Last year our family finished adding two bedrooms to the basement in our home. The dream is to have a nice and cozy movie and recreation area built in the basement. When we first bought the house in 2019, I immediately fell in love with the house, but the basement completely sealed my wish to live in the house with our family. However, before Starting the Basement remodel, there are many important projects that need to be done first. I am so glad to bring you along on this journey with us as we are working on it now!
Disclosure
Published October 4, 2022
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Many apologies
Recently I got a new phone, and these phones settings were set to save images in a different format. Thus, leading to me frantically trying to find them in a setting that doesn’t leave the images as “unformatted”, or “empty”. Because of this, most of these images were inserted in a “thumbnail” version, instead of jpeg. This is not only annoying to me, but also leaves the images just slightly blurry. And for that, I am so sorry!
Cost to Starting the Basement
The cost to start this project was not cheap. However, when you think about remodeling, the cost is never cheap. In total, we had 3-gallons of paint, epoxy, lumber and the I-beam.
Last year, before we did the concrete patio, Tyler bought another epoxy and filled it then. We had originally bought two when we began the concrete and had one waiting to use. So this project did not need to add the cost of the epoxy.
The lumber and other wood materials came to $457.35
3-gallons of Waterproof paint $37.99 X3
1 paint tray liner $1.59
Gloves $4.59
I-beam, 118 pounds $45.37
The total cost for the beginning of this job was $622.87
The cost for the “other materials” includes all of the wood studs, green treated for the bottoms, wood for shoring up the I-beam, electric boxes, nails, heavy adhesive and insulation.
Once all of the walls are studded and insulated, we will need to buy drywall to completely finish the walls.
Materials Needed in Starting the Basement
Paint Tray and liner
Gloves
Roller
Waterproof Sealer Paint
Green treated wood
Outlet boxes
Unfaced insulation
Concrete Epoxy
Starting the Basement important first Steps
The first and most important step to this basement remodel is to make sure the existing crack that is there is filled in and dealt with. Tyler has a Concrete Epoxy that is specific to filling in cracks in basement walls.
Tyler was a rockstar at figuring out how to use this Concrete Epoxy! With a vertical wall, adding a fluid gets tricky. Thanks to his work training, he used duct tape and made pockets at various intervals to then fill the crack with the epoxy.
Remove the duct tape and make sure the wall is cleaned from any debris before beginning the painting.
For this wall we used a Basement Masonry Waterproof paint. This helps keep mold, mildew and moisture away from the walls. And as we are going to finish these walls, keeping any water away is quite important. As the epoxy needed 24-hours to dry, I was able to start painting and just had to avoid the crack.
After a week, I did paint over the wall and did the second coat. If you do use this paint, just make sure to do 2-3 coats and the end result should have no holes in the masonry with voids in the paint. The point of this paint is to create a watertight lock.
Shore up the Wall
Another important part of starting this basement remodel is to shore up the wall by the crack. Even though Tyler worked SO hard on the exterior when we did the concrete patio, we still wanted 100% peace of mind knowing this wall will never move again. To do this, he found an I-beam and cut it to size.
Then, using a welder, he welded footplates on the bottom so the I-beam will be structurally integrated into the wall. With is career, Tyler is certified in welding, and was a pro at doing this!
The next step was to install the I-beam and to then shore the beam up so it will never move on the wall.
Time to Buy Materials
Finally, with the paint done and the I-beam installed, we were able to crunch the numbers and go to the store and get materials.
And then, one stack at a time, bringing the wood supplies into the basement so Tyler can start building walls.
Starting the stud installation
To start the walls, the bases needed to be lined up so that the walls are straight. No one wants to go drywall with a wonky wall!
The bases, against the floor are used with green treated 2 X 4’s. To brace them in the floor, they needed to be also braced using a concrete drill and specific concrete screws, which are typically a cute blue! Once the bases were done, Tyler then put the 2 X 4’s in around the ceiling where the top of the walls will be. Between these two pieces of wood are where the vertical studs will go.
To get an eye for the space, the first wall that has been studded out, so we can place the doors for the future utility room. The biggest thing Tyler and I had to decide was if we wanted to keep the corner or cut it to a 45-degree angle. We did decide to keep the corner at a 90-degree angle to match the two bedrooms built a few years ago. To check out the bedroom build, click here or click the link below!
Planning the next steps for the basement
As it is, this is as far as we have gotten on our starting the basement remodel. The main part was to get the walls painted with an important waterproof membrane before any walls were done. Please stay tuned for updates as we get the work done! We are all so excited to have our recreation and movie watching area to get done!
Plus, we have so many ideas for decoration and design that I cannot wait to share with you all. Thanks, and I hope you enjoyed this dive into how we are finishing our basement!
~Monica
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