Basement Finish

[dirtyninety]

Without even reading the posts on here, I will say DO NOT FINISH IT!!!!! Your tax assessor will love that you did and increase your taxes by, guessing here, 15%. You will not be able to easily fish and install future wires and infrastructure. And the obvious this week is that water will win eventually....only the best walk-out homes are immune from basement water.
I suggest: polish your concrete. buy some rugs...you can even have custom rugs seamed to your dimensions of your rooms. spray paing the ceiling black around all existing utilities and structures like most contemporary commercial buildings choose to do. Easy.

 

[cloneteach]

Without even reading the posts on here, I will say DO NOT FINISH IT!!!!! Your tax assessor will love that you did and increase your taxes by, guessing here, 15%. You will not be able to easily fish and install future wires and infrastructure. And the obvious this week is that water will win eventually....only the best walk-out homes are immune from basement water.
I suggest: polish your concrete. buy some rugs...you can even have custom rugs seamed to your dimensions of your rooms. spray paing the ceiling black around all existing utilities and structures like most contemporary commercial buildings choose to do. Easy.

Sounds like a lovely place to relax in....

 

[dmclone]

Without even reading the posts on here, I will say DO NOT FINISH IT!!!!! Your tax assessor will love that you did and increase your taxes by, guessing here, 15%. You will not be able to easily fish and install future wires and infrastructure. And the obvious this week is that water will win eventually....only the best walk-out homes are immune from basement water.
I suggest: polish your concrete. buy some rugs...you can even have custom rugs seamed to your dimensions of your rooms. spray paing the ceiling black around all existing utilities and structures like most contemporary commercial buildings choose to do. Easy.

I would wait a few years to see if you have water issues, we've lived in this house for 6 years hd not a drop. I have to pour water down our sump pump jut to make sure it works.

 

[dirtyninety]

Sounds like a lovely place to relax in....

it is to me. spill beer, no problem. water in basement, no problem. minimal drywall. Start noticing how prevalent polished concrete is now everywhere. Suite yourself I guess......With last weeks rain there was enough basement carpet laying by the streets to fill Jack Trice Stadium here in Cedar Rapids. Make sure you have a phone down there when 1980's wall-to-wall carpet interior design calls you.

 

[cloneluke80]

Is it hard to wire television in basement to television on main floor? I know my aunt and uncle had this setup. Not sure how it worked.

This isnt too bad, if you can drop the wire (i have just drilled a 1 in hole through the floor) If you are referring to running 1 satellite box to 2 tvs, then yes this is doable as mentioned before, you need an hdmi splitter box and possibly more depending on how far you have to go... i do this today for my wife to run on the treadmill downstairs, we just have to watch the same thing...

 

[JP4CY]

it is to me. spill beer, no problem. water in basement, no problem. minimal drywall. Start noticing how prevalent polished concrete is now everywhere. Suite yourself I guess......With last weeks rain there was enough basement carpet laying by the streets to fill Jack Trice Stadium here in Cedar Rapids. Make sure you have a phone down there when 1980's wall-to-wall carpet interior design calls you.

Well that's our answer to why you'd want to relax in the comforts of spilled beer and concrete.

 

[cloneteach]

Well that's our answer to why you'd want to relax in the comforts of spilled beer and concrete.

Yea-this house will be in Marion, MUCH better

 

[cloneteach]

How long for framing? I have a friend that works in the business that is going to help/do framing and drywall

 

[CYdTracked]

Every basement finish is different depending on the situation and how many features you want to have plus who do you know that could cut you some deals. The more you add with lighting and entertainment luxuries the more you'll probably spend too. It also helps to know people that either are professionals that will cut you a deal or give you a "friend discount" for doing electrical, plumbing, etc. As long as you know 1 guy that has framed and hung drywall before just offer some beer and food to a handful of buddies and over a couple weekends about anyone can frame and hang drywall plus you'll save some money buying the materials yourself. It also pays to know people that are electricians and plumbers which fortunately I do and I got my basement wired for a substantial discount. The 1 part you do not want to mess up on is the mudding, taping, and texture part because your seams will show in the finished product if it is not done well. Hopefully you either know someone that is good at it because it is a time consuming process or you just pay a contractor to do it. Paint and trim work your can do yourself too and depending on your basement situation sometime you can even do the carpet yourself too. I didn't put a pad down or tack mine since my house was built in the 1950's and has cinder block foundation so it has a tendency to seep moisture through the floor when we get excessive rainfall and flooding conditions.

Or you can do what I know a few friends of mine have done is hire some "workers" and pay them in cash and they'll do it cheap and quickly. Just depends on how trusting you are but I hate to sound stereotypical by saying this but the stories you hear about the guys hanging out in the parking lots of places like Home Depot looking for work, it really happens and a lot of those guys do pretty good work.

 

[CYdTracked]

Without even reading the posts on here, I will say DO NOT FINISH IT!!!!! Your tax assessor will love that you did and increase your taxes by, guessing here, 15%. You will not be able to easily fish and install future wires and infrastructure. And the obvious this week is that water will win eventually....only the best walk-out homes are immune from basement water.
I suggest: polish your concrete. buy some rugs...you can even have custom rugs seamed to your dimensions of your rooms. spray paing the ceiling black around all existing utilities and structures like most contemporary commercial buildings choose to do. Easy.

