The cheapest square footage in any house, and the one most often done badly. A finished basement is a building-code problem before it is a design problem: egress, headroom, moisture, and the mechanical plant that already lives down there.
Before the finishes
Nobody goes looking for a contractor in the abstract. These are the three things we hear first, and what we do about each of them.
Grading, gutters and downspouts outside; drainage and, where needed, a sump inside. Nothing gets covered until it is dry.
Below grade behaves differently. The assembly is drawn for it rather than copied from an upstairs wall.
Framing, board and finishes go on a space that has already proved it stays dry.
Ducts, waste lines and beams moved or reconfigured where they can be, so the ceiling is flat and high.
What you have after the assembly, not the number off the joists. It decides the whole scheme.
A layered plan rather than a grid of cans, which is most of why a low room reads as low.
A basement bedroom needs a compliant egress window or door. It is a window well and a lintel, and it is drawn early.
A bathroom under the main run needs an ejector pit. Better known at design than at rough-in.
A finished basement is conditioned space and gets its own zone rather than a borrowed register.
Our process
Six stages, in order, with what you get at the end of each one. Nothing here starts until the stage before it is finished and signed off — which is the whole reason the schedule holds.
Ceiling height, egress, stair width, and whether the space can legally be habitable at all. This happens first because it decides whether the rest of the conversation is worth having.
A written read on what the code will and will not allow here.
Where water is getting in or condensing, and why. Grading, gutters, sump, vapour barrier and insulation strategy are all settled before anything is framed — a finished basement over an unresolved damp problem is a mould problem with drywall on it.
A moisture plan, and the exterior work it depends on.
Ducts, pipework, panel and water heater mapped, then the layout planned around them. Headroom is won or lost here: soffits where they read as architecture, not a duct boxed in wherever it happened to run.
A reflected ceiling plan showing exactly where the height goes.
Where the code requires a means of escape, an egress window or door is cut, and that is excavation, a well, structure and drainage — a real piece of construction, not a window order.
Engineering and permit for the opening.
Framing off the wall with the right insulation build-up, then electrical, HVAC branches, and rough-in for anything wet. Sound isolation to the floor above if the room is a cinema or a gym.
Inspections signed off at each stage.
Drywall, flooring chosen for below grade, lighting layered rather than a grid of cans, and the mechanical space left properly accessible for the next person who has to service it.
A snag walk, and the list closed with you.
What’s included
Need inspiration?
Bring us the pictures you keep coming back to and our designers take it from there — working from the exterior style of the house, its proportions, its era and its materials, so every room reads as part of the same building rather than a set of separate good ideas.
One vision, carried through, inside and out. The image here is a reference for a treatment, not a photograph of one of our own projects.
Talk to a designer →What it takes
The figure under each level is where that scope typically starts in the Charlotte market — a starting point, not a quote. What follows is the work those numbers buy: what falls inside each level, in the order the decisions actually get made. The same three names run through our finish levels below, because the two questions — how much work, and to what standard — are answered together.
Starting at$120k
Starting at$180k
Starting at$250k
Same Queen Boss craftsmanship at every level. Scope and finish are what move the number, never quality of workmanship — and you get an exact figure for your own project after the walk-through and the drawings, not before.
Define the finish
Two rooms of exactly the same size can cost dramatically different amounts, and the difference is selections. Cabinetry, countertops, tile, fixtures, lighting, appliances, doors, trim and hardware all move the number. These three tiers give us a shared language, so when you say “a $50,000 kitchen” we can talk immediately about what that realistically includes.
A clean, well-built home using quality builder-grade materials — the right choice when maximising budget toward square footage and structure matters most.
Upgraded materials and brands throughout that elevate everyday livability and long-term durability — without moving into full custom pricing.
A full custom finish package with premium brands, natural materials, and designer detailing — built for clients who want the home to be a showpiece.
Per square foot, finishes only — excludes land, site work and structural. Same Queen Boss craftsmanship at every tier: the difference is customisation and material investment, never quality of workmanship.
Pre-construction investment
| Pre-construction stage | Scope | Investment |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — Design & Architectural | Complete plan set: layouts, selections, construction drawings & renderings | $2,000 – $4,000 |
| 2 — Structural Engineering | Site evaluation, calculations & engineer’s stamp (if required) | $2,000 – $4,000 |
| 3 — City Permit | Plan submission & city stamp · permit fees billed at cost | At cost |
| Total pre-construction | Final range confirmed once scope & areas are set | $2,000 – $8,000+ |
Design, engineering and permit are priced separately from the build, so you can stop at any stage with a set of drawings you own outright.
Financing
A renovation is usually worth more than the house was before it. RenoFi is built on that: their lending partners underwrite against your home’s after-renovation value rather than what it is worth today, which is why the number they can reach is so often larger than a standard home-equity offer.
RenoFi is not a lender; it works with lending partners who make the loans. Queen Boss Construction is not a lender or a broker, does not arrange credit and takes no part in the application or the decision — we point you at them because clients keep asking who to talk to. All terms, rates and eligibility are between you and the lender.
What moves the number
We do not publish prices, because a price quoted before the drawings exist is a number that changes. These are the four things that decide it, so you know what you are choosing between.
The one thing that cannot be bought. It determines the ceiling strategy and often the whole feasibility.
Where one is required and there is no opening, excavation and a window well is a significant line of its own.
A dry basement finishes normally. A wet one needs the outside fixing first, and that is drainage and grading work.
Below the sewer line it needs a pump. That is a different job from adding a bathroom upstairs.
In their words
Robert is a great communicator and we love working with him and his team.
Adam Peter S.They are always professional and strive to provide exemplary customer service.
Shannon L.Common questions
Yes. Dry to the touch is not the same as dry: concrete moves water vapour continuously, and it condenses on the cold side of whatever you build against it. The barrier and the insulation order are what stop that.
Only with compliant egress and ceiling height. We check both before design starts, because a bedroom without egress is not a bedroom, and it will not appraise as one either.
That is mostly light and ceiling. Layered lighting, a real ceiling height where it matters, and full-height doors do more than any finish. Where there is a window, the layout goes to it.
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A conversation and a walk through the rooms you are thinking about — no charge, and no obligation at the end of it.
