When finishing your basement, professionals always agree on one of the most important remodeling tips: install basement bathrooms in your project. Basement bathrooms are well worth the investment in terms of convenience and adding overall value to your home. When realtors give specifications on a home, one of the key specifications is how many bathrooms a home has. For determining tax and appraisal values, basement bathrooms definitely increase the value of a home.

The steps to installation are as follows:

1. Choose the location for your bathroom. This is very important. You will want to install your basement bathrooms directly under an upstairs existing bathroom. The reason for this is plumbing. It is so much easier to tap into the existing plumbing (of another bathroom) than to try and route separate plumbing for your bathroom. The savings are substantial as well. If you have a laundry center (or hook up) in the basement; this might be a place to consider expanding and adding your bathroom.

2. Decide the basement floor plans for the bathroom. Evaluate whether or not you will require a half or full bath. If you do not have a bedroom in the basement, you many only need a half bath that consists of a toilet and sink. A good tip is to use chalk to mark off the facilities in the bathroom to ensure that there is enough walking space around everything.

3. You may want to consult a plumbing professional to help you with this project if you have never dealt with a project like this before.

4. Build your sub walls of moisture resistant lumber and drywall that is rated for use in bathrooms. Hopefully this will alleviate any mold problems in the future.

5. Select and purchase your plumbing fixtures (toilet, sink, vanity, faucets, and shower or tub if you will have one). You will also need to assess whether or not you need a toilet pump for flushing waste upwards. If your bathroom will be below the level of your sewage drain pipes then you will need one of these toilet pumps to pump away waste. If you already have a washer or sink in the basement you may not.

6. Install your fixtures and plumbing, take your time and do a proper job here at this step because negligence to this step will result in expensive consciences.

7. You will want a plumber to come and at least check your work for completeness at this point.

8. Once a professional plumber has approved your work as satisfactory, you are ready to do the finishing work.

9. Lay your flooring and finish your drywall, again a lot of attention should be paid to this step especially when installing your drywalls to ensure that you properly try and water proof your basement for future beneficial reasons, moisture in walls and flooring will result in mold and deteriorating construction.

10. Paint and add any other decorative touches you would like to add.

Basement bathrooms are not a do it yourself project for beginners. Even seasoned do it yourselfers hire this project out. You can do the preliminary work and hire a plumber for the actual installation of the fixtures and plumbing. If you will be going this route; you may want to consult the plumber you will hire and show your plans to them. They can point out any problems before you get started and keep you from making costly mistakes. If they have a commitment from you that they will be performing the actual plumbing, they may be more than willing to give you pointers on things such as placement, sub walls and finishing work.