you don't need to sacrifice your garden in order to achieve more indoor space. In fact basement conversions were championed by the Minister of State for Housing and Planning in 2005 as a way of addressing the UK’s increasing inner-city dwelling density.