Background
As a child, I remember my great aunt and uncle’s house being built. They were from
Rhode Island and had moved up here to enjoy retirement and to be closer to family. The
basement was left unfinished with nothing more than a wood boiler and a work bench for my
uncles tinkering. As the years came and went, unfortunately so did my great aunt and uncle.
The house was then given to her granddaughter and here small family who quickly took up
residence. By the way, this house was not a large one. Sure it had a spacious living room and
kitchen but the bed rooms were tiny, like how do you fit a bed and a dresser in there tiny. They
quickly got to rearranging things by making the two small bedrooms into one larger one, great
for mom and dad but, what about their daughter? She made out best of all with a full, finished
apartment in the basement, a teenagers dream come true. Sure, she still lived with her folks but
barely. Her own living room, bathroom, and master bed room. There was no kitchen but she
didn’t need it anyway, all she had to do was go up stairs and see what mom and dad were eating.
The same thing with laundry, go use their washer, and so on.
Recapping on these events now, years later I’ve realized that my current lack of space
problem could easily be solved by going down instead of up or sideways like I had original
thought. An addition would provide some of the space I need but would also be much more
expensive. The price of digging a hole and putting in a frost wall alone would be about the same
cost as a basement remodel. By staying in the basement I can increase the floor space of the
house by nearly 2/3 at a fraction of the cost. So far it looks like I can build three rooms. One
will be a larger bedroom for my oldest son, he is excited about having a bedroom down stairs
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and wants to take part in designing it. Another room will be a utility room for laundry and our
old reliable desktop computer. The final room will be for storage, we have so much junk that we
don’t need yet can’t seem to part with. Now I’ll have a place to put it all. Putting rooms in a
basement would be a lot less expensive than an addition and with my experience in carpentry
could be done by myself. I can also set the pace according to my schedule.
Back in high school I took part in a building construction program offered by the local
tech. school. Our teacher was a lifelong carpenter and he knew every last trick in the book. In
the class we worked on several different projects including building an addition to a house from
the ground up. The knowledge I gained from this particular project will be the most helpful in
the basement project because it covers about 90% of the things I’ll need to do. My cousin and I
built a camp on the coast a few years back and that was a good refresher of my carpentry skills
that I haven’t used since high school. I’ve also done a lot of remodeling in the upstairs portion of
the house slowly over the last few years that have involved finish carpentry work and attention to
detail. I have all the skill sets I’ll need to do most of the framing and finish work but, still have a
lot of unanswered questions.
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Why I’m Writing
I chose to search for information on a basement remodel because it is something I plan to do
in the future and I need more information before I start diving in. As my family grows larger the
free space in the house grows smaller and smaller, I decided something has to change. My wife
and I had talked about putting on an addition or even a second story but, once I got to pricing
things out I realized just how deeply in debt I would be when the dust had cleared. The idea of a
second floor was thrown out first because we would lose some of our already cramped space
while it was in process. I would also need to hire a contractor. The addition idea is still being
kicked around but at this point financially, it just isn’t practical. Then came the basement idea,
cheaper, simpler, and I think I can do it on my own but…

What do I need to do to the basement before I begin?

The floor is not perfectly level, how do I fix it and with what?

Do I need to seal off between the cement and the wood?

Will I have to buy a special tool to nail into cement?

How do I lay out a floor plan to accommodate my needs?

Day time lighting, access to drain clean outs, water softener, oil tank, furnace,
washer and dryer, etc.

How will I heat these rooms in the winter?

Can I draw air down into the basement on one end and push it back up on the other?

Will I have to use an electric monitor heater? How much will that cost to run?
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
What about wall vents to keep the air moving and not “stagnant” and trapped down
there?

My oldest boy wants his room downstairs, how can his input affect the final results?

