When working with a smaller space it is imperative to utilize your square footage as efficiently as possible. The townhouse that I’m remodeling has a useable basement, but I wanted to turn it into a pleasant living zone.
I have already written several posts on deepening the basement, and extending the foundation. Today, I’ll tell you about another basement project, adding more natural light.
The basement had two standard basement windows on the south side of the building. These windows did provide some light, but the area was still dimly lit. The only reasonable way to increase natural light was to put in larger windows, and to increase the size of the window wells. In addition, I felt that larger windows would allow a safer egress in an emergency situation.
I had to enlarge the window openings by cutting through eight inches of concrete; to do this I used a concrete chainsaw. A concrete chainsaw is powered by a hydraulic system that uses an external engine. Like the O-ring saw that I talked about in previous posts, it requires a water connection for cooling and lubrication of the blade.
I used a mini excavator to create much larger window wells. The wells larger size and their white coating will allow a significant amount of light to enter the basement. The windows will be custom ordered to fit the new openings. They will not only be much larger, they will offer a bigger escape opening in case of an emergency.
My plan is to turn this ordinary basement into a pleasant and bright music studio… but, more on that in future posts.