Family City USA · 84057 · 84058 · 84059 · 84097
General Contractor in Orem, Utah
Orem homes were built to be finished later. Walk into almost any Sharon or Northridge rambler and you'll find the same thing downstairs: a concrete floor, open joists, a furnace in the corner, and eight hundred to fifteen hundred square feet doing nothing. Royal Blue Build turns that space into the part of the house your family actually uses.
- Pricing Published Up Front
- Orem to Lehi
- One Point of Contact
Photography coming soon
Remodeling in Orem
Orem is full of houses built with a full basement the builder never finished. Between the age of the housing stock and the steady rental demand from Utah Valley University, finishing a basement here does double duty — it adds usable family space, and for many owners it opens the door to a legal basement apartment with real monthly income.
The homes here
Orem has a deep inventory of 1960s–1990s ramblers, split-entries, and two-story homes, most built with full basements that the original builder left unfinished. Population is about 98,000. That mix determines what most projects in this city actually involve — and it's why an estimate that ignores the age and construction of your specific home isn't worth much.
Neighborhoods we serve
We work throughout Orem, including Sharon, Cascade, Northridge, Hillcrest, Windsor, Cherry Hill, Geneva Heights, Suncrest, and Lakeridge. If you're near Utah Valley University or University Place, we're just up the road.
Why work with a local contractor
Proximity changes the quality of the work, which is why we're based right here. Being local to Orem means we can get out for an estimate quickly, respond when something needs attention mid-project, and come back to finish punch-list items without scheduling it weeks out.
Permits in Orem
Basement finishing permits in Orem run through the city's Development Services division, and finished basement bedrooms must meet egress requirements. Orem also has specific standards for accessory apartments, so if a rental unit is the goal it's worth confirming zoning for your parcel before framing starts.
We handle this part; it isn't something you deal with.
Everything we do
Our services in Orem
Basement Finishing
Your basement is already framed, already under roof, and already connected to utilities. Finishing it costs a fraction of building an addition and a small fraction of moving — and in a market this tight, that math is hard to argue with.
$35–$75 per finished square foot
Learn moreBasement Apartments
A rentable basement is the cheapest legal housing unit you can add to a house, because the foundation, roof, walls and utilities already exist. We build them permitted, so a lender, an appraiser, and an insurer can all see the unit.
$45,000–$110,000 for a complete legal unit
Learn moreDetached ADUs & Backyard Cottages
A standalone unit in the backyard: its own foundation, roof, kitchen, and address. Utah law now requires most cities to permit one on lots of 11,000 square feet or more. It's the more expensive of the two ways to add a rental, and sometimes it's the right one.
$190–$350 per square foot
Learn moreEgress Window Installation
An egress window is the code-required escape route from a basement sleeping room — and the thing that lets the room count as a bedroom when your house is appraised or listed. If you don't have one yet, it's the first move.
$3,500–$7,500 per window, installed
Learn moreKitchen Remodeling
Kitchens carry more daily friction than any other room. A bad layout costs you every single day — and it's the room buyers judge hardest when you sell.
$25,000–$85,000+ depending on scope
Learn moreBathroom Remodeling
Bathrooms are the least forgiving room in the house. Waterproofing that's done wrong doesn't announce itself — it shows up two years later as a stain on the ceiling below.
$12,000–$40,000+ depending on size and scope
Learn moreWhole Home Remodeling
Sometimes the issue isn't the kitchen or the bathroom — it's a floor plan built for how people lived in 1978. Whole-home remodeling reworks how the house actually functions.
Highly variable — most projects start around $60,000
Learn moreFlooring Installation
Flooring failures almost always trace back to what's underneath — an unlevel subfloor, moisture in a slab, or a missing expansion gap. We deal with the substrate first.
$4–$16 per square foot installed depending on material
Learn moreInterior Painting
Paint is the cheapest way to change how a house feels. It's also the job most often done badly, because the prep that determines the result is the part nobody sees.
$3–$7 per square foot of floor area for full interiors
Learn moreFinish Carpentry & Trim
Trim is what makes a room read as finished. Tight miters, consistent reveals, and proportion appropriate to the ceiling height are the difference between builder-grade and custom.
Quoted by project
Learn moreDrywall Repair & Texture
Bad drywall repair is worse than the hole. Matching existing texture and getting the paint to blend is what separates a repair you notice from one you don't.
$200–$1,200 for typical repairs
Learn moreHandyman Services
Most people have a running list of small jobs that never justify a full contractor call but never get done either. We do those — with the same care and the same written scope as our large projects.
Hourly or flat-rate by job, quoted before we start
Learn moreOrem — common questions
- Do you serve all of Orem?
- Yes — the whole city, including Sharon, Cascade, Northridge, Hillcrest, across ZIP 84057 and 84058 and 84059 and 84097. We're local to Orem, so we can usually get out for an estimate within a few days.
- What does a basement cost to finish in Orem?
- Most basements in this area run $35 to $75 per finished square foot. Where a Orem home lands depends on bathroom count, whether the builder stubbed in plumbing, whether egress windows need to be cut, and finish level. Given that the housing here is a deep inventory of 1960s–1990s ramblers, split-entries, and two-story homes, most built with full basements that the original builder left unfinished, we'll know a lot about what to expect before we even walk in — but the estimate comes after we actually look.
- Do I need a permit in Orem?
- Basement finishing permits in Orem run through the city's Development Services division, and finished basement bedrooms must meet egress requirements. Orem also has specific standards for accessory apartments, so if a rental unit is the goal it's worth confirming zoning for your parcel before framing starts.
Planning a project in Orem?
Get a real number you can plan around. We're local to Orem, so scheduling is usually days rather than weeks.
- Pricing Published Up Front
- Orem to Lehi
- One Point of Contact