Finishing a basement

[Ratherbfishin]

Hi all, I live in a 1500 sqft 1 floor home, I have come to realize I need a man cave in the basement. It is unfinished concrete floor and foundation. Layout is just a rectangle like the upstairs minus walls,rooms etc. I would like to add a room down there with walls, dry wall, and carpet. I know it depends on the size of the room but if you have any experience as too the cost to have this done that would help. I actually was thinking of doing it myself but wondered how much to have it done professionally. My attic is the same, It is open and when we had our home inspected the guy said " wow you could have 2 large bedrooms up here" I still think think the basement is the way to go though. Any input is appreciated. BTW the basement is humidity controlled to a max of 65% and stays relatively warm, Ultimately my room would have a pellet or a wood stove in it.

Thanks, Steve

 

[fbelec]

basement is a good choice if you have the room. if most of your basement is below ground then the temps will be more uniform than the attic. but keep this in the back of your mind when designing and building it. i too did a basement room. the room is in the part of the basment that is above ground so keeping it warm can be more of a problem than cool. this summer here in mass was warm we had many many days above 90 degrees. the warmest it got down here was 75 degrees. the outside wall is on the north side of the house. the winter it gets down to 60 degrees until we get cold highs in the 20's then we see 55 degrees.

the main problem i have with this room down here is noise going upstairs. i repiped all the water and updated all the electrical so that i could put up a sheet rock ceiling. but i forgot to sound board to keep the noise out of the upstairs. and if you can aford it, have the insulation done with spray foam. way better insulation than plain old fiberglass. i think if i had spray foamed the walls instead of the pink stuff, i wouldn't need to heat the space.

oh ya i forgot to say i have 10 recessed lights in the main tv room and 4 in my office. if i put on all the lights in the summer it will hit the 80's down here in a matter of a few hours. so becareful for the heat makers. good in the winter tho.

also if you windup using your attic for the room it will still get cold up there and you'll need heat. but if not using spray foam insulation in your rafters it will get hot up there. so hot that you'll windup running a bigger than normal air conditioner to offset the heat.

good luck

frank

 

[gzecc]

Basement estimate 3k-15k depending on all the variables.

 

[pyper]

This time last year I paid $500 to have a 4 man crew hang drywall in a 16 x 22 room. That's just the labor. I don't recall what we paid to have it finished (taped). Probably $500 to $1000. I did all the necessary framing first. You want to make sure all your studs are in the same plane. No point in hanging new drywall on crooked walls. Hanging and taping was probably more than typical, because the room was 8'-4, so there were two joints instead of one.

With a basement it's important to attend to moisture. I think people usually put something on the block, and then put up the framing and put insulation in. I don't have a basement, so I've never paid much attention, but I'm under the impression that the stuff that goes up on the block is foam sheets, applied in a specific way, and that it's really important.

 

[gzecc]

This time last year I paid $500 to have a 4 man crew hang drywall in a 16 x 22 room. That's just the labor. I don't recall what we paid to have it finished (taped). Probably $500 to $1000. I did all the necessary framing first. You want to make sure all your studs are in the same plane. No point in hanging new drywall on crooked walls. Hanging and taping was probably more than typical, because the room was 8'-4, so there were two joints instead of one.

With a basement it's important to attend to moisture. I think people usually put something on the block, and then put up the framing and put insulation in. I don't have a basement, so I've never paid much attention, but I'm under the impression that the stuff that goes up on the block is foam sheets, applied in a specific way, and that it's really important.

Four man crew for $500. Did you supply the booze too? How deep south is this?

 

[Ratherbfishin]

Four man crew for $500. Did you supply the booze too? How deep south is this?


LOL thats what I was thinking as well. Thanks for the reply's and advice.

Steve

 

[pyper]

Four man crew for $500. Did you supply the booze too? How deep south is this?

South Carolina. My drywall contractor hired them. It only took them about three hours and he took them to another job. It was scary how fast they worked.

 

[Swedishchef]

Steve

I just finished my basement myself. I did 90% of the work. It was well done, well insulated. I have my wood stove in the basement.

My home is a 1300 sqft bungalow. I ended up with a big TV room, big Rec room, storage room, laundry room, 1/2 bathroom and a nice 300 sqft workshop.

Insulation used: 1.5 inches of spray foam on the concrete with R14 Roxul between the studs. Roxul safe and sound between the floor joices as sound proofing from upstairs. The entire basement has been wired with baseboard heating but I keep my wood stove down here as well. I could heat it with a candle. The perimeter is 156 feet.

