Green Basement Ideas

When most people look to expand their living area they seldom think of using their basement. For some reason people think of basements as dark dungeons and fail to see the real potential that they offer. Generally a basement has the same square footage as your home, so you could almost double your square footage if you have a one level home.

Benefits of turning basements into living areas include:

1. Does not change the footprint of your home (you still have your yard).

2. Basements are cheap to heat since the ground does half of the work.

3. Basements are cheap to cool since the ground does half of the work.

4. The per square foot of a basement remodel is much less than the cost of an addition.

5. You can add rooms as your budget permits.

picture from Bilco.com

Some common faulty thoughts about basements:

Faulty Thought #1. The windows are too small, they are unsafe since we could not fit out of them in case of a fire.

Solution: A few companies make basement egress windows that bring in a ton of natural light and provide an egress in the case of an emergency. These egress windows will make your basement windows around 3′x4′.

Faulty Thought #2. Our basement gets wet or has a damp smell.

Solution: Don’t be lazy, your home does not have proper drainage. Check to make sure that your gutter downspouts drain away from your home. Is the outside grade (slope of your property) draining toward your home–fix it! In some cases a basement drain system might be needed but most basement moisture issues can be solved with a few easy repairs.

Faulty Thought #3. Our basement is so dark, why would we want to have rooms down there?

Solution: Basements are generally dark because they have dark gray walls and not a bunch of light. Once you install walls and paint them a light color your basement will lighten up. Most basements are designed with only a few overhead lights, once you build rooms you can install as many lights as you want.

Faulty Thought #4. The toilets and sinks will not be able to drain up, our drains are not in our basement floor.

Solution: Use buckets or rent a porta-john (kidding). If you look around on the internet several companies make toilets that will pump up your waste into your drain pipes. There are options to attach these to your shower and sink drains so a basement bathroom will not be a challenge.

I could go on for pages of how a basement remodel can benefit you, your family and the environment. Just the savings on your heating and cooling bills can help to make it a green project.

A few weeks ago we got a small package from my aunt and uncle who live in Maine. Inside the package were 8 envelopes full of seeds and a packet of information about each of the plants. With a quick trip to our local home center we ended up with enough starting trays for 250 plants. It took us about an hour to fill the organic seed trays with potting soil and to plant the seeds. After one week we noticed that about 70% of the seeds were now plants with the Scarlett Runners towering over the other plants.

The seeds included; Morning Glory’s, Zinna Lavender, Scarlet Runners, Mixed Marigold, Zinna Mixed, and Orange Marigolds.

If you are interested in starting your flowers in the organic trays be sure to save the frame and roof so you can use them again next year. The “house” is a great way to provide the seedlings a warm moist home until they sprout up a couple of inches. With the clear roof your seedlings will be able to collect enough sunlight. One thing to keep in mind is that seedlings like to grow toward the sun and they will grow sideways if they don’t have light directly over them. We moved ours outdoors after one week and now they are growing upwards.

Be careful when you pick your potting soil, mine contained to many chunks of mulch and not enough soil. These chunks prevented me from packing the soil tight enough so some of the trays are only half filled with soil. For another project I used Miracle Grow potting soil and I had much better luck.

If you decide to start your own garden this year put some thought into savings the seed for next year. If you have enough extra seeds they make a great gift for family and friends. It’s hard to measure the amount of enjoyment these seeds have given us in the past couple of weeks and they are not even flowers yet! Thanks, Aunt Susan and Uncle Bob.