Anyone use their basement for a master suite? Is it a bad idea?
Happy holidays, hope everyone is well. Been circling around the idea of turning patio space under my deck into a master bedroom. About 2 years ago I finished my small basement with help from this site. I took all necessary precautions and created a playroom/extra living room in the basement. I have yet to add a bathroom but started to think if adding the master bedroom on this level would make sense. The space I’m looking into renovating is off the back door into patio space under a second floor deck. The height is about 6’4’ so I would have to dig out some of the concrete pad to add more headroom and add proper flooring/ insulation. The patio is ground level so besides the area I would be digging out this entire room is above ground. I would also need a roofing system as I would like to keep the deck above. My question would be is this a terrible idea. I have young kids 3 and 5 with only 2 bedrooms on second floor. But eventually I would like them to have their own bedroom. To add a bedroom on the first or second floor would take much more labor/renovations. This patio space is 12 by 19. Does anyone use their basement for a master suite and or extra bedrooms? I think my kids are too young now to be 2 floors away but I’m thinking in a year or 2 or even 3 they may be old enough. I could also have 1 kid upstairs and 1 downstairs, probably whoever is older. Is there any health issues of spending this much time in a basement if completed properly? Is it safe to assume this project will cost me much less than a first or second floor addition? If I’m not looking to sell in the near future should I be worried about resale? Is this setup just a terrible idea? It’s mostly above ground so I see it more as ground level room almost like if you had no basement and a bedroom on your ground floor. Just looking to see if anyone actually has had this setup and it worked for them.
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Replies
What is your long term plan for the house? How old are you? I put on a main floor master suite and can now live in my house as long as I want. Could never do that if I had to go down stairs to the basement. Think about making it accessable.
Sure, it can be done. I'm doing something similar right now for a client's home office. Managing water, in all its forms, is the main challenge. How costs might compare to other options is entirely dependent on the situation. Some people prefer lower-level bedrooms, but in my experience most people prefer to sleep above grade.
I would like to stay long term or to at least when my kids are done with school, I’m in my 40’s. I would be going up or down stairs regardless of where I put a bedroom the way house is set up now unless like you said I added a bedroom to the main floor. The main floor would require a side addition.