I hung drywall for 750 sq feet in about 3 days with my father in-law. It's very easy. I hired a plasterer.

I would say that the TOTAL cost so far, materials only, has been approximately $10 000. $4000 of which was insulation. I have a nice 15mm laminate, drop ceiling is going in shortly. Materials are not expensive this day and age for rough finishing. It's the details that can add up fast such as mouldings, etc.

Send me a PM if you would like to see some pictures or videos.

Andrew

 

[velvetfoot]

Andrew,
May I ask what you put on the floor under the laminate?
Thanks,
Karl

 

[webbie]

I did my own, but hired a guy to do the drywall and spray the ceiling with that popcorn stuff......

Mine is an office and also a room where I can play music LOUD......with a full band if I want, and it hardly gets heard upstairs. That took some fancy work, mainly on the ceiling.

Here, though, are some simply construction suggestions....

1. I used all pressure treated for the plates (wood which actually touched the concrete. I used a ram-set to nail the plates to the concrete. No matter how dry you keep it, moisture is likely to wick up!
2. Install the drywall at least 3/4" off the floor....again so that a moisture does not wick up easily to it, and small flooding will not hurt it.
3. Do not use the composite wood moldings (masonite type) that they sell in many places these days..especially don't use them for baseboard. They will become watermarked by moisture within a couple years. Use either a true plastic type, or vinyl glue-on, or real wood....which is well primed and it also would be a good idea not to have this contact the concrete (leave it just 1/4 inch above, etc. and caulk joint, etc.).

I actually built a new wall about 6" in from the concrete outer wall...rather then use furring strips against concrete. I also had to do some fancy work boxing in the hot water heater and various pipes on the ceiling, etc....but the whole project came out great!

I spent a couple grand extra on the fancy soundproofing - my room is big, also, about 500 square feet. I think I dropped about 10K on the whole project......with maybe 4K of it being all the extra work involved with true sound isolation.

 

[Swedishchef]

Karl,

I simply used a thing layer of foam with a Vapour barier. Underneath my concrete slab I installed a layer of foam. There is NO moisture coming from my floor whatsoever (I performed the aluminum paper on concrete with tuck tape holding it..left it there for 2 weeks, nothing underneath it). From what everybody has told me, you don't need to build subfloors anymore. building code inspector said the same thing.

Like Craig, I used all pressure treated baseplates. However, I screwed into the floor (predrilling each hole first). My drywall was left 1.5 inches off of the floor (baseboards hide the gap anyway).

Where I live, labour costs an arm and a leg. I had received a quote of $4000 in labour to frame the outside perimeter of my basement. The 2X4s would cost me $400. For $4000, I can make one pile of mistakes and fix them myself. Every 2X4 was screwed using 3 inch wood screws; much easier to reverse the impact drill than to pry out a nail with a hammer.

Andrew

 

[Corey]

I've finished a couple rooms in the basement - most recently the 16x32' "Den of Sin". Craigslist can be your friend. I bought most of the general materials at Home depot, and studded/insulated/hung drywall myself. But found a new Heat-n-glo gas fireplace for $300, engineered maple flooring for about $1/sf, and a couple guys tape/mud all the drywall for ~$200. So there is quite a bit of money to be saved by DIY and scavenging materials off CL.

 

[raiderfan]

My neighbor and I did a basement remodel (sort of) this past summer, to make a "Man Cave" in my house. I say sort of, because my basement ceiling is too low to put any sort of drop ceiling in (i would be fine moving around down there but people of normal height would not be).

First sprayed the block/stone foundation and concrete floor with a moisture treatment product called Concrete Treat. Then framed the room using PT for anything touching the floor. Added insulation, used moisture resistant sheetrock, and again PT 1x4 pine for baseboard trim (and as others have said, leaving the baseboard and drywall up from the floor a bit).

Painted the room with bathroom paint (mold/mildew resistant) and scrubbed and wet vac'd the floor, before painting it with a Patio/Floor paint (3 coats).

Whole project probably cost me around $1500, and that includes the beer for my neighbor

Came out good from what it was and for what it is -- a place for me to hide And my new wood stove is going to look great heating it, this winter

 

[vvvv]

hang poly over concrete wall be4 building studwall

 

[RSNovi]

I used Dricore for my floor. I am pretty happy with it so far. I got tile on part of it and will be carpeting the rest soon.

