Basement Finishing - What Should I Know?

[jyl]

Anyone finished off a basement?

Mine is 1,030 sq ft.

Completely dry, no matter how wet the season.

89" from concrete floor to bottom of joists. I figure I can lose 2" to floor and ceiling and have 7' 3" ceilings - marginal?

Unfinished. Lots of ductwork, electrical, plumbing on the west side (will be soffit city if finished) almost none on the east side (ceilings can be almost entirely uninterrupted).

Some windows, wide/tall/large enough for legal egress but bottom sill is not close enough to the floor, would need to be extended about 2 feet which would make them >4' tall x 3' wide in appx 2' deep wells.

The main drain stack is on the west side. Any floor-level drain (toilet, shower, etc) elsewhere will require the slab to be cut/trenched. All other wiring, gas, water supply, etc will be easy enough to run.

My wife wants to put an in-law/guest unit in the east half (1 bdrm, 1 bath, kitchenette w/ sitting room); a pottery studio, laundry room, small darkroom, and exercise room on the west half (I've played w/ possible plans, we can fit most though not all of that).

If we did it, I'd want it to look like the other levels - consistent trimwork, floors (hardwood), hardware.

Anyone done this? Lessons learned? Pitfalls that weren't obvious at first? DIY content? Cost? What's required for code?

I am not planning this ASAP, but want to figure if this is something we should plan on. The insulation, interior wall framing, wiring, drywall, floor installation, trimwork, paint, fixtures are within my meager DIY skills. The plumbing, window enlargement, window well construction, are not.

I would probably want to do any earthquake retrofit as part of the project. That's another topic.

[jyl]

An example of what my wife wants.

[Por_sha911]

I refinished a basement about 12 years ago. Go ahead and seal concrete block walls and floor (I used a product called "Damtite") to ensure no moisture comes through. I found that even with no leaking or moisture before refinishing, plenty of air flow, and all the moisture sealing, a dehumidifier took a lot of water out of the air down there. There wasn't a mold problem but I guess the colder air condensed faster down there and I didn't want to wait and find out...

Insulate the walls heavily since it will usually be cold down there unless you add supplemental heat to a central HVAC (you will want to check to see if your current HVAC is big enough to handle the extra 1000 sq ft). You'll be amazed how cold concrete floor is. Use the heaviest padding under the carpet for extra warmth.

You will find that less than 7.5' is going to take some getting used to. Do anything you can to get as much height as possible. I chose a drop ceiling so I had access to wiring, HVAC vents, and plumbing that was attached above. To save headroom, I sheet rocked around the aluminum boxed HVAC duct that ran the center of the room's ceiling and put the drop ceiling on either side. I also had to box in the water shutoff and fuse box in two different corners of the room. I used hinged kitchen cabinet doors for access. Painted them the same color as the walls to blend in.

Run plenty of electrical outlets. You'll be amazed as to there's never too many. Think about if you want a phone jack and where. If you don't have a lot of natural light, get plenty of lighting. Flush mount 4' fluorescent lights don't burn a lot of juice and give a ton of light.

Take your time. Plan things out. If Plan thrice, measure twice, cut once.

[A930Rocket]

I take it the red walls are new walls?

The bedroom looks very small with no closet. In addition, you'll need a window with egress for it to be legal (maybe that's why there is no window?) 10'x12' would be better and that's tight unles you want a single or double bed in there.

See what duct work you can move and push to the sides of rooms and box in at the ceiling. Keeps the clg as high as possible. 7' - 6" is short. but livable.

Will the baement have HVAC? Will it be located with the other one?

What are the bath dims? The short dim is hard to read, but 5' - 1 1/2" x 8' works.

Getting the shower/tub, toilet and sink drain line to the main is not going to be fun. Plan on doing this first because of the debris/fumes.

Is that a window with a well (green) outside? I'd leave it out rather than deal with the cost, hassle and potential problems for what you might get.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Por_sha911

I refinished a basement about 12 years ago...Take your time. Plan things out. If Plan thrice, measure twice, cut once.

