Finished
Basements

1. 01

   Walkthrough

2. 02

   Moisture check

3. 03

   Line-item price

4. 04

   Build, documented

5. 05

   Punch list

Read the process in detail

• Do I need an egress window?

  Only if a room down there is going to be slept in. Finishing an existing basement with no bedroom in it requires no escape opening at all, under IRC 2021 section R310.7.

  Sizes, window wells and what the permit costs

• What R-value does code require?

  Lehigh County is Climate Zone 5A, so the basement wall is 15/19. There are three legal assemblies. The number is reprinted in 34 Pa. Code section 403.21.

  The three assemblies, rim joists and the mold question

• Allentown

  Allentown basements are mostly twins and rowhomes, and they present the same three problems over and over: width, height, and the panel.

  Lehigh County, PA

• Bethlehem

  Bethlehem has the widest range of housing stock in the county, so there is no single approach to finishing a basement here.

  Lehigh County, PA

• Emmaus

  Emmaus is largely older colonials and foursquares, and in those houses the basement was never intended to be lived in.

  Lehigh County, PA

• Macungie

  Macungie has the most finishable basements in Lehigh County, and homeowners here are usually surprised by how much of the hard part is already done.

  Lehigh County, PA

• Whitehall

  Whitehall is split-level and ranch country, and those two house types call for completely different basement plans.

  Lehigh County, PA

• Salisbury Township

  The median Salisbury Township home was built in 1967, and only 3.8 percent of the township's housing went up after 2000. That one number tells you almost everything about finishing a basement here.

  Lehigh County, PA

• Trexlertown

  Trexlertown is the one place we serve where we will tell you up front that most of the housing does not have a basement you can finish, and that changes how we approach the ones that do.

  Lehigh County, PA

• Breinigsville

  Breinigsville has the newest housing of anywhere we work. Two thirds of it went up after 2000, which means the expensive prep work is often already done for you.

  Lehigh County, PA

• Fogelsville

  Fogelsville is not a municipality. It is an unincorporated village inside Upper Macungie Township, and the 18051 area holds three genuinely different kinds of basement.

  Lehigh County, PA

• Alburtis

  Alburtis is the only place we serve where attached housing is the majority, and on a borough lot with a twin next door the basement is usually the only room you can add.

  Lehigh County, PA

• Orefield

  Orefield has the best basement stock in our service area for a full finish, and nearly half of it went up between 1990 and 2009.

  Lehigh County, PA

• Schnecksville

  More than a third of every house in Schnecksville went up in a single decade, the 1980s, which means the basements here are more alike than anywhere else we work.

  Lehigh County, PA

• Coopersburg

  Coopersburg has the oldest housing stock in our service area, and it is the one place where we will sometimes tell you that a full finished basement is not the right project.

  Lehigh County, PA

All of Lehigh County