 

[velvetfoot]

Thanks Andrew. Already having insulation under the concrete slab is a big plus.

 

[Badfish740]

Who else thinks we should start a finished basement picture thread in the picture forum? I could use some inspiration. The previous owners of our house did a shoddy job of "finishing" the basement with poorly built walls, a badly installed drop ceiling, etc... I tore most of it (they did an ok job on the exterior walls-I tore the sheetrock out on one and they did the insulation/vapor barrier correctly so I'm assuming all the exterior walls are good) in order to start fresh. So far I've framed a built in entertainment center and sectioned off the finished side from the utility side, but I still need to do wiring, move ductwork, etc...

 

[gzecc]

Basements are notorious for shoddy work. Actually I see shoddy work everywhere, but basements are extra shoddy. I once improved a basement that had the sheetrock glued to the cinderblock walls, yep!

 

[raiderfan]

hmm...

a Man Cave Show and Tell thread? I like it!!

 

[vvvv]

Basements are notorious for shoddy work. Actually I see shoddy work everywhere, but basements are extra shoddy. I once improved a basement that had the sheetrock glued to the cinderblock walls, yep!

whats wrong with that?

 

[lowroadacres]

Basements are great space if done correctly. When we purchased our home we made the decision to go with an ICF basement.

We are almost completely done finishing the basement and it was 4 years ago next week that we dug the hole .

We have stalled out on some of the fine work like the ceiling and the base boards in part because of money and also because we are hoping to reinforce the one beam to the point where we can do away with one telepost. I know I know.. Get an engineer... We are and we will

One of the neatest tricks we were taught by our building coach was to do with anchoring the plate on the floor for the walls.

While most people use a shot fastener such as a hilti gun and nail or a hammer that you hit the 22 cal charge to drive the nails in we found a cheaper, simpler, quieter and safer way.

We used an impact drill to push the holes through the plate board and into the concrete. Then a short piece of rebar tying wire is dropped in the hole. At that point an ardox nail exactly the size of the hole is pounded through the plate and the concrete. The rebar wire holds it like its been welded in place.

As far as finishing goes I have seen some nasty basements. The most important part is making certain that it will stay dry.

 

[fbelec]

Basements are great space if done correctly. When we purchased our home we made the decision to go with an ICF basement.

We are almost completely done finishing the basement and it was 4 years ago next week that we dug the hole .

We have stalled out on some of the fine work like the ceiling and the base boards in part because of money and also because we are hoping to reinforce the one beam to the point where we can do away with one telepost. I know I know.. Get an engineer... We are and we will

One of the neatest tricks we were taught by our building coach was to do with anchoring the plate on the floor for the walls.

While most people use a shot fastener such as a hilti gun and nail or a hammer that you hit the 22 cal charge to drive the nails in we found a cheaper, simpler, quieter and safer way.

We used an impact drill to push the holes through the plate board and into the concrete. Then a short piece of rebar tying wire is dropped in the hole. At that point an ardox nail exactly the size of the hole is pounded through the plate and the concrete. The rebar wire holds it like its been welded in place.

As far as finishing goes I have seen some nasty basements. The most important part is making certain that it will stay dry.

that way of attaching the plate sounds like a great idea. and as the wood shrinks it gets even tighter. i used the largest concrete nails via a 22 gauge shot that i could, i think 2.5 or 3 inch, and sometimes it didn't hold because of the concrete being to hard and brittle. i also used red shot loads and sometimes i had to use two shots per nail. a big pain in the butt. would have done the tie wire if i knew of it. i never heard of ardox nails. can you give a description?

 

[lowroadacres]

Ardox nails are coated spiral nails.

We use four or 5 inch for popping them down. The other side benefit is that rarely does one cause a crack to start in the floor. Mind you I have rarely seen a basement floor without cracks. It just seems to happen.

 

[raiderfan]

Well...

My basement took on some water between last night and this morning. Fortunately it didn't make it over to the Man Cave side, and stayed where the work bench/wood bin side is. Hopefully it will stay that way until i can get home from work and wet vac it up again!!

 

[lowroadacres]

Yikes! Water issues in a basement can have so many different causes so I don't envy you the challenge of figuring it out.

When we built our home we went overboard with the combination of the location, the eavestroughing, weeping tile, crushed rock, blueskin on the exterior etc.

We spent more than we wanted to on the basement but we believe it is worth it.