This is why you finish it yourself so you don't have to have contractors pull permits from the city to know about you finishing it. Let the next owners deal with the increased assessment once the city finds out it is finished when they have to update the property description. I do agree, unless you pay good $ for a professional to come in and waterproof your basement, most homes will eventually have water problems at some point. I did all I could with mine without going the professional route by applying oil based waterproofing paint (latex paint peels right off when water sits on it) on all the concrete surfaces and a really thick coat of oil based concrete floor paint too and even after all that with a sump pump and tile water has found ways to seep in through the floor in places that I have applied multiple coats of paint so all it takes is a pinhole leak to get some moisture.

 

[ISUFan22]

Without even reading the posts on here, I will say DO NOT FINISH IT!!!!! Your tax assessor will love that you did and increase your taxes by, guessing here, 15%. You will not be able to easily fish and install future wires and infrastructure. And the obvious this week is that water will win eventually....only the best walk-out homes are immune from basement water.
I suggest: polish your concrete. buy some rugs...you can even have custom rugs seamed to your dimensions of your rooms. spray paing the ceiling black around all existing utilities and structures like most contemporary commercial buildings choose to do. Easy.

it is to me. spill beer, no problem. water in basement, no problem. minimal drywall. Start noticing how prevalent polished concrete is now everywhere. Suite yourself I guess......With last weeks rain there was enough basement carpet laying by the streets to fill Jack Trice Stadium here in Cedar Rapids. Make sure you have a phone down there when 1980's wall-to-wall carpet interior design calls you.

LOL

 

[stateofmind]

How long for framing? I have a friend that works in the business that is going to help/do framing and drywall

So I'm in the middle of my finish project. I started on April 12th, tearing out the concrete to move my rough-in plumbing from the front to the back of the house. I was able to start framing on the 17th and took three days off. I've never done a framing job before and I was practically all done on Friday, the 19th. I did it by myself. If I would've had a helper I could've easily finished this in two-three days. Roughly 650-700 sq ft total. I borrowed Cyclonewoe's framing nailer and a powder-actuated hammer for anchoring the walls. If you get the pre-cut 2x4s for an eight foot ceiling, one wall takes less than 15 minutes. The bulkhead, closets, drywall nailers are what takes the time.

Now, they were going to start drywalling today/tomorrow, but I had to move them out to Monday because I didn't order enough speaker wire to cover my crazy wiring. But two weeks in and I'm ready for drywall. Only took three days off so far and hired out plumbing, electrical, drywall, and HVAC.

 

[cloneteach]

So I'm in the middle of my finish project. I started on April 12th, tearing out the concrete to move my rough-in plumbing from the front to the back of the house. I was able to start framing on the 17th and took three days off. I've never done a framing job before and I was practically all done on Friday, the 19th. I did it by myself. If I would've had a helper I could've easily finished this in two-three days. Roughly 650-700 sq ft total. I borrowed Cyclonewoe's framing nailer and a powder-actuated hammer for anchoring the walls. If you get the pre-cut 2x4s for an eight foot ceiling, one wall takes less than 15 minutes. The bulkhead, closets, drywall nailers are what takes the time.

Now, they were going to start drywalling today/tomorrow, but I had to move them out to Monday because I didn't order enough speaker wire to cover my crazy wiring. But two weeks in and I'm ready for drywall. Only took three days off so far and hired out plumbing, electrical, drywall, and HVAC.

How long did it take from talking to electrical, plumbing, HVAC to get to your work?

 

[cloneteach]

Wanted to bump this thread as I'm getting closer to being done with this. Drywall should be finished in the next few days. We are looking at what color of trim and doors to put in. Upstairs we have oak, but think white will look better. Is it stupid to have different trim downstairs vs upstairs?

 

[Cyclonepride]

Wanted to bump this thread as I'm getting closer to being done with this. Drywall should be finished in the next few days. We are looking at what color of trim and doors to put in. Upstairs we have oak, but think white will look better. Is it stupid to have different trim downstairs vs upstairs?

No, I see that all the time.

 

[chrismiller4isu]

Wanted to bump this thread as I'm getting closer to being done with this. Drywall should be finished in the next few days. We are looking at what color of trim and doors to put in. Upstairs we have oak, but think white will look better. Is it stupid to have different trim downstairs vs upstairs?

For what it's worth we a just a few steps ahead of you and ordered the exact same trim and doors as the upstairs.

 

[Sousaclone]

Wanted to bump this thread as I'm getting closer to being done with this. Drywall should be finished in the next few days. We are looking at what color of trim and doors to put in. Upstairs we have oak, but think white will look better. Is it stupid to have different trim downstairs vs upstairs?

I would try to match styles if you can, but as far as color I wouldn't worry about it. When my parents redid their upstair bathroom they had the trim and door on the bathroom side painted white while the hallway side is stained wood. Looks just fine.

 

[stateofmind]

We have oak and natural tones upstairs and did the basement in white trim and gray walls. It' looks great. We changed the trim on the other side of the door to the bsmt. We asked realtors and builders and all said it's done all the time. As long as you do it right it won't matter. We like it so much we may end up changing the upstairs.