Working Hours: Mon - Fri: 9:00 to 18:00 | Sat - Sun : Closed

Basement Renovation Peterborough County | Cost Per Sq Ft
BASEMENT.
Basement renovation · Peterborough County

Basement Renovation
in Peterborough County

Every September, Trent and Fleming send a fresh wave of students across Peterborough hunting for a place to live — and every unfinished basement in the county sits out that market earning nothing. IntraBuild puts the lowest floor to work: framing, insulation, wiring, plumbing, drywall, flooring and paint, one crew under one written price. From East City and the Old West End out through Lakefield, Millbrook and the Kawartha lakes, we finish basements as family space or rentable suites — and every job is priced by the finished square foot.

Priced per finished foot
One contract, every trade
Figures before framing
Finished luxury basement lounge with pool table, stone fireplace and reclaimed wood wall
48h
Walkthrough to written figure
3 tiers
Specs to finish against
1 crew
Answering for every trade
$0
Charged for Kawartha miles
48hWalkthrough to quote
InsuredLiability cover on site

Do the arithmetic the way a Peterborough landlord would — an unfinished basement earns nothing and heats poorly, while a finished one either rents through the academic year or hands the family a floor it never had. IntraBuild builds nothing but basements, and builds them complete: framing, batt and reflective insulation, dimple-board moisture control, drywall and taping, licensed electrical and plumbing, then flooring, doors, trim and paint. We draw permit-aware plans for the City of Peterborough, Selwyn, Cavan Monaghan and the townships beyond, and we're as comfortable under an East City century semi as beneath a new Millbrook build. Rec rooms, gyms, bedrooms, offices, three-piece baths, kitchenettes — and the student suites Trent and Fleming keep in steady demand. Because pricing follows the finished square foot, the written quote tracks your actual floor plan rather than a guess made down the phone.

01
— built to earn its keep

Framed, wired, finished.

a room that works, not a stud shell

Layout & framing

Before a stud is cut the layout gets settled — where the suite kitchen sits, where the bedroom wall lands — then the walls rise square and plumb, with ducts, beams and drain stacks boxed into tidy bulkheads. A floor plan worth renting starts here, on paper.

Insulation & moisture control

Tenants and teenagers alike notice a cold floor. Batt fills the bays, reflective board hugs the foundation and a dimple mat lifts the finished floor off the slab — so the lowest level of a Kawartha house stays warm, quiet and dependably dry.

Drywall, taping & paint

Walls and ceiling are boarded, every seam taped and sanded until it reads as one plane, then primed and painted. Whoever ends up living down there — family or tenant — gets the same finish quality the main floor enjoys.

Trades, flooring & trim

Licensed electricians and plumbers run the pot lights, receptacles and any water lines; flooring, doors and trim follow behind them. The handover is a working room — not a shell that still needs three more contractors.

Batt + reflective — heat that holds through January Dimple mat — a dry underlay over the slab Moisture-rated board — where drywall meets concrete Pot lights — wired by our own electricians Egress windows — bedrooms that pass code
02
— what the floor can become

Suites, rec rooms, bedrooms.

for the family or for rent

Student & in-law suites

The county's hardest-working basement: a self-contained unit with its own kitchen and bath, minutes from Trent or Fleming. We plan the egress, fire separation and layout for a decade of tenants — a suite that leases each September and stays leased.

Rec & family rooms

Not every basement is a business. One wide, warm room for hockey nights and homework, a media wall or a workout corner, lit with pot lights and floored in something that shrugs off traffic — still the build we do most often.

Bedrooms & home offices

Below grade is the quietest part of the house — right for a guest room, a teenager or a workday office. Where a bedroom is planned, we enlarge the window into a legal egress so the room sleeps safely and lawfully.

Three-piece bathrooms

A toilet, vanity and shower downstairs saves the morning queue upstairs — and makes a suite possible at all. Our licensed plumbers tie into an existing rough-in or cut and run new lines to fit the plan.

