So I'm getting the new project itch. Unfortunately, it's not a $10 project.

Right now, I have a full, unfinished basement. 1400 square feet or so. My thought are to finish a little less than half and leave the other as a workshop/storage area... Put in a pool table, TV, etc. down there. No plumbing (bathrooms)... Simply a room to hang out in. Drop ceiling and probably put down some carpet. I can take some pictures to help illustrate my ideas...


So I'm trying to think of the right plan of attack. Has anyone gone down this road themselves? How did you take on something like this? Anyone know a general rule of thumb for cost per square foot?

Time to share ideas and thoughts!!!

 

If it's DIY, cost is pretty easy to figure out. Get the going rate for lumber and drywall... factor in the drop ceiling... have at it.

You could also use that owens corning basement finishing shit... easier then drywall... especially if you need to get behind the wall for something.

 

Oh, and I suggest DRICORE subfloor system... ~$2-3 sq ft.

 

Draw the basement as the your vision of the final finished basement. Then you can tackle a portion at a time.

Personally Dislike drop ceiling for some reason (access to plumbing and wiring would be good). Drywall make much nice looking space.


Dri-core floor is nice. But way too expensive.

Carpet would be easier (professional installation)

 

I did the workshop first, six years ago.

I'm still working on the rest of the basement. It gets used to store things that get ... processed ... in the workshop. Like oak, cherry, and walnut. My wife is dropping more and more frequent hints that I need to finish it.

Mike

 

Assuming you have a rough-in, I'd rethink not putting a bath in (neither hard nor necessarily expensive). At least make sure you make allowances in your plans so that one can be added later. BTW, I installed a utility sink in my workshop a few years ago and can't believe how often I use it. Something else to consider....

 

I'm in the middle of my basement finishing Scrib. Just about finished putting up the drywall this past weekend.

I basically laid out what I wanted on paper took measurements to calculate supplies and began framing. As for cost, I have no idea. I've kept every receipt from every purchase so far and plan to add it up at the end.

And I agree with the bathroom. I put one in. Had to break concrete to get it done but it will be well worth it IMO.

A Dri core subfloor is only $1.29 CAD up here, not very expensive at all considering. I'm still trying to decide whether or not to put one in as well.

 

No rough-in for the bathroom. We decided against it when building. Why? I don't know. But I'm not too worried about it. Laundry room is on the main floor. Already have 3 bathrooms in the house. The room is going to be an entertainment area... So we can avoid the plumbing, IMHO.

I have the area in my head, and certainly need to get it on to paper. It should be pretty straight forward. Part of the electrical is already done. Bare concrete walls, and I will be able to cut into the existing HVAC ducts for hot and cold air returns.

I'm just trying to get an idea of cost. I'll do some more digging.

 

I agree, but if you saw what it would take to get to get the ceiling drywalled, you'd think twice too... I'll take some pics to try to illustrate.

I'm all for drywall, but I'm definitely going drop ceiling.


I just want a decent size room down there... Doesn't need to be fancy.

 

Scrib, so far I've spent about $2000 on wood, drywall and odds and ends. Your basement is almost double my space down there so you get the picture. Add another 2 to 4K for flooring and drop ceiling and maybe another 1K if you plan to hire a drywall taper and your at 5-7K.

 

Mudding a ceiling is a bitch, especially a high ceiling. I like fact that with a drop ceiling, if you change up the room, it's very easy to change the lighting. Move a couple of panels and you're done. And the drop ceilings today can look pretty cool.

We're starting our basement next month. My Dad and I are doing it.

We're going with metal studs for the framing. They are comparable in price to wood (~$3 a piece) but make construction soooo much easier. We've probably done 5 or 6 with these and 2 with 2x4 and these are sooo much better. And carrying them down the basement is a breeze.

to assemble a wall: Put up a top cap and a bottom plate and start sliding in the metal studs. 4 self-tapping screws and it's attached. Don't like the layout, remove a few screws and do it again. Can't say the same with stick construction. I hated building the walls on the ground only to find out that there was a low spot on one of the joists and the wall won't go up.

As for estimating, I agree with everyone else. Go get some tape and tape out the walls and rooms and measure everything out. Add 10% for waste and goofs.

Drywall has definitely gone up in price since the last basement we did. Lowes had 4x8 sheets for $9.35 a piece.

Oh and Soopa, I believe the Owens Corning basement system is only for pros. I don't believe the DIYer can purchase it. On an interesting note, my Dad worked for them over 40 yrs ago and that was the product he was making (plant). Back then it was only for commercial use.

 

4x8 drywall is $11.97 a sheet up here.

