When my wife and I were house hunting, one of my requirements was an unfinished basement. I do woodworking and welding projects, so I wanted a space for my workshop. We found the perfect 2-story center hall colonial, which gave us a large 1,120 SF unfinished basement with cinder block foundation. Unfortunately, the basement staircase divided the room into 2 sections, 1 side was approximately 45% of the basement and included all the utilities. After 2 years in the house, we decided to finish half of the basement. This left the other half for utilities and my workshop.

Before Photos of our Unfinished Basement

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After Photos of our Newly Finished Basement

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How to Fix a Staircase

The first thing I needed to do was fix the staircase. The stair stringers were separating and needed reinforcement. I took pipe clamps and placed them on the outside of the stringers to pull the stringers back to being tight against the actual steps. (The stringers are the outside of the stairs.) I bought sheets of plywood, cut them to width, and screwed them to the underside of the stairs. This will hold the stairs together and provide additional strength for both bending and torsion, meaning these stairs will last a very long time.

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I wanted to create a storage closet underneath the stairs for all of our Christmas Decorations, so I framed out a triangle on one side of the stairs and the back. This left the triangle opening by the utilities as the entrance to the closet, which is a simple triangle frame with studs spaced 16″. By code, the 2×4 on the concrete floor has to be pressure treated, due to the porous nature of concrete. I used my Bosch hammer drill to drill holes through the 2×4 and into the concrete slab, and anchored the 2×4 with 1/4″ x 4″ long tapcon screws. I covered the framing with plywood to install the rock wall, which I’ll explain later. The back of the stairs I installed a sheet of plywood to create the closet space.

WEEKEND WARRIOR TIP

Before framing out the closet, plan ahead if you are going to install drywall or tile so you know the thickness of plywood and cement board you are installing. Plan to have the cement board flush with the stairs for installation of tiles or other similar products.

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Faux Rock Wall

My parents were having their front steps replaced, and had left over ceramic rocks they graciously offered me. The left overs were enough for me to create a rock wall in basement.

Check out my post How to Build a Rock Wall Indoors for more details.

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The ceramic is installed like tile, thinset mortar, notched trowel, and a standard wet saw. When the rock was finished, it became the focal point and design inspiration for the rest of the basement.

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Framing and Insulating the Walls

Almost all finished basements have the pink foam board insulation screwed into the walls, and 2×4 framing outside of the insulation followed by drywall. The insulation is 2″ thick, and the 2×4 are 3.5″ thick, meaning using this method you reduce the size of the room by 5″ at each wall. The total reduction is 10″ x 10″, which is basically 1′ in both directions. I did not want to reduce the size of my basement and wanted to find a more simple solution.

InSoFast

After I spent several hours of research, I found this great product called InSoFast, which is a rigid insulation that is installed by gluing it to the walls using construction adhesive. InSoFast also has built-in studs to attach drywall too. Their product also has built-in channels to run electrical and channels in the back to allow any water to travel to the floor. They piece together in a way where they will also make your new walls plumb, or at least much more plumb then your existing basement walls.

To me, this product was a slam dunk. I can install the insulation, NOT have to frame, and save the space I needed. I can only estimate that NOT framing saved me at least 2 trips to Home Depot (1-2 hours) and 2-3 days of actual framing. The electrical ducts were also a great feature when it came time to run wiring.

InSoFast is extremely easy to install. It is light, and easy to cut. If you are cutting parallel to the stud you can use a utility knife to score and then snap the piece off. If you are cutting across the studs, a standard jig saw cuts easily. Watch videos on their website for more information about installation, they teach everything you need to know.

One thing to note, the manufacturer suggests cleaning all paint of the walls. For me, this was literally impossible. I took an angle grinder with steel brush attachment and removed all peeling paint from the walls. I spoke with InSoFast about this and they thought it would be the best solution. After the InSoFast was glued to the wall, I added concrete screws, per InSoFast recommendations, to ensure the best adhesion possible.

