Your basement's best use
is the space you're not using yet.
From finished family rooms to legal secondary suites with separate entrances — designed, permitted and built by one team, on a fixed quote. We handle the egress, the waterproofing and the municipal suite requirements, so you don't have to.
The floor of your home that does the most work.
A finished basement adds livable square footage without touching your property footprint — and in a city where space is as valuable as it is in Greater Vancouver, that matters. But basements come with a specific set of challenges that you won't find anywhere else in the house: moisture migrating through a concrete slab, ceiling heights that may fall short of code, egress windows that have to meet minimum opening sizes for sleeping rooms, and suite bylaws that differ street by street across municipalities.
Renohaus treats every basement project as a ground-up assessment before it becomes a design. We look at the ceiling height, the drainage and moisture history, the existing rough-ins, and what your municipality requires for a legal suite — then we give you a scope that actually works, and a fixed price before a single board is framed.
What a finished basement or legal suite can include
- Full waterproofing assessment and remediation before any framing begins
- Egress window installation to meet BC Building Code sleeping-room requirements
- Separate exterior entrance, including stairwell, landing and privacy screening
- Soundproofing between floors — resilient channels, acoustic insulation and mass-loaded layers
- Kitchen and wet bar rough-ins, cabinetry and appliances for a full self-contained suite
- Bathroom additions with proper waterproofing, ventilation and low-profile shower drains
- Electrical panel upgrade and subpanel, where the existing service needs expanding
- Spray foam or batt insulation to current BC Energy Step Code requirements
- Permit application, inspections and final sign-off through your municipality
From the first site visit to final inspection.
Assess
We measure ceiling height, check moisture levels and drainage, and evaluate egress feasibility — then tell you honestly what the space can become and what it would cost.
Design & Permit
Layout, finishes, egress sizing and legal-suite requirements are locked into a set of drawings. We submit to your municipality and manage the permit process start to finish.
Frame, Waterproof & Rough-In
Waterproofing and drainage are confirmed before framing starts. Electrical, plumbing and HVAC rough-ins follow, with inspections at each stage before the walls close.
Finish & Final Walkthrough
Drywall, flooring, kitchen, bath and all trim — followed by a municipal final inspection. We walk through every room with you, address any deficiencies, and hand over the keys.
Typical timeline: 10–16 weeks from permit approval, depending on scope and municipality.
Basement renovation pricing in Vancouver.
Basement costs vary more than almost any other renovation because the underlying conditions — ceiling height, moisture, existing rough-ins and suite requirements — differ so much from one home to the next. These ranges reflect typical projects across Greater Vancouver; your fixed quote comes after the assessment stage.
- Finished living space ($45K–$70K) — a comfortable family room, home office or recreation area without a kitchen or secondary suite; includes framing, insulation, drywall, flooring and a bathroom addition
- Legal secondary suite ($70K–$110K) — full self-contained unit with kitchen, egress windows, separate exterior entry, soundproofing between floors, and all permits; qualifies as a rental suite under your municipality's bylaws
- Full dig-out / underpinning ($120K–$200K+) — when ceiling height is insufficient, the slab is lowered by excavating under the existing footings in stages; includes structural engineering, excavation, re-pour and all suite or living-space finishes
Older Vancouver and Burnaby homes built before 1970 often have knob-and-tube wiring or original galvanized plumbing that needs replacing before a suite can be permitted. We identify those items at the quote stage — not after demo has already started.
Basement transformations across Greater Vancouver.
Drag to see what a basement becomes.
Unfinished basement → legal secondary suite · Vancouver
Dated rec room → finished family space · North Vancouver
Basement renovations across Greater Vancouver.
We build finished basements and legal secondary suites throughout Vancouver, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Richmond and Surrey. Secondary suite bylaws differ meaningfully from one municipality to the next — what qualifies as a legal suite in the City of Vancouver is not automatically legal in Burnaby or Coquitlam, and minimum ceiling heights, egress sizing and parking requirements all vary. We know the rules for each area and handle the right permit process for your address, rather than applying a one-size approach.
Questions, answered.
Most single-family basements in Greater Vancouver can be converted to a legal suite, but each municipality sets its own standards. The main requirements typically include a minimum finished ceiling height (usually around 1.95–2.1 m after framing), at least one egress window in every sleeping area, a separate entrance, and compliance with BC Building Code for fire separation between floors, plumbing and electrical. We assess your space in a free site visit and tell you exactly what it would take — before you commit to anything.
A finished living space without a kitchen or suite typically runs $45,000–$70,000. A full legal secondary suite with kitchen, egress windows, separate exterior entry and permits falls between $70,000 and $110,000 for most Greater Vancouver homes. If the ceiling is too low and the slab needs to be lowered through underpinning or a dig-out, the investment rises to $120,000–$200,000 or more depending on depth and soil conditions. Every project gets a fixed quote after the initial assessment — no open-ended billing.
Yes. Two approaches are common in Greater Vancouver: underpinning (bench footing), where sections of the existing foundation are deepened in a controlled sequence without disturbing the house above; and a full dig-out, where the concrete slab is removed and the floor is excavated to the new depth. Both methods require a structural engineer and a building permit. We bring in the right engineer, manage the permit, and handle the excavation and re-pour as part of the project scope.
Moisture is the first thing we investigate, before any design or framing decisions are made. Depending on what we find — condensation from temperature differential, a grading issue directing surface water toward the foundation, or hydrostatic pressure through the slab — the solution might be interior drainage membrane, weeping tile repair, improved exterior grading or a combination. We never frame over an unresolved moisture problem. Once the waterproofing is confirmed dry, the finished walls go in — not before.
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