Roughly, how much will it cost me?
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What I Know, and Don’t Know
The first real question that surrounds this project is price. In the end, what will it cost? I
know prices vary from lumber yards to the big box stores and that small, local yards often deliver
for free. I’m far enough away to know it’s not worth the trouble to ask a big retailer to deliver
for free. I know sheet rock and 2x4’s all average around the same price range. If I figure in the
gas price to go get cheaper stuff further away I may not be saving any money or time. There is a
ton of junk in my way that needs to be moved before I can even start any prep work. I assume
that the walls and floor will need to be cleaned before any kind of floor or wall framing can
begin. I know my basement floor is not perfectly level and will require some kind of Leveling
Compound, although I don’t really know what that is or how to use it. I have heard of using
some sort of poly film and pine strapping to seal off between the cement and the soon to be
finished rooms. There is also something called mastic. I think mastic is a kind of water barrier
that is spread over the exiling cement. I know of some kind of tool made to drive nails into
concrete using a blank .22 round but, I don’t have one. How much will one cost?
An exact and final floor layout will be necessary before I even get started. I know there
will need to be a utility hallway to access my large chest freezer and water softener. This will
also need to have storage space for the bags of water salts. The kitchen sink drain cleanout is
over the water softener and I will want to reach it easily if needed. I’m trying to figure out how
to accommodate the only window in that area into the main bedroom. It would be good to have a
natural day time light source and will also provide ventilation. Another hall will be needed to
access the laundry room, storage room, and my workshop area which also contains my oil
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furnace and oil tank. In the winter, heating the rooms to a comfortable temperature may be a
challenge. I have been thinking about floor vents with duct fans to pull air down stairs, at least
for the bedroom. Although I question whether or not my new pellet stove can heat the added
space without robbing heat from the upstairs. Last spring I purchased a one room, water filled
radiator heater on clearance at Wal-Mart. It claims to heat a whole room with no exposed
element and at a low energy cost. This will be my first approach but it is still in the box nine
months after being bought. I should also install some small wall vents to allow some air
movement but the floor plan will decide their location.
The bedroom will be for my oldest son, he is six years old. He is excited about having a
new bedroom and wants to add his opinion in the final finish work. He and I were in our local
building supply store and he spotted drop ceiling tiles with race cars on them. These are going to
a must for his new room. He also wants to pick his own floor but can’t decide between a rug or
black and white tiles laid out like a big checker board. Whatever his choices are they are
permanent because once it’s done, I’m finished with it.
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The Search
Choosing the basement project for my Isearch was an easy choice. I started by googling
Finished Basements. That led me to a site titled basements101. This site really gave me some
ideas for more detailed information and also good instructions with diagrams in a step by step
process. The more I hunted around and skipped from site to site I realized most of my
information would come from the internet. I fact, throughout my entire search I only cited one
resource that was not on the net, my old text book from my building construction course from
back in high school. I concentrated mostly on two areas, tips and tricks from the pros and prices
of building material. I have done my share of carpentry projects in the past but none of it
involves finishing a basement and the more advice I can get from people who have done it the
better. Design and layout played a small role in my search as well. A few sites have some great
pictures of finished basements but not much for finished floor plan ideas. Price is unfortunately
the deciding factor so I spent a lot of time on the Home Depot web site. I went with this site
primarily because of their vast online catalogue that contains just about anything related to
building. Most of my prices came from Home Depot’s site because they are about average with
prices and most of their items are available right at the store.
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What I’ve Learned
1. What do I need to do to the basement before I begin?
The first place to start is the layout or floor plan. It needs to incorporate every last
detail from existing measurements of the current space right down to the amount
of wall outlets and their location. Taking accurate measurements will aid in both
the finalized layout and estimating the final total cost. The plan also needs to
allow access to all the pipes and drains over head as well as electrical wiring.
