Under a White Oak house from the forties or fifties you'll often find painted block, a gas furnace, a washer and a floor drain that has seen some storms. Our carpenters protect that room from the sewer first, then turn it into the space upstairs can't spare.
White Oak Basements
37% of White Oak's homes predate 1950, and about one household in three is renting. Owners, landlords and longtime residents bring us very different basements, with one thing in common: they've all been through some wet weekends.
In September 2018 more than seven inches fell on White Oak over a single weekend, and basements across the borough took on water. Owners who lived through that ask for a room they can mop out rather than rip out.
Porcelain tile or rigid vinyl plank on the slab, drywall stopped short of the floor behind a PVC base, and outlets raised a little higher than usual. A battery-backed sump pump handles the groundwater side.
Basement waterOne house in five here predates 1940, and another sixth went up during the forties. Their basements often have drain lines, ducts and a steel beam hanging low, and owners ask if there's headroom left for a real room.
We measure under every pipe, duct and beam before drawing anything. Lines that can move get rerouted up between the joists; the rest are boxed into tight soffits along a wall, so the open middle of the room keeps its height.
Ceilings in older basementsAbout 40% of the borough's houses stop at two bedrooms or fewer. When a family grows or a parent moves in, the basement is the only place left for another bedroom, as long as it has a safe way out.
A code-size egress window with a well dug outside, a smoke alarm in the room as the borough's checklist asks, a heat run from the furnace, and a closet. It feels like a bedroom, not a corner of the cellar.
Basement bedroomsRenters make up 34% of White Oak households, and the borough inspects a rental before each new tenant, no more than yearly. Landlords want a basement laundry and storage area that's clean, bright and ready on inspection day.
A walled laundry with a sealed floor, rigid metal dryer duct to an outside hood, good overhead light and a lockable storage cage per unit. In a duplex, each unit gets its own share, since the borough inspects each one separately.
Laundry roomsHouseholders 65 and older own roughly half the borough's owner-occupied homes. Many of them want the boxes, the holiday decorations and the canning jars kept dry and easy to find, off the stairs and the floor.
A dry storage room with sealed walls, a dehumidifier on a drain, deep shelves at waist and shoulder height, and lights that come on at the door. Rails left and right on the stair make the trips down easier.
Storage roomsGas heats about four in five White Oak homes. Owners with the furnace already downstairs ask for a TV room near it that stays as warm in January as the living room does.
Foam board goes on the block and in the rim joists, the drafts get sealed, and a supply and return come off the furnace into the room. The furnace itself gets walled off behind a door with space to work on it, and the TV wall gets its own circuit.
Family roomsCensus Bureau ACS 2020–2024 for White Oak borough, rounded. Rainfall: Mon Valley Independent, September 2018.
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 White Oak
A White Oak basement job touches the borough office, the county's plumbing program, the authority that owns the sewer and the list an inspector carries at every change of occupant. Here's where each comes in.
$50Zoning certificate, every building permit
White Oak wants a zoning certificate, $50, filed alongside every building permit, and a basement bath or laundry move also falls under the county health department's plumbing permit. The White Oak kitchen remodeling page goes through both. We handle the filing and the inspection visits.
White Oak permits, explainedUp to 50Homes with basement backups, 2019
The Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County owns White Oak's sewer, and in 2019 borough officials said up to 50 houses routinely had basements fill with water and waste in heavy rain. Where drains sit below the street's manhole, a backwater valve goes on the line before any finishing.
Mon Valley Independent, July 2019 (opens in a new tab)Each oneIts own shutoff and vent
White Oak's inspection list calls for a shutoff valve at every gas appliance and proper venting for the dryer, water heater and furnace, plus a carbon monoxide alarm nearby. Outlets left in the unfinished utility area stay GFCI-protected. We check all of it before walls go up.
The occupancy checklist (PDF) (opens in a new tab)Basement Questions
The questions we hear most from White Oak owners before framing starts downstairs. Our basement finishing service page covers the whole job.
Ask a QuestionIt turns on the house's age and its history with water. A dry fifties basement with clear headroom costs the least; a backwater valve, rerouted pipes, a new egress opening or a bathroom pumped up to the sewer line each add to it. We put a written price in your hands after one visit.
Basement price rangesNo. White Oak's inspection comes when someone new is moving in, a buyer or a renter, not when you remodel. The inspector walks the basement on that day too, so we work from the borough's list now: alarms, rails, GFCIs and gas valves already right.
White Oak's occupancy rulesCommon enough to test first. About 30% of roughly 1,450 tests from White Oak addresses in the state registry read 4 picocuries or higher. If yours does, we install the fan and pipe before any framing, and the new walls leave its pipe a clear path.
Radon in White OakNot by itself, but look before you build. The DEP's subsidence map marks over half the borough as mined, and ordinary home insurance leaves out subsidence damage. Check your address, consider the state's separate coverage, and we'll note any existing cracks before we start.
Mined ground in White OakMineral salt left behind when water moves through the block and dries on the face. It means moisture is getting in, so we look outside first: gutters, downspouts and grading. Once the wall stays dry, we seal it and frame with a small gap behind the studs.
Walls before finishingOther Services
We also take on White Oak's fifties kitchens, its tight bathrooms, attic rooms and porches that need work before a sale. Pick a service 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.
Get in Touch
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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hello@alltradeshq.com
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529 Forest Ave
Trafford, PA 15085