Ken, are you puting in a Kitchen? That was one of the reason's I went with wood studs. You can't hang heavy loads on steel studs.

 

Hire a guy to tape and sand the drywall to ready for paint.


1/2 of the time (my time for tape and sand) and no inhaling that dust.

 

Thats what I'm doing. I won't even attempt to try it myself.

 

Drywall might look nicer in a ceiling, but there's no place for it in a basement... especially if you don't have an open web joist system. For a basement, I'd always go with convenience over appearance. Like you said, you have the rest of the house for that "fine" finish.

Dom's estimates are reasonable. It cost me about $1000 in lumber for a space 1/4 that size, so $4000+ is realistic.

Then factor in flooring (you could just keep bare concrete and stain/polish on the cheap), paint, lighting.

 

Fixed.

I ended up with drywall ceilings simply because of height concerns. I had 7 ft 8in to start with. Dropping the ceiling 3-4 inches was just too much IMO. If I had at least 8ft I would have certainly went with the drop ceiling.

I'd be interested to see why Scrib can't drywall the ceiling though?

 

I suspect the heating ducts, plumbing, electrical Conduit, etc. pretruding beyond the floor joist.

 

Ours do. You can still do a drop ceiling. You just have to box in the ducts and piping with drywall. So you end up with several drop sections.

 

Exactly. I'll take pics of mine but I have the heat ducts, piping and iron floor joists running in a "T" shape so I boxed it all in with 2x3 framing and drywall. The boxes drop 11.5 inches from the ceiling.

 

Of course you can.


Maybe Scrib is not doing drywall for that reason and opt for drop ceiling.

 

Dom, why did you have to break concrete to get your washroom in?

 

Because the builder had forgotten to put in a rough in. But even so, rough in Bathrooms are rarely ever where you want or need them to be. Both my parents and sister had to break concrete to put in their basement bathrooms even though they had a rough in. Although I had to break alot more concrete.

 

Thats a pretty big thing for the builders to forget (assuming it was in your contract). Were you compensated in any way?

 

It wasn't included with the house, it was $500 upgrade. I opted for it but the super missed it. He missed alot of things that he had to fix later on.

They even started putting the wrong brick on my house. Lucky they had only done the garage and a small portion of the house.

 

yikes? Who was your builder.

 

Small builder, Tormina Homes. You take the good with the bad. They put the right brick on, pretty much made ant small changes that we wanted (to walls, fireplace etc) on the fly without charging and allowed me to run my own cable and speaker wire. (Alot of builders do not allow that) So although they messed up quite a bit they rectified almost everything in the end. (including adding insulation to the attic )

Besides, I don't think I've met anyone who was ever happy with their home builder.

 

I've been extremely happy with mine so far

 

Well then you'd be the first.

Actually, a friend of mine is an assist super for Fernbrook and he tells me Cust Satisfaction is now much more of a priority than a was just a few years ago. Blames it all on Mattamy homes.

 

I think we can blame the JD Power ratings as well, which just started last year.

http://www.jdpower.com/jdpcc/global/...ders/index.jsp

 

Look at Fernbrook.

 

This is a rough idea of what I have in mind... Need to get official measurements down, etc.

http://homepage.mac.com/eribble/.Public/basement.xls

 

I really didn't know you could do fancy shit with excel like that... I thought it was just for tabular data...

Learn something new everyday :thumbup:

 

So I take it you'll be finishing the area to the top left, the area thats 34x15?

Scrib, looks like about 70 ft of wall. If you put your studs 16" on center your looking at about 75 studs total, keeping in mind top and bottom rails.

To do the walls your looking at about 25 sheets of 8x4 drywall, give or take.

Whats an ejector pit?

 

 

Yep... The 34x15 area... That's the rough calculation.

I stopped by home depot just to talk to a few people, get some ideas. They basically told me the same thing, # of studs and sheetrock.

An ejector pit is essentially a second sump pump. Here's a quick blurb.

http://www.radongas.com/sumps.htm

 

So Scrib do you know yet where your gonna put your workshop in the unfinished section? And if so what kind of design do you have for it? (shelves, bench, etc) Or have you even started thinking about this stuff yet?

 

Take a look at the Excel diagram... You can see where the unfinished area will be. There will be storage, room for a workshop, etc.

Haven't thought too much about it. I know I'll have the room for it. How it'll be designed... I have no idea.

 

OK, so I've made some changes... For the better I think.

http://homepage.mac.com/eribble/.Public/basementv2.xls

 

Looks good Scrib. But I'd try to somehow work the Ejector pit into the finished space. You never know when a guest may get out of hand.