WEEKEND WARRIOR TIP: The most important area to insulate is the rim joist area. InSoFast does a great job explaining this process.

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All gaps around the InSoFast were filled in with spray foam. This is another benefit of InSoFast, any areas I needed to notch out or needed to cut out to inspect something, they were easily repaired with spray foam. After the spray foam dried, It was cut flush with this Dewalt flush cut saw.

Drywall

The next step was to install drywall. Since I did this alone, I thought it would be easier to install it horizontal as much as possible. It was easy to install in that direction, but terrible to mud/tape the butt joints. All the drywall was installed 1-2 inches above the concrete floor, in case of flooding. Also, I used the green drywall meant for damp locations. It was around this time I decided I was going to install crown molding so there was no need to run a perfectly level drywall line below the joists.

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Windows, framing new windows

The existing windows were actually bathroom windows installed with the screen on the outside so animals ate through the screen, they let in very little light, and they let in a lot of cold air. I chose to replace the windows with Tafco awning windows. These windows let in a lot of light and since they open up outwards, they can remain open even when it rains. For the window sill I used vinyl boards since vinyl is durable and water proof.

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The Flood

After I finished installing the drywall, it rained for days that flooded my basement. At the time I already had 1 sump pump, but water came in from the opposite corner. I stopped counting after I vacuumed over 1,000 gallons of water using wet/dry vacuum. Side note, Home Depot has constantly has this vacuum on sale for a great black friday price. As frustrating as this flood was since the water continued to pour in for 4 days after the rain stopped, the timing was good since the new floor was not installed yet. The flood showed me how out of level my concrete floors truly were.

Self Leveling The Concrete Floor

The flood showed me the main area of my to be finished basement had a large dip 1.75″ deep. I ran string lines from each end of my basement, since the floors height points was along the walls. I called contractors to get a quote to self level my floor, two of them did not show up and the third refused the job. Apparently self leveling floors is too difficult for contractors, that or they are too lazy. Time to do some serious research on how to self level floors.

Check out my post on how to self level painted concrete floors for more detailed information.

The general process was that I rented a floor buffer to sand as much paint off the floors as I could, mopped the floors several times, used a paint roller to roll on the primer, and then poured the self leveling compound. This took me 3 days total, 1 to sand/clean, 1 day to do the first round of self leveling, 1 day to do round 2 of self leveling. As you can see below, I used a space heater since I was working on this in the winter. I preheated the room for a day to get the floor temperature over 55 degrees.

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Electrical (columns, outlets, lighting)

My basement already had lighting, but I felt it was insufficient. The existing lighting were just the single light bulbs in the ceramic fixtures. I replaced each ceramic fixture with 2′ x 2′ LED panels I found from a wholesaler on Craigslist for $20 each. I love these LED panels, they are super light and easy to install. Since the casing are thin metal, I just screwed thru the metal casing into the joints with simple sheet rock screws, no pilot hole necessary.

I ran wiring in the electrical channels in the InSoFast panels and added outlets spaced every 6 feet around the room. I did not know where I wanted outlets, so I installed a lot. After you add furniture the outlets will disappear, but you will always have an outlet close if needed.

I also ran wire to each column so I can put an outlet in each column.

Boxing out the duct work and columns

I had to box out and hide a lot of ductwork for a cleaner look to the basement. I framed all of the ductwork with 1×3’s and installed drywall over the framing, and replaced all the insulation with the highest R-value I could fit within the box out.

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I covered all rigid duct work with sheetrock so it was a cleaner look and easier to paint.

To box out the columns, I made a “u”-shape out of plywood and filled in all the gaps with spray foam. I made the columns as small as possible and then covered the plywood box with drywall.

Check out my post on how to box out columns using plywood and spray foam.

Installing pocket door

To separate my utility area from the finished area, I installed a pocket door. The directions are simple to follow, and I installed the framing and the door by myself. A second set of hands would have been easier, but it can be done by one person.

