Basement Renovation in Westmount | Restricted Head Height

CHARACTER HOME RESTORATION ·  WESTMOUNT

Seven Inches: The Westmount Basement
That Had to Be Dug Up to Measure Up

The homeowners wanted a basement renovation to finish their early-1900s home. The slab brought the real challenge — off by seven inches end to end. We laid out the options. The homeowners chose to do it right. So we dug it up and hauled it out…  one bucket at a time.

WESTMOUNT · EDMONTON,  AB

Built-in dark wood wine rack under the basement stairs of a Westmount dry bar, with an X divider for bottles and a shelf for glassware above.
Dry bar tucked under the basement stairs in a Westmount home, with dark wood cabinets, a built-in wine rack, and black metal stair spindles above.
Close-up of the X-shaped wood wine rack under the stairs, with bottles resting in each compartment and the dry bar cabinets behind.
Grey marbled dry bar counter under a three-light black pendant, looking across the finished basement to a cream sectional and white doors tucked under the stair slope.
Dark wood dry bar island with open shelving under a black tiered pendant, backed by white built-in doors that fill the space beneath the basement stairs.
Finished Westmount basement with the staircase rising through the middle of the room, a dark wood dry bar tucked beneath it, and a cream sectional.
Basement bathroom with a black-framed glass shower, white subway tile, three floating wood shelves in a recessed nook, and a wood-framed mirror reflecting the shower.
Extended warm wood vanity with a white apron-front sink and black faucet under two basement windows, with a half wall screening the toilet.
Basement bathroom with a curbless walk-in shower with black-framed glass, white subway tile, a rain head and handheld, and black grab bars, beside a wood vanity with an apron-front sink.
Mirrored barn door on black hardware reflecting the basement bathroom, beside the extended wood vanity with an apron-front sink under a small window.
Swipe to see more ➜

PROJECT SNAPSHOT

LOCATION

Westmount, Edmonton, Alberta

HOME

Early 1900s character home

SCOPE

Full basement renovation with structural, mechanical, and envelope upgrades

KEY CHALLENGES

Intimate, architectural, and distinctly memorable

OUTCOME

A functional basement built to support the home for the long term

Designer

Dawn Stiles Design

In the heart of Westmount, an early-1900s character home was ready for its next chapter. The homeowners were already living with the basement as it was — but the space was cold, cramped, and not working the way they needed. They wanted something warmer, more practical, and intentional. Somewhere they could actually live, not just store things.

They came to us with a basement renovation in mind. Once demolition began, the home told us a much bigger story.

THE STORY

What the Home Revealed

Behind the walls and beneath the slab, decades of layered work came into view. The foundation walls had only minimal insulation. The rim joists had none. Cold from the basement was pulling down the comfort of the main floor above, and cracks in the upstairs drywall hinted at movement underneath.

As we opened things up, more came to light: hidden junction boxes, outdated electrical, unsafe stairs, non-compliant windows, foundation cracks, failing teleposts, undersized pad footings, mold, asbestos-containing materials, and radon.

This became a project where due diligence mattered — and where the homeowners’ willingness to do things properly shaped everything that followed.

Rebuilding The Basement From The Ground Up

The basement slab was out of level by roughly seven inches end to end. Framing, finishing, and long-term use would have fought that grade forever. After reviewing options with engineering, the homeowners made the call to remove the slab and rebuild from the ground up.

70,000 lbs

of concrete and material removed by hand

+4 inches

of headroom gained for long-term livability

7 inches

of slope corrected across the slab

 

With the slab out, we addressed the structure properly. Two horizontal foundation cracks were stabilized with engineered structural walls. Failing teleposts were replaced and undersized pad footings were corrected. Other foundation cracks were filled, waterproofed, and sealed where appropriate.

A Warmer, Healthier Envelope

Comfort in an older home starts at the envelope. Approximately four inches of spray foam brought the basement to roughly R-24 — well above code minimum — and the difference upstairs was immediate. The crawl space was cleaned, stabilized, insulated, and properly supported.

Asbestos was safely abated through proper testing and inspection. Mold was remediated where previous damage needed addressing. Below the new slab, poly and a radon pit were installed; once testing confirmed radon was present, a full mitigation system was added and vented to the exterior.

R-24

envelope insulation, exceeding code minimum

Abated

asbestos and remediated mold

Vented

radon mitigation system installed

The homeowners later told us the basement felt noticeably warmer and the whole home was more energy efficient. In an older home, that kind of result is the point — not just looking better, but performing better for decades.

The Finished Space

With the bones sorted, the finished basement could finally do what the homeowners imagined. New code-compliant stairs replaced the old set. Egress windows brought in light and met safety requirements. Electrical was updated, plumbing was reworked, and resilient channel was added throughout to soften noise transfer and create a cleaner, flatter ceiling in a home where the original joists were never perfectly even. The layout includes a custom zero-curb accessible shower, an extended vanity with a bib sink, detailed backsplash work, and custom cabinetry tucked beneath the stairs that rounds out the entertainment area.

The Dry Bar Under the Stairs

The stairs sit where they always have, in the middle of the room. The space beneath them was dead space with a head-height problem, and it took some creativity to decide what to do with it. The answer was a dry bar built into the underside of the stairs, with custom cabinetry and a counter that turns the awkward corner into the spot where people gather. No wasted square footage, nobody walks under the stairs  and bonks their head.

SAME STAIRCASE PROBLEM, DIFFERENT ANSWER

In Lake Summerside, the leftover space was the inside curve of the staircase, and it became a wine room. See the South Edmonton basement with the wine room and how the rest of that space came together.

A Quiet Detail Worth Pausing On

Original lumber, second life

Some of the home’s original structural wood — beams that could no longer carry load — was salvaged, refinished, and reworked into custom shelving and benches. Age and story preserved, in a basement built to carry the home forward.

Looking Back

Older homes almost always reveal more than expected once the walls and floors come open. What made this project work was the homeowners themselves — engaged, thoughtful, willing to ask hard questions and make the right calls when it mattered. They chose to invest in the parts of the home no one will ever see, because they plan to live here for a long time.

The result is a basement that feels grounded, warm, and deeply connected to the original character of the home — and a house that is genuinely better prepared for the next generation of use.

 

Renovating a Character Home in Edmonton?

Older homes in neighbourhoods like Westmount, Glenora, Highlands, and Old Strathcona often hold more behind the walls than a standard renovation accounts for. If you’re considering a basement renovation or a larger character home renovation in Edmonton, we’d be glad to walk through what’s possible and what to look for, before you start.