Finishing a basement is one of the most practical ways to add living space to a Spokane home. It can give you a family room, an office or an extra bedroom without adding on. It’s also a project where a few early decisions, like permits, egress and ceiling height, determine whether the new space is safe, legal and counted when you sell. Here’s what to sort out before the first stud goes up.
This article summarizes published guidance from the City of Spokane and Spokane County. Code requirements change and every house is different, so confirm the details for your project with your local building department.
1. Find Out Who Issues Your Permit
In Spokane County, the permit office depends on where your house sits:
- Inside City of Spokane limits: the City’s development services, at City Hall, 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
- Unincorporated Spokane County, including areas like Mead: Spokane County Building and Planning. The County’s online permit center has a map for checking whether an address is in its service area.
- Other cities, such as Liberty Lake and Cheney: their own building departments.
It’s worth confirming this first, because the application process, fees and inspections come from whichever office has jurisdiction.
2. Expect a Building Permit and an Electrical Permit
The City of Spokane’s basement finish guide is direct: finishing a bedroom or other room in a basement requires a building permit and an electrical permit at a minimum. Depending on your plans, plumbing and mechanical permits may also apply, for example when you add a bathroom or extend heating ducts.
For the building permit, the City asks for a drawing of the whole basement with dimensions. It should show the existing and proposed rooms, including the hall, laundry, bathrooms, bedrooms and the furnace and water heater areas. The guide notes that with that information, simple basement permits can often be reviewed and issued over the counter.
The City also bases its permit cost on a reasonable estimate of construction cost, including labor and materials. Getting a written estimate early helps with the permit application as well as your budget.
3. Check Your Ceiling Height
Before you plan rooms, measure. According to the City of Spokane guide, habitable space in a basement needs a minimum ceiling height of 84 inches (7 feet). A basement with a lower ceiling can still be finished and used, but it isn’t considered habitable space. Any sleeping rooms down there also aren’t considered legal bedrooms when the house is sold.
Ducts, beams and drain lines often hang below the joists, so check the height where those run, not just in the open middle of the room.
4. Plan for Egress in Every Bedroom
This is the requirement that surprises people most. Every basement bedroom needs an emergency escape and rescue opening: an egress window or a door leading directly outside. The City of Spokane guide also points out that unless the City has a record of a permit issued specifically for a basement bedroom, a room without a qualifying egress window or door isn’t a legal bedroom.
The published City and County guidance lists these minimums for an egress window:
- Net clear opening of at least 5.7 square feet (the City guide states this as 820 square inches). Spokane County’s handout notes an exception: grade-floor or below-grade openings may be 5 square feet.
- Clear opening at least 24 inches high and at least 20 inches wide. Both minimums at once still don’t add up to the required area, so the window has to be larger in at least one direction.
- The bottom of the opening (the sill) no more than 44 inches above the finished floor.
- The opening must work through normal operation from the inside, without keys or tools.
The City’s guide offers a rule of thumb: a 4-by-4-foot slider usually works, while a single- or double-hung window generally needs to be about 3 feet wide by 5 feet tall. It also gives practical advice: open the window and measure the actual clear opening before you buy it.
Basement egress windows usually sit below grade, which means a window well. Spokane County’s guidance calls for a well at least 36 inches wide and 36 inches out from the wall, with at least 9 square feet of area, enough room for the window to open fully, and drainage at the bottom. Wells deeper than 44 inches need a permanently attached ladder or steps.
Cutting a new egress opening into a foundation wall is a structural job. Plan for it early, because it affects the layout, the budget and the schedule.
5. Insulate the Concrete Walls
The City of Spokane guide says exposed concrete walls in the area being finished must be insulated, and it cites the Washington State Energy Code minimum of R-21 for those walls. One method the guide recommends is to build a 2×4 wall with a treated bottom plate, set about 2 inches off the concrete so R-21 batts fit, with a vapor barrier on the drywall side.
6. Wiring and Smoke Alarms
For new basement bedrooms, the City guide lists several electrical requirements:
- Arc-fault protection on new bedroom wiring.
- Outlets within 6 feet of a door opening and no more than 12 feet apart along the walls.
- Hardwired smoke alarms with battery backup in each bedroom, outside the sleeping area and on each floor, interconnected where the walls are open enough to run the wiring.
In Washington, electrical work has its own licensing and permit rules, so plan on a licensed electrician or the proper electrical permit for that part of the job.
7. Deal With Moisture Before You Cover Anything
Drywall and moisture don’t mix. If your basement has had leaks, damp spots, efflorescence on the concrete or a musty smell, find and fix the source before you frame. Finishing over a moisture problem hides it until it becomes a bigger, more expensive one. If you’ve had water in the basement before, mention it at your estimate. Flooring choice matters here too: LVP and tile tolerate below-grade conditions better than many alternatives.
8. Older Homes: Ask About Asbestos
Many Spokane homes are old enough to contain asbestos in materials like some floor tiles, ceiling textures and joint compounds. The Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency requires an asbestos survey by an AHERA-certified inspector before most renovation work. There’s an exception for owner-occupied single-family homes when the resident homeowner does the work, but if someone else is doing the renovation, the survey is required. Check the agency’s guidance before demolition starts.
A Sensible Order of Work
- Fix moisture issues and plan the layout, egress and permits.
- Cut in egress openings and complete any structural work.
- Frame walls, then rough-in electrical, plumbing and ducts, then rough inspections.
- Insulate, then inspect if your jurisdiction requires it.
- Hang, tape and finish the drywall.
- Prime and paint.
- Install flooring, doors and trim, then the final inspection.
How Good Works Solutions Can Help
Good Works Solutions LLC handles basement framing, drywall, painting and flooring in Spokane and the surrounding area. Most recently, we replaced the drywall throughout a basement in Northwest Spokane. We’re licensed, bonded and insured (WA L&I #GOODWWS797KS), and our workmanship carries a 1-year warranty. When a basement needs new circuits or plumbing, we bring in licensed electricians and plumbers and handle the scheduling, so you have one point of contact. The licensed trade pulls its own permits. Learn more on our basement remodeling page.
Call (425) 240-5076 or text photos to (425) 240-5076 for a ballpark. Our on-site estimate is $35, and the fee is credited to your job if you hire us.
Sources
- City of Spokane, “SFR-13 Basement: Finish a Bedroom or Other Room” guide sheet: https://static.spokanecity.org/documents/business/resources/guidesheets/construction/basement-remodel-finish-guidelines.pdf
- City of Spokane, Residential Permit Process: https://my.spokanecity.org/business/residential/permit-process/
- Spokane County Building and Planning, BP-59 “Basic Requirements for Emergency Escape and Rescue Windows”: https://www.spokanecounty.gov/DocumentCenter/View/675/BP-59-Windows—Basic-Requirements-for-Emergency-Escape-and-Rescue-PDF
- Spokane County, BP-26 “Emergency Escape and Rescue Windows”: https://www.spokanecounty.org/DocumentCenter/View/59215/BP-26-Emergency-Escape-and-Rescue-Windows
- Spokane County, Apply for a Permit (service area map): https://www.spokanecounty.gov/3201/Apply-for-a-Permit
- Washington Administrative Code 51-51-03100 (IRC Section R310 as adopted in Washington): https://apps.leg.wa.gov/wac/default.aspx?cite=51-51-03100
- City of Liberty Lake, Building Permits: https://www.libertylakewa.gov/139/Building-Permits
- City of Cheney, Building Department: https://www.cityofcheney.org/149/Building-Department
- Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency, Renovation and Demolition Projects: https://spokanecleanair.org/asbestos/demolition-removal/