TikTok Shares How Much It Might Cost To Finish Your Basement DIY Style

If you purchased a fixer-upper home, you probably have multiple ideas to make your unfinished basement more welcoming. Maybe you're ready to begin deploying your ideas and using the finished basement in the most popular ways, such as creating a home theater or an informal living space for multiple family activities. If worries about the budget or about attempting the work as a DIY project are holding you back from deploying your ideas, TikTok user The Weekend Builder attempts to help.

In the TikTok video, The Weekend Builder shows each step of the process of finishing the basement as a DIY project and how much was spent on each step. Some of the costs that the video highlights include $350 for electrical costs, $150 for insulation, $600 for drywall, $300 for doors and trim work, $250 for painting, $900 for flooring, $200 for baseboards, and $250 for trim out. This yielded a total of $2,950.

How accurate are these numbers? Compared to most estimates, they may seem a bit low. Our research of various home remodeling website estimates showed that costs can range anywhere from about $2,800 on the low end to $100,000 on the high end to finish a basement. Several items can affect what you'll pay for a DIY job in an unfinished basement, often led by the square footage you have, the quality of the items you select for the space, and the requirements for the space.

In the comment section of The Weekend Builder's TikTok video, the creator gave some explanations for the total $2,950 cost mentioned in the video. It's important to note that the cost estimates for the finished basement applied to only a 300-square-foot space, which is on the small side compared to what most homeowners have. A typical basement ranges in size from 500 to 1,500 square feet. Because square footage is a key component for determining the cost of finishing the basement, the fact that the TikTok video is quite a bit smaller than average creates a smaller total price than you may expect at your home. A typical basement finishing project costs $7 to $23 per square foot.

Many of the comments on The Weekend Builder's TikTok video were skeptical of the price estimates provided, claiming they were too low. The video's creator did not include any cost for the two-by-fours used in the framing of the basement, which already appeared to be in place when the video started, which does occur in some unfinished basements. The video shows the usage of multiple tools without giving the cost, assuming you already have them. Some of them were specialty tools, such as a paint sprayer (about $399 at Home Depot) and a portable scaffold used to hang drywall (about $245 at Home Depot). You could also rent these tools to save some money.

The Weekend Builder mentioned in the comments that the cost estimates in the TikTok video were for materials only. Because the work was done as a DIY project, no money was spent on hiring professionals. What kinds of costs could you encounter if you need to hire pros for some of the work? For example, the TikTok-er did all the electrical work. You may not feel comfortable wiring your basement yourself. Hiring a professional electrician could cost you up to $4,000 to wire the entire space, along with $250 per outlet and $360 per lighting fixture. The TikTok video did not include any costs for plumbing. If you want a bathroom in your finished basement, you may pay anywhere from $2,500 to $5,000 to hire a plumber to do the job.

If you want to place a bedroom in the newly finished basement, you likely need an egress window to meet local building codes. The average cost of installing an egress window in your basement when you hire a pro averages about $3,900. Ultimately, if you must hire a pro to do all of the work in finishing your basement, you will pay an average of roughly $5,000 to $7,000 more than if you finish it yourself, but it could be higher for more features or an extremely large space.