Capable Group project · Scarborough, Toronto
Scarborough Basement and Underpinning During Construction
A temporary timber stair takes up part of the open floor in this Scarborough basement. It shows why a basement layout needs more than a room-size measurement: the route downstairs has to fit alongside the rooms you want to use. Floor and ceiling finishes, pipes, ducts and beams also affect the space that remains.
These archive photographs show a Capable basement and underpinning project during construction. With the ceiling structure, services, wall membrane and unfinished floor still visible, you can see the connections that need resolving before the room is closed in.
By Capable Group · Construction-stage project photographs
Follow the route into the room
The stair photograph gives the first useful view of the project. It shows the change in level, the opening above and the access through the work area. A stair is part of the finished layout as well as the construction plan: where you arrive affects the walking route and the space left for a bathroom, storage or a living area.
For your own basement, put the stair, door swings and proposed furniture on the same measured plan. Then check the route through the room after the floor and ceiling assemblies have been allowed for. A generous-looking open shell can become a different space once those boundaries are drawn.
Plan the layers you will cover
The wall photograph brings the ceiling joists, exposed pipework, wall membrane and unfinished floor into one frame. It makes their relationship easier to understand before the finished walls and ceiling conceal parts of the work.
That is a useful stage to discuss the next handover. Which water-control and service work belongs in the structural scope? What will be complete before the finishing team starts? Where will access to equipment and services remain? Put those responsibilities in the written scope so the finished room and the work beneath it are planned together.
Compare the space at handover
These photographs capture the basement during construction. For a similar project, compare the condition the contractor will deliver after lowering with the work still needed before the room can be used. Capable’s underpinning cost and scope guide explains what to compare, while the basement renovation service covers the rooms and finishes that follow.
Planning work on your own house? See our approach to home renovation in Scarborough, basement renovation in Scarborough or full-home renovation in Toronto.
Photographs from Capable Group’s project archive, shown during construction.