Painting the Ceiling

When designing this basement, I did not want to install a drop ceiling. First of all, it would be expensive, I don’t like the look, and I didn’t want to lower the ceiling and make the space feel small. I found several blogs where people painted the ceiling white, but the white shows all the defects in the joints and ceiling. Then, I found people painted the ceiling black to hide the defects, but I didn’t want the basement to be dark and feel like a basement. I found this great blog, Unskinny Boppy, where the ceiling was painted a blue/grey color.

I sent the blog to a coworker who painted his ceiling a blue/grey and he loved it. My wife chose the color Charcoal Blue and we bought Behr Premium Plus which is primer + paint so I would only have to spray on 1 coat. It took a lot of plastic to tape of the room, as you can see below.

Check out my post on painting a basement ceiling with an electric sprayer for more tips and tricks.

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Painting the walls and stairs

We wanted a bright room so my wife chose Benjamin Moore Corinthian White for the walls. The fresh drywall wall needed 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of the Benjamin Moore paint.

The existing stair case was poo brown. I primed it and painted it a turquoise color we had left over from another project. We did not like the turquoise on the stairs, but luckily my mom had left over paint from painting her kitchen cabinets that we used. It is Benjamin Moore ADVANCE color silver chain, which is special paint for cabinets. The ADVANCE paint gets “harder” than standard paint; therefore, it will be more rugged, which is a good feature for stairs. The final color matched the rock wall and room very well.

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Flooring

Since it is a basement, I didn’t want to break the bank on flooring. I purchased Copper Ridge Luxury Vinyl Plank from Lumber Liquidators for around $2/SF. Per manufacturer’s recommendations, I installed 6 mil painters plastic on the concrete floor, followed by a layer of Tranquility Ultra underlayment. The underlayment provides a R-value for installation, helps level out any imperfections in the floor, and provides a cushion for your feet. After using the floor for almost a year I can attest to the underlayment keeps the floor warmer in the winter and does provide added cushion. I highly recommend using the underlayment, specifically on concrete floors.

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Installing Molding

I purchased the primed finger joint molding from a local lumber yard. Before installing the molding, I painted 2 coats of Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace (semi gloss). FYI, it is much easier to paint molding BEFORE it is installed. Since I self leveled the floors, the base molding went in very level and there was no need for shoe molding. For the base molding, I “coped” each corner and caulked any gaps.

The crown molding was more of a challenge to install than I was expecting. Since I planned to nail the molding to every other floor joist, I was expecting a quick and easy installation. I cut the 45 degree angles, but the gaps in the corners was too large to caulk. I had to “cope” every inside corner in the basement, but the final product looked perfect.

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Installing Fan Between Basement Joists

Yes, it is possible to install a ceiling fan between joists in your basement.

Check out my post on How to Install a Ceiling Fan in a Basement for more information on installation.

The fan below is a Hunter Anslee fan with an Emerson fan remote. I like the Emerson fan remotes since Emerson has a great app to control fans, including setting a duration. I really use this feature when I go to bed, which allows me to set the fan to go off after 3 hours. This sounds dumb and useless, but I use this feature all the time.

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Using Access Panels to Hide Utilities

I used access panels in order to hide utilities that I will need to access in the future. Home Depot has a wide array of access panels for each and every need. They all are paintable and work well. I used a plastic panel for electrical and metal one for the clean out of my kitchen sink waste water line.

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Finishes

My wife chose her favorite antique brass outlet covers. I bought a pine railing, added a 90 degree return, stained Varathane walnut and installed with flat black brackets. The outlet covers were the white plastic ones from Home Depot.

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Stats

Total Cost $6,465.60

Time – The closet under the stairs and the rock wall took 2 days. Everything else took approximately 4 months by myself.

Size of remodel – 525 SF

Wall paint – Benjamin Moore corinthian white

InSoFast – $1391.60 EX 2.5 panels

Windows Tafco Awning windows (3) $330

Lumber Liquidators Copper Ridge $2.19 SF

Underlayment Tranquility ultra $70/roll (each 100 SF)