No. 03 — Division
Basements.
From overlooked
to unforgettable.
Your basement is roughly a third of your house. Most stay overlooked — for storage, for the water heater, for the boxes that came home from your last move and never got opened. We finish basements that earn a room in the family, not just square footage on a listing.
The premise
A third of your home
you don't live in yet.
The unfinished basement is the most underutilized square footage in American houses. In Louisville, with our older housing stock, it's also the most universally available. Almost every home built before 1980 in this city has a full basement footprint. Almost none of them are finished. The space is there. It always has been.
Every basement we finish has a story. A theater for the kid who wanted to grow up to direct movies. A guest suite for the parents who weren't quite ready to sell their house yet. An office where someone could finally close a door and work. A gym that turned into the room the whole family used. The story is the brief — and every project we do, we ask the same question at the visit: what is this basement actually for?
Then we build that. With the waterproofing, the egress, the moisture management, the wiring, the lighting, the millwork, and the finish work — all in-house, all coordinated with our foundation division if the waterproofing isn't already buttoned up. Most basements take ten to fourteen weeks. Most of them stay finished for the next thirty years.
What it could be
Six rooms
most basements become.
Almost every finished basement we build resolves to one of these six programs — sometimes two combined. The footprint is roughly always the same. The brief is what changes.
Family room & theater
The most common brief. Sectional, a screen big enough to matter, a wet bar against the back wall, acoustic treatment under the floor structure above. The room the whole household ends up in on Saturday nights.
In-law suite
A bedroom with egress, a full bath, a kitchenette, and its own entry where the lot allows it. The answer for elderly parents, returning college kids, or a long-term guest space that gets used more than you expected.
Home office
A room with a door, daylight from a proper egress window, soundproofing in the right places, and the electrical and network rough-in for a setup that's actually going to be there in five years. Bookshelves, ideally.
Wet bar & entertainment
A real bar, plumbed with a sink, wired for an under-counter fridge and an ice maker, with cabinetry built for bottles rather than groceries. The room that explains itself when you walk into it.
Home gym
Rubber flooring rated for plates, ceiling height verified for the equipment, ventilation that handles a sweaty room, mirrored walls where they matter. We've turned more basements into gyms in the last three years than any other program.
Bonus room
The flex space. Kids' playroom that converts to a teenager's hangout that converts to a craft room. We build for the program, but with the wiring, lighting, and egress that lets the program evolve every five to ten years.
Selected work
The Highlands —
from storage to suite.
A 1932 Tudor whose basement had been the family's storage space for four generations. We pulled out forty years of boxes, integrated the waterproofing with the foundation division, installed a proper egress window, and turned the front half into an in-law suite. Twelve weeks.
How we work
Dry it.
Frame it.
Finish it.
A finished basement only works if everything beneath the finishes is right. Our process puts the waterproofing, the egress, the moisture management, and the mechanical first — then the finish work, which is where most contractors start.
Inspect & plan
A founder visits with the basement division lead. We look at moisture, foundation, ceiling height, egress availability, and mechanical placement. We come back with a written program brief and a budget range.
Dry it
Waterproofing first, integrated with our foundation division if the work isn't already done. Vapor barrier, dehumidifier, egress window cut where required. The basement is dry before any framing goes up.
Frame & rough
Framing, electrical, plumbing, HVAC integration, and low-voltage rough-in. Every wire pulled before the drywall goes up. Most basement finishes fail because the rough-in was wrong; ours don't.
Finish
Drywall, trim, flooring, cabinetry, millwork, paint, fixtures. Same crew, same standard as our Kitchen and Bath division. Founder walkthrough before the final invoice.
"My basement had sat unfinished for twelve years because nobody could figure out what to do with the slope of the ceiling on the south side. The McQuade team sat in our kitchen for an hour, sketched something on a notepad, and that's what they built. It's the best room in the house now."
Basements
What is your basement
actually for?
Tell us at the visit. We'll build that. Theater, suite, gym, office, bar, bonus room — or some combination that makes sense for how you actually use the house.