This is where a drop ceiling comes in handy for future access. (Donovan)
2. The floor is not perfectly level, how do I fix it and with what?
A. I had originally thought that the floor would need to be leveled with some
sort of leveling compound but after reading an article at
(askthebuilder.com, Carter) the author had a much simpler idea of locating
the highest point on the floor with a transit and working backward from
there shimming the strapping at 16 in. on center as necessary to create a
level surface to lay the plywood subflooring on. (askthebuilder.com,
Carter)
B. Another alternative is to pour a thin layer of concrete and level it out but
that is not only time consuming but also rather messy. (Wagner P.395)
3. Do I need to seal off between the cement and the wood?
A. Yes, a moisture barrier is essential in almost all basements that have a
potential for moisture seeping through the cement, the web site
(doityourself.com) has a great and very cheap way to test your basements
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moisture content with nothing more than tape and a piece of tin foil.
Simply cut a small square of foil, make an air tight seal around the edges
with the tape and let it sit for a few days. When you go back to check it
and there is condensation on the cement side of the foil, there is a moisture
problem. (Anderson)
B. The solution for water proofing starts at the subfloor and wall framing. After
applying the strapping to the floor and inserting shims as needed for leveling, a
thin sheet of polyethylene moisture barrier should be stretched out and tack nailed
to the strapping. Once the floor and walls have been sealed off another length of
strapping should be nailed over the moisture barrier to the existing strapping,
pinning the film in place.
4. Will I have to buy a special tool to nail into cement?
A. Yes, if I need to anchor the bottom plate to the floor I will need to purchase
a “Power Hammer”. Many different varieties of these are available
depending on the consumers needs but all of them use a blank .22 or .27
caliber blank powder charge to propel the nail.
B. For my purposes the bottom of the line power hammer should be more than
enough. The firearm manufacturer Remington offers a wide range of
models from hammer actuated single shots to trigger fired semi-automatic
variants. Prices range on e-bay from $7.50 for the baseline model up to
$269.00 for the high end model. (e-bay.com)
C. However, for my application I may not need to anchor to the cement at all.
Modern Carpentry recommends anchoring the perimeter plates and
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strapping with a mastic adhesive or non-mastic putty. This also provides
some level of water proofing around the edges. (Wagner P. 394)
5. How do I lay out a floor plan to accommodate my needs?
A. Daytime lighting is an area of concern for my layout because I only have
one window to work with. I would prefer to keep the window in the
bedroom for three reasons. Lighting, I don’t like having lights on 24/7.
Ventilation, the air mass in the house can tend to settle in the basement and
then becomes “stale”. (Anderson) And as an emergency exit if needed.
B. I found an appealing site (BasementIdeas.com), which had tons of great
pictures of finished basements, offered final floor plans for a wide range of
sizes, and had all kinds of advice from the author. Unfortunately the
pictures were the only thing free and the site pushed the author’s book with
a $19.00 price tag. It also only pictured large basements designed by
people without a budget in mind.
C. That is when I realized I had two free draftsmen living right down the road,
my parents. Dad was a methods engineer for over forty years spending
most of his time at a drawing board. Mom is currently employed at a small
drafting company called Central Maine Drafting in Dexter, ME. I was
dumbfounded I hadn’t thought of them earlier and when I mentioned the
idea to my mother she came back with a rough layout, sketched on paper in
about an hour. It was almost exactly what I was looking for. And at my
favorite price too.
6. How will I heat these rooms in the winter?
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A. I had originally thought of drawing warm air down stairs with a floor vent
and a duct fan and pushing it back up with the same setup only flowing in
the opposite direction. After reviewing some of the comments in a forum
at (doityourself.com), this idea did not seem practical. Most comments
were limited to people with forced hot air heating thinking of tapping into
hot air ducts. Most of the expert or member comments leaned more toward
installing an electric baseboard or using an electric monitor heater to heat a
single room.
B. Because I’m really only concerned with heating the bedroom, the monitor
heater is the most practical. It is also more appealing since I already have a
monitor heater that has no exposed element and has 360 degree tip over
safety. Perfect for use in a child’s bedroom. It also claims to be cost
efficient with the highest energy drawing of 1500 watts at 12.5 amps. I’m
not quite sure how much that will cost to run but has similar electrical
