How to Finish Your Basement

Want to turn that cellar into something nice? Read on.

Measure the available space. Decide how various areas will be used. Measuring most basements is relatively easy. With a little practice you can easily work out the total square footage of the space you have to work with. Having the square footage available is also very helpful when estimating the materials you will need.

• Rectangular rooms are relatively simple to measure. First sketch out the room, marking the position of any existing windows, doorways, stairs and utilities. Please be sure to also draw in any poles that may be used for support. Measure the length and width of the basement remembering to include the depth of any alcoves or other recesses. You may need to split your space up into more manageable squares in order to get a more precise square footage. After you have made your simple sketch, just multiply the width times the length to calculate floor space and repeat the same process with the walls to calculate wall area.

Sketch out different ways to divide up the space and get the most use out of it.

Contact a professional contractor and get an idea of what it would cost to do it yourself or to have a professional build it for you.

If possible, use a laser level to make a reference line around the basement. They are relatively inexpensive (around $40), and will give you a true measurement around the space. Poured concrete basements can deviate as much as one inch from one end to the other, but a laser level will give you a more precise reference for measurements.

Tips

• When considering your ceiling choices, remember that there are benefits to each choice. keep in mind that suspended ceilings always make a basement look even more like a basement. Drywall looks more like a main level and is more cost effective.
• Suspended ceilings have benefits as well. They allow for access to water pipes, electrical wiring and other 'need to access' type stuff, so use some common sense when choosing a ceiling type. Consider how much easier running speaker wire or cable will be when you can remove the ceiling tiles to do so.
• Consider tray ceilings as an alternative. Although they're more expensive, they're high-quality and better-looking.
• Widen doorways as much as possible, and employ arches and columns to dress them up. Consider French doors with lots of glass for offices or solid doors for any other room requiring complete privacy. For partial separation, a door with decorative glass brings elegance to the room.
• Paneling may be simple, but the refined look of drywall makes it the material of choice for finished spaces. Paneling looks dated and doesn't last long, so it's cheaper in the long run to spend more up front on long-lasting drywall.
• Light-color paint on the walls can make a big difference in the room's ambiance. It's always better to go a couple of shades lighter than your upstairs rooms because it opens and brightens what's naturally a darker area.
• Read a few books on the subject before you get started.
• When you need a precise measurement between two walls, or you simply can’t reach the whole way across, use this technique. Push your tape against the far wall, extend it almost to the middle of the room and mark the wall at the nearest whole foot. Jot the dimension on the wall for reference. Turn your tape around and measure from the opposite wall to your mark. Add the two dimensions for the total length.
• Buy a top-quality 25 or 35ft. tape with a 1-in. wide blade. The extra stiffness provided by the wide blade allows you to extend the tape farther before it buckles. This is a great help for all kinds of measuring tasks but is especially useful when you’re working alone. It’s also useful when you’re working from a ladder.
• If at all possible try to add a egress size window so that in the event of an emergency people are not trapped inside.Additionally, install smoke and fire detectors as per your townships building code. (interconnect these new alarms with the existing alarms in the main house)

Warnings

• Be sure you understand that finishing a basement is a big project.
• Look for signs of water leakage before starting your project. Be sure to evaluate any water problems that could affect your finished basement to determine what repairs are needed and take preventative steps to avoid future water problems. Look outside for obvious potential problems like clogged rain gutters, downspouts emptying next to the foundation and surface grades that don't allow surface water to run away from the property.
• Finished basements can end up with mold and other moisture related problems behind the walls adjacent to the outer masonry walls. Be sure you or your contractor understand the details of waterproofing, minimal insulation, proper ventilation of wall cavities, and foregoing vapor barriers. Unless your stud-wall is at least 18" away from the masonry wall, any vapor barrier attached to the stud wall will trap moisture between the masonry wall and the barrier, thus breeding mold.
• Ventilation and Dehumidification - Be aware that allowing outside "fresh air" into your basement via open windows or fans, can cause problems with moisture, humidity and condensation when outside humidity levels are above 40%. Get a good dehumidifier to mechanically remove the natural high humidity in your basement and keep your windows and doors CLOSED all year round. Central air conditioning also offers good dehumidification.
• Gather as much information as possible about it before you get started.
• Make sure that you protect your investment by getting an emergency power supply and monitoring devices for your sump pump. If you rely on a sump pump to keep ground water out of your basement, consider a secondary pump as a backup in case your primary pump fails or, a battery backup secondary pump for power outages..