03
— the investment, itemized

Priced by the square foot.

per square foot, math you can check

Think of the budget as two dials: the finished area you're adding and the grade of finish you choose. That's why we quote by the square foot — turnkey work lands around $45–110 per square foot across the three tiers, with a typical minimum project around $30,000. Set the dials below; the fuller table of real project budgets follows.

first rung

Essential

One warm, open rec room
$45–60 /sqft
  • Studwork, insulation & moisture defence
  • Boarding, taping & paint on every surface
  • Pot lights on coordinated circuits
  • Floor, doors & trim — one open room
Projects start at$30,000
Choose Essential
picked most often

Full

Rec room, bedroom, three-piece
$60–80 /sqft
  • The whole Essential scope, then:
  • Up to two proper bedrooms
  • A complete three-piece bath
  • A step up in floors & finishes
Projects start at$30,000
Choose Full
top shelf

Premium

A rent-ready or in-law suite
$85–110 /sqft
  • All of Full, and on top:
  • Wet bar or kitchenette built in
  • Premium materials wall to wall
  • Detailed ready for a second suite
Projects start at$30,000
Choose Premium
— run your own numbers

The landlord math, in seconds.

Ballpark turnkey cost
$42,000 – $56,000
First-pass math before HST — layout and finish choices set the true figure, and the free written quote pins it down.
Real-world budgets, all-in (turnkey)
East City semi, one open rec room (≈500 sq ft)$30,000–35,000
Lakefield bungalow — rec room & bedroom (≈800 sq ft)$48,000–68,000
Whole floor with three-piece bath (≈1,200 sq ft)$75,000–100,000
Trent-ready student suite with kitchenettescales up
    Where quotes drift apart
  • Finish tier — Essential to Premium is the widest swing in the whole budget.
  • Wet rooms — a bath or kitchenette brings fixtures, drains and rough-in hours.
  • Room count — more partitions, doors and egress cuts mean more crew days.
  • What we inherit — a damp slab, century joists or tired wiring stretch the scope.

One rate buys the whole job — framing, insulation, moisture control, drywall, licensed trades, flooring, trim and paint, with the site cleaned daily and a single written price at the end. Nothing gets added for the drive to Lakefield or Apsley, and most projects in the county start near the $30,000 minimum. Treat these ranges as guides before HST; the free written quote fixes the figure once we've measured your floor.

04
— the housing stock we work under

Rental blocks to rubble stone.

East City, Lakefield, Buckhorn

The September market

Streets within cycling distance of Trent or Fleming lease out by late summer, year after year. Landlords bring us basements to convert into legal units — hard-wearing finishes, in-suite laundry, proper fire separation — built for ten years of tenant turnover, not one season of luck.

Century homes, honest cellars

Under the Old West End's tall Victorians sit rubble-stone walls, hand-dug corners and a hundred years of joists. We level, damp-proof and insulate before a sheet of board goes up, so the new room respects the old structure carrying it — and lasts as long.

Cottage country's water table

Around Lakefield, Buckhorn and the Kawartha lakes, every spring thaw pushes moisture at the foundations. Dimple board under the floor, insulation held clear of damp concrete and finishes that tolerate a humid July keep a shoreline lower level dry through the cycle.

Many townships, many counters

Permits here come from the City of Peterborough, Selwyn, Douro-Dummer or Cavan Monaghan — whichever office your property answers to. We draft for the right desk and book the framing, insulation and rough-in inspections so approvals never leave the crew idle.

05
— match the tier to the tenant

What each grade delivers.

family room or full unit
Essential · the open room
One finished rec floor
The full envelope — framing, insulation, moisture control, drywall, pot lights, flooring, trim and paint — turning a grey slab into one warm, usable room. The right call when the goal is simply more space.
Full · most chosen
Bedrooms plus a bath
The Essential scope, then one or two lawful bedrooms and a three-piece bath, with better flooring underfoot. For most Peterborough families — and most future rentals — this is the plan.
Premium · income grade
A unit that stands alone
Everything in Full plus a kitchenette or wet bar, premium materials and second-suite-ready details — the spec for a Trent or Fleming rental, an in-law suite, or simply the best floor in the house.
06
— why owners hand us the keys

One crew, one number.

accountability in writing

The figure comes first

Your quote is built from measured footage and the tier you choose, in writing before work starts — and no line gets added later for the run out to Millbrook or Apsley.