requirements as my dish washer which costs about $40 to run per year
according to its energy star rating.
C. The rest of the basement seems to hover around fifty to fifty-five degrees,
which is tolerable for non living space.
7. What about wall vents to keep the air moving and not “stagnant” and trapped down
there?
Because I am not going to be using any kind of forced hot air system, I will
need to use some circular wall vents as recommended in (Modern Carpentry).
Wall vents range in size from one inch to four inch and the author says just a
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one inch should be enough to provide adequate air movement. I will most
likely use two inch vents to be on the safe side and because I already have a
two inch hole saw.(Wagner P. 340)
8. My oldest boy wants his room downstairs, how can his input affect the final results?
A. This is going to be his bedroom until the day he moves out and at seven
years old, that will not be for a long time. I want his input on how he
wants it now but at the same time I don’t want to redo the paint and
boarder three years from now because it’s to ‘childish’.
B. As a result, I’m trying to encourage him to make more mature choices
like race cars, nature, or sport oriented themes. He would prefer
something more along the lines of Sponge Bob Square Pants or The
Little Einstein’s. Hopefully we can come to some sort of compromise
that he will still like three to five years from now.
C. He did however like the race car drop ceiling panels he spotted at our
local lumber and hardware supplier. At $11.95 a piece, I’m sure we can
put a few of them in.
9. Roughly, how much will it cost me?
A. I kept most of my prices confined to (homedepot.com) to keep things
simple and generic. I got prices on individual products per piece rather
than for the total amount. My reasoning for this is because I don’t have
a final plan put in place yet but I do know the approximate floor area
and most everything I need. I started with the basic framing supplies
and preparation stuff and worked my way through to the finished
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interior stuff. I’m going to keep this to the basic room construction and
exclude the fine finish stuff because prices vary so much when it
comes to moldings and other fine finish details.
B. I started with lumber. All lumber prices come from (homedepot.com)
to keep it simple. A 2”x4”x8’ costs $3.29 per piece, a 4’x8’ sheet of ½
inch plywood sells for $13.38, and the 1”x3”x12’ pine strapping goes
for $2.21 per length.
C. Next were the various odds and ends that would be needed for prep
work and framing. Hercules Non Mastic putty sells for $ 4.97 per five
gallon bucket. MP Global moisture barrier polyethylene film sells for
$18.07 for one-hundred square feet. Foam pipe insulation from
Armacell comes in six foot sections for ¾ inch pipe for $1.18 a piece.
D. I then moved on to closing in the room. I did a google search to find
out the R value of eight inch thick concrete to see if it was worthwhile
to insulate. I was surprised to learn that eight inch thick concrete has
about the same R value as a sheet of plain window glass, 1.11.
(answers.yahoo.com) Owen Corning R-13 insulation, 15”x32’ sells for
$9.98 per roll. One roll will fill four feet of exterior wall. ½”x4’x8’
drywall retails for $5.98 per sheet. And a box of 200 1 1/2” drywall
screws sells for $5.94.
E. The last prices I got from (homedepot.com) were for the interior doors,
suspended ceiling, and wall vents. A no frills, pre hung 30”x80” door
is $85.00. The 2” wall vents from Master Flow are $8.38 for a package
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of six. I was able to find an Armstrong 2’x2’ suspended ceiling
installation kit that covers sixty-four square feet for $44.79. I was
disappointed though buy their selection of ceiling tiles and moved on
to another site.
F. I did another google search for suspended ceiling tiles and gave me the
site (ceilume.com). This site has everything imaginable for ceiling
tiles but many of the prices were almost scary. I estimated the tiles
needed for a 24’x30’ room, much larger than I need for just the bed
room but about right if a laundry room and storage room were
included. 180 tiles would be needed to cover this area. For plain white
‘featherlite’ tiles, all 180 of them would be $928.00! The price was
shocking to say the least. That is about a third of my total budget.
G. I didn’t include any electrical pricing because a friend of my parents is
a master electrician and he said it would be roughly $500.00 for
supplies and labor but still has not come to do an estimate.
H. My son was also happy with the same laminate flooring I recently
installed throughout the upstairs of the house. This is good because I
still have about sixty square feet of it left and can get more for only
$38.70 for twenty-six square feet. I also have plenty of the noise
dampening underlayment. At least that may save some money.
I. After totaling everything up and figuring for a 12’x12’ room to start
with my total cost can be estimated at about $1625.00 with the
estimated electrical work included. Much less expensive that an
