Why basements price differently from garages
A garage is one open box with a door big enough to bring a grinder through. A basement is rooms, doorways, stairs and finished walls, and every one of those is hand work: edging by hand where the machine cannot reach, protecting drywall and trim, and carrying equipment down a staircase. On the same square footage a basement usually carries ten to twenty percent more labour than a garage does, and the access is the reason.
The moisture reading is the real variable
Below-grade slabs sit against soil that holds water, and in the older Kelowna, Rutland and Glenmore housing stock there is often no vapour barrier underneath. We take an in-situ relative humidity probe reading before quoting anything below grade. Under 80 percent and the floor is a normal build. Above it, a moisture vapour barrier primer goes down first, and that is a $2 to $4 per square foot line rather than an optional upgrade.
Metallic costs more because of the day it adds
A flake basement is a two day job. A metallic basement is three, because the metallic layer is translucent and has to go over a pigmented skim coat rather than straight onto grey concrete. That extra day of labour and material, plus the hand-working of the pour itself, is most of the price difference between the two. The floor that results is genuinely different, but it is worth knowing what the money buys.
What is included and what is not
Our quotes carry diamond grinding, crack and spall repair, materials, labour and clean-up, at a fixed price rather than an estimate. What sits outside the number is removal of an existing coating or floor covering, adhesive residue from old carpet or tile, and any levelling beyond normal preparation. All three get identified at the site visit rather than appearing later, which is the entire point of visiting.
Want this answered for your slab?
Free site visit with a moisture reading, then a written fixed price. Across the BC Interior.