A stone foundation from 1910, a cellar door off the back porch, a ceiling of pipes and maybe some knob-and-tube. Under a Greensburg house that old, the basement can still become a room. Our carpenters dry it, rewire it and finish it.
Greensburg Basements
Almost 32% of Greensburg's houses predate 1940, and 45% of homes are rentals. Their basements end up as wine cellars, tenant storage, bedrooms and the room that has to survive the next big storm.
Academy Hill's historic district counts 252 buildings, its notable ones dating from 1880 to 1949. Below many sits a cool old cellar, and owners ask whether it can become a wine room without losing what makes it old.
A wine room wants steady cool air and moderate humidity, which an old cellar often half-provides. We seal and insulate the room off from the furnace, add racks and a cooling unit if needed, and leave one stone wall showing.
Wine rooms and cellarsClose to half the city's homes are rented, more than a third sit in multi-unit buildings, and 43% of renters are under 35. Landlords want the basement to give tenants a laundry and storage that locks.
Coin or card laundry on its own circuits and drains, a wall of bike hooks, and wire-mesh storage cages with a lock per unit. Bright motion lights and washable walls keep it pleasant, and everything is built to the code the city inspects against.
Tenant storage and laundryIn 54% of the city's households, nobody is related to anybody else: it's a single adult or a set of roommates. In a big old house, that can mean more space than people, and owners ask for one snug den downstairs that's easy to heat.
A small room, insulated on every outside wall, with a carpet, good reading light and its own heat source, so it's warm without running the whole house. A TV niche and shelves turn it into the room you actually use.
Dens and family roomsStorms in September 2026 flooded enough of Greensburg that the city went into emergency mode. Owners near Jacks Run or in Northmont want a lower level able to take a heavy night without losing the floor.
A sump with a battery backup and a high-water alarm, a backwater valve where the drains sit low, and finishes that dry out: tile or rigid vinyl, drywall held off the floor, outlets set higher than usual.
Flood-ready basementsIn an older Greensburg house with one bathroom, upstairs, owners ask for a half bath down in the basement, near the laundry, so nobody climbs two flights after yard work or a muddy walk.
When the floor is lower than the pipe that carries waste to the street, the toilet and sink drain to a sealed ejector pit that pumps up to it. We vent it properly, keep it quiet and leave an access lid in the floor.
Basement bathroomsAny bedroom downstairs needs an escape opening a person can fit through, and here that can mean cutting through an old stone or brick foundation. Owners ask whether it can be done without weakening the wall, and what it costs.
It can. We frame a steel or timber lintel over the new opening, cut the masonry carefully, rebuild the sides and set a window clearing 5.7 square feet, with a well outside sized to climb out of.
Egress windowsCensus Bureau, ACS 2020–2024, for the city itself. Academy Hill's district was listed on the National Register in 1999.
The rest of the job
How it runs, what it costs and who builds it are on our main basement finishing page.
A Basement in the City
Besides its permits, Greensburg's code sorts basement water into two kinds, what may go to the storm sewer and what may not, and its property code reaches into rental basements. Here's how each lands on a finishing job.
§265-134Zoning permit, then the UCC
Any structural change starts with a zoning permit, issued by the city's planning director, then a building permit under the 2021 construction code. A rented building also gets the city's routine inspection every two years. Our Greensburg kitchen page explains each step. We handle the paperwork.
Greensburg permits and inspections§219-2What the storm sewer may take
Greensburg's code lists water pumped from crawl spaces, uncontaminated foundation and footing drains and groundwater among discharges the storm sewer can take, unless the city says otherwise, while indoor sinks may not drain there at all. So the sump line runs outside, and the laundry stays on the sanitary sewer.
Greensburg Code §219-2 (opens in a new tab)Sept. 1–May 1The city's heating season
If a finished basement room becomes living space in a rental, the city's property code expects heat there, as in any habitable room, through the whole heating season, September into May. We extend a duct or add a heater sized for the room. Our Greensburg bathroom page covers the rule.
The heating rule, explainedBasement Questions
What we're asked most often before an old Greensburg basement gets finished. The full process is on our basement finishing page.
Ask a QuestionOld houses vary more than new ones. A dry poured basement with decent height is the low end; repointing stone, cutting an egress window through masonry or adding an ejector-pumped bath each raise it. We give you a written number after we've been down the stairs with a flashlight.
What basements costIn part, yes. Stone that stays exposed needs to stay dry and be repointed where the mortar is soft, and it won't be insulated, so we usually leave one wall or a section in a storage or wine area and insulate the rest of the room.
Old foundationsYes, before framing. Greensburg mail addresses, which reach into Hempfield, account for over 17,000 of the state's logged tests, and better than a third came back high. If yours does too, the fix goes in first and the framing works around it.
Radon in GreensburgBefore any framing, we have a tank removal company pump out what's left, cut the tank apart and haul it away, then cap the fill and vent pipes outside so nobody delivers oil to a house that no longer burns it.
Clearing an old basementCarefully, and in pieces. Old cellar stairs are often steep and tight, so we bring sheets in through a bulkhead or a window where we can, use shorter boards where we can't, and protect the stair treads and walls on the way down.
How a basement job runsOther Services
Below-grade rooms are one piece of our Greensburg work. Upstairs, the same crew redoes kitchens and baths and opens attics; outside, it mends porches. Pick a service.
Kitchen RemodelingNew layouts, new cabinets, new counters: framed, built, and installed by the same crew.View Service
Bathroom RemodelingFull gut renovations with proper waterproofing, new framing, and tile set by hand.View Service
Attic FinishingUnused attics framed into bedrooms and offices: subfloor, insulation, drywall, and a proper stair.View Service
Additions & ADUsAdditions and accessory dwelling units (ADUs), framed from the ground up and tied in clean.View Service
Windows & Exterior DoorsWindows and exterior doors set, flashed, and trimmed so water stays out of the wall.View Service
Exterior Restoration & Structural RepairsRotted trim and siding, sagging joists, failed sills: opened up and repaired to solid wood.View Service
Decks & Covered PatiosDecks, covered patios and three-season rooms, flashed to the house and built for Westmoreland winters.View ServiceVerified Google Reviews
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Written by the homeowners we've worked for across Westmoreland County. Every one verified on Google, every one pulled from the real feed.
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529 Forest Ave
Trafford, PA 15085