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addition would be. If I were to add an addition of the same size the
total price would be at least triple that amount.
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THE FUTURE
With all the information I gathered from the searching, I feel I have a lot more
knowledge on finishing a basement. I was overwhelmed by the amount of free info available on
the internet. My son’s input is greatly appreciated. And this will give me a good foundation of
knowledge to build on for further basement renovation projects.
After gathering all the prices I decided down is defiantly the way to go.
Considering cost as a deciding factor, it was an easy decision. With an addition like I had
originally considered I would need to buy all the same stuff mentioned in the search section and
more of it. Not to mention everything for the outside like more sheathing, siding, and a roof.
With any luck all this will get underway in the spring of 2009 with preparation and cleaning
going on through this winter.
Hopefully my son and I can come to a conclusion for his bedroom theme. I’m
glad he decided to go with the same floor we have upstairs, cost aside. At least I have already
worked with it and know how it behaves and misbehaves. I think the real hard part will be
moving all of his toys and furniture down the stairs.
I’m not stopping with just a bedroom either. A new laundry room/ computer
room will be next on the list, along with a storage area. The more I research, the more I realized
doing it all at once was more than I could handle by myself. So I can do it one step at a time, at
my own pace and not worry about getting it closed in by next winter like I would be with an
addition. Eventually it might nice to make a nice finished workshop or a game room like I saw
on a few of those different sites.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anderson, Murry. "How-to topics Basement Remodeling." Doityourself.com. 2 Nov. 2008
<http://www.doityourself.com/scat/basementremodeling>.
This site offered the most useful information available. It has a great overview of the
entire basement project from start to finish with great do it yourself tips. The forum
section was useful for answering questions without having to ask them.
Carter, Tim. "Basement & Unfinished Space-Finishing/Construction Tips." Ask the Builder.com.
16 Oct. 2008 <http://www.askthebuilder.com/b152_basement_unfinished_space__finishing_construction_tips.shtml>.
I got a lot of good tricks and tips from this one. Ask the Builder shares some valuable
info from an insider’s perspective right from the start. You need to do some digging to
get the most out of it but that only shows how much info is available on this site. A site
search not powered by google would be helpful.
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Ceilume THE SMART CEILING TILE. 8 Nov. 2008 <http://www.ceilume.com/>.
This site has a huge selection of drop in ceiling tiles although the prices can be
rather frightening.
Donovan, Mark J. "Http://www.aBasement Ceilings - Dropped Ceiling Tiles vs Drywall
Ceilingsskthebuilder.com/B152_Basement_Unfinished_Space__Finishing_Construction_Tips.shtml." HOME ADDITION PLUS. 1 Nov. 2008
<http://www.homeadditionplus.com/basement-info/basement-ceilings-dropped-ceilingtiles-vs-drywall-ceilings.htm>.
This site had a good article contrasting the advantages and disadvantages of using
sheetrock or drywall for the ceiling. It helped me make the decision to go with a drop
ceiling to fit my needs.
"Ebay." Ebay. 13 Nov. 2008 <http://www.ebay.com/>.
I only used ebay to find prices on tools and equipment. It was the first time I ever used
the site and did not get to involved with.
Google. 26 Oct. 2008 <http://www.google.com/search?q=google&rls=com.microsoft:*&ie=utf8&oe=utf-8&startindex=&startpage=1;>.
Google was what got things really moving along for me. This is the site I used most for
just asking random questions also.
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Homedepot. Home Depot. 16 Oct. 2008
<http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/homepageview?storeid=10051&
catalogid=10053&langid=1&orig_ref=http%3a%2f%2fwww.google.com%2fsearch%3fq%3dhome%2bdepot%26rl
s%3dcom.microsoft%3a*%26ie%3dutf-8%26oe%3dutf8%26startindex%3d%26startpage>.
Home Depot is where I got most of my pricing. Extremely helpful and they carry such a
broad range of products.
Schrock, David S. "How to turn your dark, unfinished basement into a bright, comfortable living
space you can enjoy for years to come." Basement Ideas. 2008. 13 Nov. 2008
<http://www.basementideas.com/>.
This site was only good for creating my own ideas. The site author is trying to sell his
book.
Wagner, Willis H. Modern Carpentry. City Published: Goodheart-Willcox Publisher, 1992.
340+.
This is my old reliable text book from high school. I was able to keep it after finishing
the course and I have used it as a reliable reference for years.
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Yahoo! ANSWERS. 8 Nov. 2008 <http://answers.yahoo.com/>.
I only used this site to answer a few random questions but the answers it gave me were
correct and helpful.