Turn the Floor You Never Use into the one you use most

For space that will be used as a habitable room, you generally need about seven feet of finished ceiling height, and finished height is what counts — ductwork, framing and flooring all consume some of what you measure today. Many Philadelphia rowhome cellars fall short, often at six feet or a little over, because they were built as storage rather than living space. If you are under the threshold, the floor has to be lowered before finishing, which is basement underpinning. Storage or utility use is held to a lower standard, so a shorter cellar can still be improved without a dig. We measure at the assessment and tell you which category your space falls into before you spend anything.

Yes, for habitable use. Finishing a basement or attic into living space involves framing, electrical and usually plumbing, all of which are permitted and inspected work in Philadelphia. Skipping permits is a genuine liability: unpermitted living space can be flagged during a sale, can complicate an insurance claim, and if the room is used for sleeping it also has to satisfy egress and ventilation rules that exist for safety reasons rather than paperwork reasons. We file the permits, schedule the inspections and build to what was approved. If your plan is storage or utility space rather than a habitable room, the requirements are lighter and we will tell you so.

Then drainage and waterproofing come first, before any framing. Finishing over a moisture problem is the most expensive mistake in this category, because the damage shows up behind finished walls a year or two later and fixing it means demolishing work you already paid for. Most rowhome cellars have no interior drainage system at all. If the floor is coming up anyway, that is the ideal moment to install sub-slab drainage and a waterproofing layer, because neither can be added later without breaking concrete. At the assessment we look for staining, efflorescence and grade issues outside, and we will tell you plainly if we think the space is not ready to finish yet.

Usually yes, and it is one of the most requested additions. The constraint is depth: the waste line has to reach the sewer connection at the correct fall, and in an un-lowered basement there is often not enough room below the slab to achieve it. When the floor is already coming out, that depth becomes available and the drainage can be set properly rather than relying on an ejector pump as a workaround. Because we hold the plumbing license in-house, our own licensed master plumbers do the rough-in as part of the same project instead of a sub scheduling around the concrete work. A basement bathroom is also one of the larger value adds available to a rowhome.

Very. An attic is a question of structure and heat rather than moisture and height. The rafters have to carry a floor load they may not have been designed for, the available headroom is shaped by the roof pitch rather than a flat ceiling, and a permanent stair has to fit somewhere without eating the room below. Insulation also matters more, because an unconditioned attic in a Philadelphia summer is brutal and in January it is the coldest part of the house. Basements deal with water, footings and drainage. We assess whichever space you have on its own terms rather than quoting one from the other.