Out past the Greensburg line, a Hempfield house from the seventies may sit on a full basement with block walls, a sump in the corner and a furnace burning oil instead of gas. Our carpenters dry that basement and make a real room of it.
Hempfield Basements
The township covers 77 square miles, and its median house dates from 1971. Under those houses, owners want rooms for hobbies, teenagers, groceries and guests, heated whatever the fuel.
Almost four in ten Hempfield homes don't heat with utility gas; oil, electricity and propane fill the gap. Owners want a finished basement that's warm in January without running the whole furnace harder.
Often the answer is a ductless heat pump on its own thermostat: it heats in winter, cools and pulls moisture in summer, and runs on electricity whatever the house burns. Insulated walls and rim joists keep the load small.
Heating a basementOwners 65 and up hold 41% of Hempfield's owned houses. With retirement comes time for the quilting frame, the train layout or the model-building table, and owners want a room downstairs where a project can stay out for weeks.
Bright, even light from end to end, a long counter at standing height, outlets every few feet and a floor you can drop pins on and find them. Shelves along the walls keep the supplies off the table.
Hobby and craft roomsAbout one Hempfield household in four has someone under 18. Once the kids are teens, parents want them close but not underfoot: a room downstairs with a couch, a game console and its own door.
Carpet tiles that swap out when someone spills, sound insulation in the ceiling so the game doesn't shake the kitchen, plenty of outlets, and a mini-fridge on its own circuit. A small bath nearby keeps the traffic downstairs.
Teen and family roomsPlenty of Hempfield sits along farm roads, a drive from the nearest big grocery. Owners there ask for a basement pantry: canning shelves, a chest freezer, and room for the bulk run and the garden's harvest.
Sturdy shelving sized for quart jars, a dedicated circuit and a GFCI outlet for the freezer, and a cool corner insulated away from the furnace. A dehumidifier keeps labels and cardboard from going soft in August.
Pantries and storageHempfield's hills push rain and snowmelt toward foundations every spring. If the basement already has a sump, owners want it reliable before the carpet goes down, and they want to know where its water should go.
We replace a tired pump, fit a check valve and a backup that runs on batteries, and run the discharge out to a lawn area or rain garden, well away from the foundation and not aimed at the neighbor's yard.
Basement waterSome Hempfield homes are on the county authority's sewer and some, out toward the rural edges, on a septic system or holding tank. Owners who want a basement bath ask what that changes.
On public sewer, a bath below the line drains to an ejector pump. On septic, the township's septic officer gets a say before any plan is final, since an added bedroom can change the sizing the system was built for.
Hempfield septic and holding tanksHomes, heat and owners: Census Bureau figures (ACS 2020–2024) for Hempfield itself.
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 Hempfield
The township reviews the permit, its stormwater code says where a sump should send its water, and its sewer and septic rules decide what can be added below. Here's each, briefly.
30 daysTownship permit review, business days
Adding circuits or pipes downstairs needs the township's sign-off, which can take six weeks. Work must begin within half a year, township staff do the inspections, and hours follow daylight. The Hempfield kitchen page lays it all out, dye test at sale included.
Hempfield permits, explained§72-10Township stormwater code
Hempfield's stormwater code says sump pumps and roof drains should discharge to a lawn, planting or infiltration area wherever feasible, and it bars channeling water onto a lower neighbor's land. Clean sump water may reach the storm sewer, never the sanitary one. We plan the outlet before framing.
Hempfield Code §72-10 (opens in a new tab)Ch. 67Township sewer and holding-tank rules
The township's sewer chapter bars foundation and French drain hookups to the public sewer and sets yearly inspections and approved haulers for holding tanks. A septic home should clear a new basement bedroom or bath with the township's SEO first. The Hempfield bathroom page has the details.
Hempfield sewer and septic rulesBasement Questions
What township owners ask us before a seventies basement becomes a room. The basement finishing page walks the whole process.
Ask a QuestionBy what it needs before it's a room. A dry block basement on gas heat is the simple case; a new heat pump for a house off the gas line, a sump overhaul or an ejector bath add to it. You'll see it on paper after one visit.
Basement pricesYes. Results vary across a township this big; in the seven village ZIPs entirely inside Hempfield, 27% of logged results hit the state's 4-picocurie mark. Only a test tells you about your house. If it's high, mitigation comes before framing.
Radon in HempfieldMaybe not every square foot. A house on Redgrave Drive took water downstairs nine times before it was bought out, which says plenty. Near a creek, we look at the flood map and your basement's history first; sometimes the honest call is storage and a laundry, not a family room.
Slate Creek and the township's waterUsually. We wall it into a utility room with a door, keep the clearances the furnace and tank makers list, and leave the oil line, filter and tank gauge easy to reach for the delivery driver and the service tech. Combustion air is planned in.
Mechanical roomsHairline cracks are normal in a slab this age. We fill them, grind or level the high and low spots, and lay a floating floor of rigid vinyl plank over a pad rated for slab moisture. Wide or uneven cracks get looked at before anything covers them.
Basement floorsOther Services
Lower levels are just a slice of our township jobs. The same crew remodels kitchens and baths, finishes attics and builds covered patios from Luxor to Darragh. Pick one below.
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
5.0 out of 5 · 17 reviews
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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Tell us about the project in the form or give us a call. Either way, estimates are free and the number is the number — priced to the actual work, written down before anyone swings a hammer.
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529 Forest Ave
Trafford, PA 15085
