We have an unfinished basement. There are (basically) four rooms in the basement. I would like to fix up each room, one at a time.
The basement has a concrete floor, poured concrete walls, and joists in the ceiling. That’s it. There are no water problems.
I think I can do some or most of the work myself. But at the same time, I’ve never done anything like this before, and am not sure where to begin.
Should I frame the concrete walls with 2 X 4s? Metal or wood? Should I put some kind of sealer on the walls before I frame them? Should I insulate the walls (between the studs)? I eventually want to put up dry wall.
Again, I don’t know where to begin. Is there a good book on the subject? Should I hire an experienced person to help me? Any advice is appreciated.
I’m in a basement that I’ve turned into a fully furnished apartment. I was the designer, electrician, one of the carpenters and heating/AC tech. My brother was the plumber. We subbed out the drywall and tile work.
First things first: You have to concern yourself with two major issues: keep out water and radon gas.
I would say that, instead, there is no water build-up that you notice.
We put in a “French Drain” system on the perimeter of the basement. We hired a firm that came in and cut the concrete in two lines all the way around, which we broke out then dug a trench 12" wide. The trench ends in a sump pit in one corner. The trench was lined with gravel, and a perforated plastic hose was laid in, covered with more gravel, and concreted over. The sump pump pit is equipped with an electric pump and a battery backup pump. This is the most important bit. If the basement is not kept dry, anything you build will rot.
After ensuring dryness, bring in a radon specialist and seal the basement against this deadly gas.
We used wooden studs. We didn’t bother to seal the walls, as the French Drain system keeps the basement perfectly dry - enough that we have carpet laid on the floor. We did insulate the walls, which has proven vital here in Kansas City. We also insulated the joists above, and used so-called “Z” channel to isolate the ceiling wallboard from floor above to keep noise transmission down.
I’m pretty sure there’s underground drain tile around the outside of the basement. Plus one basement wall is completely exposed, which (I’m guessing) relieves some of the water pressure. Even then, you’re saying I could still have water problems? I guess I’m not familiar with the French Drain…
There are building advisors in the yellow pages. They have humidity meters etc, and can advise you on what your particular basement needs to be liveable. They can also advise you what fixing it up would cost, so you can analyse if it is worth it to you. Such an advice would cost a two or three hundred bucks, but is worth the money. And as you pay, the advisor has no agenda to advise you costly stuff you don’t need or pass over flaws. Such advisors are also insured: if they are wrong, you can sue them
In the Netherlands, such an building inspection is routinely ordered and paid for by a serious prospective buyer.
Mind if I hijack?
We are thinking of moving a wall in our furnished basement - basically just panelling hung on 2x4s.
Stupid question - how do I affix the footers to the concrete floor?
(Yeah - I’m about to start researching, but since I saw this thread . . .)
i don’t think you want to seal the inside of the walls, any water stopped there is destructive to the walls. stop the water on the outside through sealing or draining or let it through. moisture can be duhumidified out.
I assume this is not a load bearing wall, and will be attached to the ceiling joists. I don’t see why Liquid Nails and Tapcons wouldn’t work. You will need a masonry bit (sometimes supplied with the Tapcons) for drilling pilot holes in the concrete.
Dinsale… you can use a hammer and specially hardened nails. though I wouldn’t. You can drill and screw or my favorite a powder actuated nail gun. If your just moving one wall get a single shot version from a DIY store and box of cartridges. They’re really fast and easy to use.
Re: putting a wall in, I just used concrete nails, which are pretty hard to nail in. I would recommend the black powder nailer, which is very fast and not too expensive. Masonry drilling and epoxy is overkill.
Re: OP, I would recommend putting up wood 2x4s and using spray foam for the walls. It comes in propane-like containers and you just spray it on. I haven’t done it myself, but Mike Holmes (the patron saint of home improvement in Canada) is always telling people to use it.
I just spent a year finishing my basement. Crafter-Man, it’s not as hard as you think. Like WPA-Guy said…get a book. I had one for reference…details, tips and tricks, that sort of thing. Otherwise it’s a very straightforward process.
I put in 2x4 studs, electircal outlets, etc per code (also referenced in the book), lots of lights and switches (it’s much easier before the drywall goes up), closets, doors, etc. I put in a drop ceiling (2.5 inches from the joists) as I wanted to make sure I could access utilities, etc in the ceiling.
I used a single-shot powder actuated nail gun (Remington). It worked like a charm driving nails into a fully hardened poured concrete floor. A compressor and nail driver for stud assembly was a huge time and effort saver.
Are you sure you want to do one room at a time?It’s a messy business.
I had a great time and the results are very satisfying.
Good luck.
Thanks.
I’m basically just relocating one non-load bearing wall to change the percentage of basement space in each of 2 rooms. Want to do the job right, but no desire to overengineer or make it a much bigger project than it needs to be.
My wife is a little paranoid about drains backing up, smoke detectors (we have 8 in our 2100 sq. ft. house), etc. A neighbor would poke fun at her when he saw the plumber’s truck in our drive every two years or so to clean out the drains.
This spring, guess who had water in his basement? He had to rent a mini backhoe to dig up all the root-&-sand plugged drain tile in the front yard, which led to a full relandscaping project which just ended about two weeks ago.
Moral: drains are useless unless they are maintained.
Use 2x4 studs. Metal or wood is your choice. Put up some sort of vapor barrier on the outside walls. Seal the walls or use plastic sheets that they make for this sort of thing.
The ceiling is a pain in the backside, only because you are constantly working over your head. Rather than rent ceiling jacks, I just made up T stands using 2x4’s to hold the drywall up until my son and I could screw it into place. Mark the location of the ceiling joists on the walls so you can see where to drive the screws once the drywall is up in place.
There are good tutorials for all of this stuff online. You can find good books at the bookstore and library as well.
If you’re planning to put in a bathroom, I’d get the trenching done by professionals. I got an estimate from plumbers for doing a trench, and it was quite reasonable (I didn’t know plumbers did concrete trenching, but it makes sense).
We have an unfinished basement, too, and the first thing we’re doing is planning our renovation with a cheap cad program.
ETA: I’m going to go against the crowd here and say if you don’t have a clue what you’re doing, get some professional help. Mike Holmes is the Canadian patron saint of renos because he comes in and fixes the incredibly bad (and often unsafe) work done by people who don’t know what they’re doing.
I’d say wood studs makes a lot more sense for non-professionals. Metal studs can be somewhat tricky to work with, and have a tendency buckle if not handled carefully. Wood is a lot more forgiving.
