What "roughed in" usually includes
Builders vary. A typical roughed-in basement on the Wasatch Front has framed and insulated exterior walls, a bathroom rough-in with drain and vent lines in the slab, main duct trunks hung from the joists, and a few outlets and lights. What is usually missing: interior walls, branch duct runs to each new room, the wiring for those rooms, drywall, doors, trim, flooring and everything in the bathroom except the pipes in the floor. Walk the space with the builder's plans if you have them; they show where the rough-in was meant to go.
Check the builder’s terms before you open anything
If the house is new, the builder's coverage is probably still running. Some builders' terms leave out parts of the house the owner has altered, and some ask to be told before the basement is finished. Read your builder's terms, and if the builder offers a walkthrough near the end of the first year, consider holding the finish until after it. Anything the builder needs to fix down there is much easier to see on bare walls.
Check the rough-in against the rooms you want
The bathroom drain in the slab decides where the bathroom goes. Moving it means cutting concrete, which costs more and is plumber's work. The windows decide where bedrooms can go, because a bedroom needs an egress window of the size your city requires. The duct trunks decide ceiling heights: habitable rooms need a 7-foot ceiling, with some allowance under beams and ducts, so a low trunk line becomes a soffit or the edge of a room. We measure all three at the walkthrough and draw the rooms around them.
The trades a finished basement still needs
Each new room needs heat and air, so a licensed HVAC contractor extends branch runs and returns from the main trunks. A licensed electrician wires the new rooms, the bathroom fan and the smoke and CO alarms, and checks that the panel has room for the new circuits. A licensed plumber connects the bathroom fixtures to the rough-in. Each pulls its own permit where the city requires it. We frame, insulate, hang and finish the drywall, paint, hang doors, run trim, lay floors and finish the bathroom around them, on one schedule.
Moisture and radon in a new house
New concrete keeps releasing moisture for a while after the house is built. Before we cover a slab or a wall, we check for damp spots and staining, and if something looks wrong, the cause gets fixed first. Radon is the other check. Utah's Department of Environmental Quality recommends testing every home, new ones included, and the time to do it is before the walls close.
Permits still apply
A roughed-in basement is still unfinished space in the eyes of the city, and turning it into living space takes a building permit in every Wasatch Front city we work in. The permit covers plan review and the inspections at each stage, ending with a final that makes the rooms legal living space. See the permit guides for Lehi, South Jordan, Highland, Draper and Sandy.
Bottom line
A roughed-in basement is a head start, not a plan. Check the builder’s terms, the windows, the ceiling heights and the bathroom rough-in against the rooms you want, test for radon, then permit the finish like any other basement.
Questions
Does a roughed-in basement need a permit to finish?
Yes. It is unfinished space until it passes a final inspection as living space, so the city requires a building permit with plan review and staged inspections.
Will finishing my basement affect my builder's coverage?
It depends on the builder. Some builders' terms leave out areas the owner alters, so read yours and ask the builder before work starts.
Can I move the bathroom rough-in?
Yes, but it means cutting the slab and re-running the drain, which a plumber prices separately. Keeping the bathroom where the rough-in is keeps the cost down.
