Quake3World

I have a dry basement so I'm planning to finish it over the next few months and want to do it properly. If anyone has picked up some tips, tricks or advise over the years feel free to drop it here. I'm also looking for any items to stay away from.

My plans are to use it as a family room and office with an open floor plan.

Here are my plans and products so far.

Walls and floor

Insulation layer 1 and full vapor barrier
I plan on scraping and cleaning the walls, then coating them with a water proofing sealer. I will be bonding 2" Owens Corning foamular 250 Rigid foam to all the concrete block. I also plan on using the same 2" rigid foam on the floor. Then sealing all the joints with a vapor barrier tape. The 1/2" expansion joint between the floor and walls will be filled with spray foam, then taped as well.

As a floor deck I will be placing 5/8 tongue and groove plywood on top of the rigid foam and using Tapcon screws to affix it to the concrete. The walls will be built from 2x4 on top of the plywood floor deck.

Insulation Layer 2 Fire proofing and sound dampening
In the ceiling and around the bathroom and laundry area I will be installing "Roxul Safe and sound" then along the outside walls "Roxul comfort bat"

I will be finishing the walls and ceilings with 5/8 green drywall leaving access areas for all my electrical pass throughs.


Bathroom
My sewer pipe is 4 feet above the basement floor so I need an up flush toilet. I plan on getting a macerating toilet that supports a sink and stall shower.

why dont you just call in a spray foam guy and get it all done in one shot?

sounds like you a a very well thought out plan so far

i always wonder if a total vapour seal is good or bad

a good seal would be good for heat and all that

but a breathable situation would alow for trapped condensations and such to breath out aiding in preventing molds and such

so i really dont know whats best/right.

one thing i have seen that i thought was cool was imbiggening the natural light from windows by way of refractioning it by postioning glass block around the windows kinda makeing them bigger i u will.

how tall will ur cielings be after all is done?

ask the basement king

Just be sure to balance out the airflow well so it gets heated without effecting the rest of your place. The people who did mine...not something they considered...

I was completely unimpressed with the updates you gave us for your living room project. This time I am expecting much more, no less than videos and 360 virtual tours, with daily updates and diary-like self-reflective analysis on your inevitable shortcomings.

u r high maintenance!

why r basements not counted as additional square footage?...

they r if its a walkout

in some provinces anyways

scared? wrote:why r basements not counted as additional square footage?...

not sure, but most basements don't even have 8ft ceilings so...

seremtan wrote:ask the basement king

lol... he's an expert soundproof guy.

I see seremtan already made the joke i was going to make... so i'll retreat from this thread with haste and i shall never return.

I've never finished one, so let us know how it goes.

One thing that always kills me about finished basements is the floor being so hard because it's on the concrete slab. It seems like you could make it so much more comfortable by laying down a sub-floor -- even if it's only a couple inches high. That concrete kills your joints after a while.

I'm not sure if it's against codes or anything -- maybe there is a reason for not adding them in, aside from the additional cost and effort.

lol typical spum

R00k wrote:I've never finished one, so let us know how it goes.

One thing that always kills me about finished basements is the floor being so hard because it's on the concrete slab. It seems like you could make it so much more comfortable by laying down a sub-floor -- even if it's only a couple inches high. That concrete kills your joints after a while.

I'm not sure if it's against codes or anything -- maybe there is a reason for not adding them in, aside from the additional cost and effort.

I'm guessing most people don't really think the cost/effort wouldn't really offset the comfort. There are a lot of options as far as sub-flooring goes.

many homes here dont bother with cement basment floor anymore

just a big poly layer with pea gravel, then suspended treated floor joists, and then they route a coupe heat vents in there 4 warmth

AmIdYfReAk wrote:why dont you just call in a spray foam guy and get it all done in one shot?

I did some research on the sprayfoam as it was my fist idea. Sadly it was more expensive, with a lower "R" value and did not provide the sound proofing I wanted. I was ready to rent the Ghosbusters style sprayfoam kit.

R00k wrote:I've never finished one, so let us know how it goes.

One thing that always kills me about finished basements is the floor being so hard because it's on the concrete slab. It seems like you could make it so much more comfortable by laying down a sub-floor -- even if it's only a couple inches high. That concrete kills your joints after a while.

I'm not sure if it's against codes or anything -- maybe there is a reason for not adding them in, aside from the additional cost and effort.

I have planned for that, I'm laying 1" or 2" rigid foam with seams caulked and taped as a cold/vapor barrier then a 5/8 plywood deck to put my flooring product on. I'm hoping for 2", but I need to see how much space I will loose in the ceiling.

lol he didnt read it

eh y bother

indeed.

it's because everyone knows you really don't know what you're talking about.

just saying.

uh huh or theyre butt hurt

ey thats ur opinion fair enough lol

serios tho i'm a "the big picture" kinda guy

it can come off the wrong way to some

Giraffe }{unter wrote:I have planned for that, I'm laying 1" or 2" rigid foam with seams caulked and taped as a cold/vapor barrier then a 5/8 plywood deck to put my flooring product on. I'm hoping for 2", but I need to see how much space I will loose in the ceiling.

Awesome, that sounds a lot easier than laying down floor joists.

Not to get too far OT, but I've been thinking about insulating my garage recently. It's not on the house's heat & air, so I have a heater and a window unit out there. But they don't do any good at all. My first instinct was to look at spray-in insulation. It's pretty inexpensive to have somebody come out and do it, but you're not the first person I've heard mention its low R value.
Luckily the house was built with an insulated garage door, but I have no idea what the rating on it is. Do you think it would be worth the money to have it sprayed in? Are there higher-rated solutions out there I should look at instead?

R00k wrote:

Giraffe }{unter wrote:I have planned for that, I'm laying 1" or 2" rigid foam with seams caulked and taped as a cold/vapor barrier then a 5/8 plywood deck to put my flooring product on. I'm hoping for 2", but I need to see how much space I will loose in the ceiling.

Awesome, that sounds a lot easier than laying down floor joists.

Not to get too far OT, but I've been thinking about insulating my garage recently. It's not on the house's heat & air, so I have a heater and a window unit out there. But they don't do any good at all. My first instinct was to look at spray-in insulation. It's pretty inexpensive to have somebody come out and do it, but you're not the first person I've heard mention its low R value.
Luckily the house was built with an insulated garage door, but I have no idea what the rating on it is. Do you think it would be worth the money to have it sprayed in? Are there higher-rated solutions out there I should look at instead?

With spray-foam and extruded foam the R-value is lower, but it does serve as better protection than a higher R-value fiberglass. When I was investigating spray foam it wasn't super expensive to do it yourself, but you MUST put some type of fire rated material like 5/8" sheet rock to cover it up. most foam materials are semi fire retardent but once they get going the toxic fumes will knock you out. So you would still need to stud the walls which would allow you to properly insulate anyway.

I'm saving about 1/2 the cost (about $700.00 more for 880 sq feet @1" with spray foam) using 1 1/2" rigid foam. Granted the spray foam will give me a perfect seal in 1/2 the time, but it won't be an even surface for me to stud against.


I'm getting quotes for my insulation today, I'm estimating foam and batting will run me about $3K. I may have to split this project up ...

simple layout done for the wife's approval...



and before Gramps rags on the tv placement... The set is on a articulating mount and can be positioned towards my desk or towards the sectional.