Basement Renovation Project

[Nick]

Anyone ever tackled it? I would liek to start, it's not a rush project, I don't really care if it takes me 2 years to finish it. I have high ceilings in the basement (11') and it's a walk-out with the garage. It would be a perfect media / home theater room.

Biggest concern I have is wanting to add a 1/2 bath down there. And if I'm doing that should I just go the whole way and put in a wet bar :lol:

Here's a quick layout without hvac equipment

 

[St. Bear]

I'm entering year 2 of finishing my basement. Even though we're doing it ourselves, we over extended ourselves a bit and ran out of money. Nothing has been done for almost a full year now, but we're going to start chipping away again this summer. Install an electric water heater and move some of the piping, so we can put flush ceilings in. I want to avoid drop ceilings like the plague. After that, we'll need an electrician to come in and rewire the lighting to give up zones for the different rooms. Then it's carpets, and done!

 

[Geoff]

Biggest concern I have is wanting to add a 1/2 bath down there. And if I'm doing that should I just go the whole way and put in a wet bar :lol:

A half bath for occasional use isn't that big a deal. The hardest part of a basement project is getting a vent up to the roof. If you locate the wet bar sink in more or less the same spot, you can use the same vent. You can use a Saniflo toilet that has a built-in macerator pump (or an external one) and you can run your bath sink drain and wet bar drain into that. You can also cut through the slab and install a small tank and mascerating pump where you can use a conventional toilet. I've been exploring those kinds of solutions for a half bath in my detached garage. If you go with toilet-only, you can get a Saniflo model that doesn't require a vent.

Just like with a marine toilet, women and little kids can cause big problems. The only things that go down the toilet are human waste and a limited amount of fast-dissolving marine/RV toilet paper. I've had to fish plastic tampon applicators out of a broken marine head mascerating pump a few times. It's not my idea of a good time. Plastic kid toys cause the same problem. The solution with the plastic holding tank under the slab doesn't have that problem.

Other than that, the only question is whether you have a wet basement where you need to use water and mildew resistant materials.

 

[Bene288]

Where is your bathroom on the above floor in relation to the picture?

 

[ScottySkis]

Fun.

 

[o3jeff]

Seeing you have a walk out basement, did the builder put the waste pipe exit below the floor?

 

[o3jeff]

What did you use to draw that up, is there a free online program?

 

[Nick]

Seeing you have a walk out basement, did the builder put the waste pipe exit below the floor?

Nope the waste pipe is above (on the wall on the left, about 7' high where it exits the foundation) so I would need the macerator / ejector still.

I did the mockup in Sketchup which is free. It used to be owned by Google but they spun it off I think last year.

I can't find my original files which really pisses me off because I put a lot of time into getting it all accurate to the inch.

 

[Nick]

Where is your bathroom on the above floor in relation to the picture?

Looking at that image, the bathroom above is basically where the window all the way to the left is. I really wanted to put the 1/2 bath in that little nook though where the staircase turns. The left side I am planning on a door to block it off.

Here's a thread I put on AVSForum about it a few years ago when I first started thinking about it

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1271831/hi-everyone-a-couple-newbie-questions-on-basement-finishing


Another concept, where the space on the left would be utilities, behind the half-wall would be a workout area, projector to the wall opposite the couch. Storage under the staircase with a door.

 

[mlctvt]

Looks like a good plan- We finished our basement ourselves a few years ago. Like yours we split the basement in two, errecting a wall with door separating the utliites section.
1/2 of our basement is a workout room with an entire circuit with 8 piceces of equipment, free weights, rubber floor. HD TV and sound system on one wall.
We did not have high ceilings so we used a product called Ceiling Max to position the acoutical tiles right up against the above joists. It was very time consuming install. You wouldn't need this for 11' ceilings. I do recommend acoutical tile ceilings for basements for easy future access to get to plumbing, run wires etc.

We installed 2x4 walls along the foundation and for the dividing wall. We did this by first nailing pressure treated 2x4s to the floor with a Remington power nailer that we bought at Home Depot. It uses .22 caliber cartridges that nails a masonry nail through the 2x4 into the floor. Then we built the walls flat on the floor in 8' sections, stood them up lifted them onto the 2x4 that was nailed into the floor and screwed them to the rafters above. This worked out very well. The outer walls were insulated. Did the electical ourselves installing lots of outlets. Also installed recessed lighting fixtures in the tile ceiling, segmenting two sections of the basement with differerent switches. A friend who owns a sheetrock and taping business did that portion for us.

 

[darent]

put a bedroom in ours for the kids, but no contest,I do this for a living and have finished many basements, just make sure you have a dry basement and solve any water issues first