Agree with everything said in the previous post.

I have a basement with just about the same dimensions, which we finished about 16 years ago to make an Au Pair apartment with a bathroom and small kitchenette. The only real difference is that there is a separate entrance to and from the basement

We had a lot less natural light than you seem too, so we left the floor plan as open as possible...there is only one door in the basement. Our ceiling heights are the same as yours, perhaps a bit less.

For instance, between the sitting room and the bedroom we left a 12 foot gap, which we can close with curtains. What we found is that, like a hotel, people that stay downstairs like openness.

We tiled in a very light tone, which helped to, again, give a feel of space: no carpet.

We used lots of recessed lighting against light wall color.

Lastly, I think your entry space is wasted a bit.

Nice, however. My kids absolutely love the basement.

[jyl]

Sorry about the unreadable stuff.

The wall locations feel, to me, somewhat dictated by the location of the existing beams and posts. The tops of the posts are yellow in the diagram. Also, from the label "entry" leftward, the ceiling will be polluted by all kinds of soffits concealing ductwork, so it seemed easier to save that side of the basement for the more utilitarian rooms. I will take another look though.

Anyway, in this sketch, the dimensions of the rooms are:

- Bath 60" x 107"
The 60" is variable and more/less results in a smaller/larger bedroom.
The 107" can be larger without much impact on anything. So maybe I can tweak the bathroom size to make the bedroom larger and find room for a closet.
This location has no window currently.

- Bedroom 123" x 107"
The 123" depends on the bathroom, the 107" could be longer if I integrate the post into a closet or something.
There is a window at the bedroom location, it would be larger with a egress well outside if this is done. Southern exposure, that window will get a ton of light.

- Sitting room (stupid name, basically means the rest of the in-law/guest unit) is 231" x 187"
The 187" can't be larger given the location of the stairwell.
The 231" will be smaller if the bedroom and bathroom are larger.
This room location currently has zero windows, so as far as I know, it will need an egress window. The window shown is the only possible location, it is on the north side of the house so won't get much sun. There is some potential of making it a walk-out door into a entry well with stairs, though that would add considerable complication.

- The studio is 120" x 266". One third of it basically just is the HVAC and room to service it. The windows are existing, one can be enlarged to legal egress size, the other can't (no room for a large enough well).

- The thought behind the entry area is that I wouldn't want to go down there and feel like I'm crawling through maze of little rooms to reach the in-law unit, it would be nice to have a spacious transition. I don't know if the idea makes any sense, actually it makes less sense as I look at it, especially given the ductwork.

What's it like in a space with 7' 3" ceilings? Is is oppressive? Not worth trying to build out?

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by jyl

What's it like in a space with 7' 3" ceilings? Is is oppressive? Not worth trying to build out?

John,

I'm 6'4" and have no issues with our ceiling height, which is within rounding error the same as yours.

All the color, lighting, furniture and flooring choices have to be made with that in mind. It can work.

Our basement has the staircase dividing the space, similar to yours. The difference is that the foot of the staircase at the bottom is against the wall...all free space is behind it. That really simplified our open floor plan.

If it were me, I'd have movable walls in the utility areas, where practical.

I'd switch the bedroom and bath, using the space under the stairwell for a closet/storage. Again, like a hotel room, everything would be open except the bathroom, which, with angled door and a window, would be cool.

In our basement, there are no windows in the bathroom or bedroom...your layout could have both, since with an open sitting room and bedroom would offer natural light.

Great project. As you can tell, I love systems engineering stuff

[azasadny]

Finishing a basement is a great project. You really get a lot of "bang for the buck", especially in parts of the country with cold winters and hot summers as the basement is warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

[A930Rocket]

Swapping the bed and bath is a good idea to use the space under the stairs. Some it will be usable as regular closet space and further under the stairs will be somewhat useable.

What about some of these changes?