Every trade in-house

Electrical, plumbing and flooring stay under our roof, so the schedule has one owner. You call one number; nobody points at a missing subcontractor.

Ready for the inspector

Framing, insulation and rough-ins go in to code and are presented for inspection on time, so the paperwork clears as cleanly as the finished work looks.

Tidy site, real coverage

Poly dust walls, a broom-clean site each evening and full liability insurance from day one — the household keeps living upstairs while the floor below transforms.

07
— six gates, in order

Bare slab to keys.

no stage skipped, ever
1

Plan & permit

Rooms, bath and egress are fixed on paper, and a permit-aware plan goes to your township before the first stud is cut.

2

Frame & rough in

Walls rise square and plumb; while the bays are open, our electricians and plumbers pull wire and pipe to wherever the plan calls.

3

Insulate & inspect

Batt, reflective board and the dimple mat go in — then the inspector signs off before a single cavity gets closed.

4

Board & tape

Drywall goes up on walls and ceiling, seams are taped and sanded flat, and every surface is primed for colour.

5

Floors, doors & trim

Flooring is laid, doors hung, baseboard and casing run — the point where the space stops feeling like a basement.

6

Paint & walkthrough

Final coats go on, the site is cleaned end to end, and we walk the finished floor with you before handing it over.

The six gates run in order and each must pass before the next opens — the honest reason a good basement can't be rushed. You get the schedule up front and the same crew at every gate.

08
— straight answers for the county

Answered.

the questions we hear most

How much does a basement renovation cost in Peterborough County?

Turnkey, most projects in the county land between $45 and $110 per square foot — about $30,000 at the entry point and past $100,000 for a suite-grade build. Tier, wet rooms and layout decide where yours falls; a free written quote ties the number to your measured space.

Do you build legal student suites or second units?

We do — it is a bigger, more regulated build: separate egress, fire separation, its own kitchen and bath. With two campuses in town it is the request we hear weekly, and flagging it early lets us shape the layout and permits around it from day one.

Who issues the permit, and do you handle it?

A finished basement needs one, and it comes from your local office — the City of Peterborough, Selwyn for Lakefield, Cavan Monaghan for Millbrook. We prepare the permit-aware plan first and build framing, insulation and rough-ins to pass their inspections.

Is the electrical and plumbing part of the job?

Yes — licensed electricians and plumbers working on our own schedule handle pot lights, receptacles, bathroom rough-ins and kitchenettes. One crew, one calendar, no trades for you to chase.

How long from framing to finished?

A few weeks for most basements, longer once a bathroom or kitchenette joins the scope. Mud coats need to cure and inspectors book up, so we hand you a realistic schedule before the crew arrives, not after.

Can you add a bathroom, bedroom or kitchenette?

That is the daily work of this trade — baths, bedrooms, offices, wet bars, kitchenettes. Where a bedroom goes below grade, we enlarge the window to a legal egress as part of the same build.

The ceiling is low — do you underpin?

We finish at the height the house gives us and design so the room feels taller than the tape says. Digging deeper — underpinning or bench footing — is structural work we scope and price separately from a standard finish.

What about moisture this close to the lakes?

Inside the finish we layer dimple board underfoot, proper insulation and moisture-rated board against concrete — insurance the Kawartha water table makes worthwhile. An active leak or exterior waterproofing is separate work we flag before finishing starts.

— more service areas

Basement renovation nearby.

Basement renovation isn't limited to Peterborough County — IntraBuild works right across the GTA and Southern Ontario, all on one written per-square-foot price with no separate travel fee.

— the September market won't wait

Put the floor to work.

Whether it's a family rec room or a September-ready suite, tell us the size and what you want down there — and IntraBuild will measure, walk the three tiers with you, price it by the square foot and map out the schedule. Free, and nobody pressures you to sign.

Get a free quote
Contact Us Now!​

* Get in touch now for expert drywall services and bring your project to life!

Get in touch