Hello all…
I’m about to start my second basement renovation and looking for a little advice on a couple of concerns I had last time. I searched this forum for ‘basement’ and read darn near every post in the last couple years and still have a few questions. I think I understand the basics (from Building Science) of how to do it..I’m looking for advice on some options that have come up.
If you’re interested, here’s the pics of what I did last time (about 2 years ago). You need not be a facebook member or log in to view…I’m open to ALL constructive criticism! Keep in mind I did this in the winter with no other place to ‘work’. Thus I ended up working around a lot of clutter..it’ll be much different this time. Everything was done by myself..nothing was subbed
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=4895&id=1803532143&l=f1e0c5a9a8
We moved into the new house on 12.4 and already went through a winter and spring thaw. We have absolutely no moisture issues at all (yaaaayyyyyy!). Even with the swamp that formed in the back yard in the spring (about 50 feet from the house). We also had one major rain storm that flooded numerous neighbor’s basements and again..i was safe..so I think I’m good with water (or lack thereof)
In the last project I framed by attaching a 2x4 to the ceiling then used a plum bob (SP?) to locate the bottom PT 2x4. This was pretty darn time consuming…I would guess I should just frame on the floor and stand up? My concern here was that I wouldn’t be able to property attach the top plate to the ‘ceiling rafters’ (or floor depending on how you’re looking at it) without a shim of some kind..thus I decided to start at the top. Being I won’t be doing any load baring walls I would assume it would be OK to ‘shim’ the top plate to the ceiling rafters after the wall is built?
I’m considering metal studs also (yeah..these would be drilled and not nailed)…pros and cons?
Also, I used a RAMSET to attach the PTs to the concrete (with the correct PT nails and foam sill sealer). I’m thinking about drilling and screwing this time as even though I used the biggest charge for the RAM set (it was a trigger gun style and not the hammer type) and still had issues getting the nail to bit. I read here that the age of the concrete may play a factor as the last basement was in a house build in the 40s and this house was built in 2000. Suggestions?
As far as insulation, I glued foam board to the wall and framed a good couple of inches out from the foam board for air flow. A couple thing I didn’t do (again..looking for advice here) last time is insulate the tops of the walls (above the foundation) or the floors. I looked around at a bunch a different spray foams kit for the tops and it seems (according to reviews at amazon and other places) that everyone is complaining about darn near all the different spray foams kits. Right now I’m leaning toward the Touch and Seal kit but if someone has a success story with another product PLEASE let me know.
As far as the floors I was thinking about foam and plywood but I think that might kill my budget. I have 2100 SQ of floor and at approx.$1 per SQ FT to insulate and plywood. I’m not sure I want to go this route as that’ll burn up about a ¼ of the budget which is 10k to get through finished drywall with paint.
Sorry for the long winded post but I figure the more detail I could provide the better answers I’d get
As Always...Thanks in advance!
I’m about to start my second basement renovation and looking for a little advice on a couple of concerns I had last time. I searched this forum for ‘basement’ and read darn near every post in the last couple years and still have a few questions. I think I understand the basics (from Building Science) of how to do it..I’m looking for advice on some options that have come up.
If you’re interested, here’s the pics of what I did last time (about 2 years ago). You need not be a facebook member or log in to view…I’m open to ALL constructive criticism! Keep in mind I did this in the winter with no other place to ‘work’. Thus I ended up working around a lot of clutter..it’ll be much different this time. Everything was done by myself..nothing was subbed
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=4895&id=1803532143&l=f1e0c5a9a8
We moved into the new house on 12.4 and already went through a winter and spring thaw. We have absolutely no moisture issues at all (yaaaayyyyyy!). Even with the swamp that formed in the back yard in the spring (about 50 feet from the house). We also had one major rain storm that flooded numerous neighbor’s basements and again..i was safe..so I think I’m good with water (or lack thereof)
In the last project I framed by attaching a 2x4 to the ceiling then used a plum bob (SP?) to locate the bottom PT 2x4. This was pretty darn time consuming…I would guess I should just frame on the floor and stand up? My concern here was that I wouldn’t be able to property attach the top plate to the ‘ceiling rafters’ (or floor depending on how you’re looking at it) without a shim of some kind..thus I decided to start at the top. Being I won’t be doing any load baring walls I would assume it would be OK to ‘shim’ the top plate to the ceiling rafters after the wall is built?
I’m considering metal studs also (yeah..these would be drilled and not nailed)…pros and cons?
Also, I used a RAMSET to attach the PTs to the concrete (with the correct PT nails and foam sill sealer). I’m thinking about drilling and screwing this time as even though I used the biggest charge for the RAM set (it was a trigger gun style and not the hammer type) and still had issues getting the nail to bit. I read here that the age of the concrete may play a factor as the last basement was in a house build in the 40s and this house was built in 2000. Suggestions?
As far as insulation, I glued foam board to the wall and framed a good couple of inches out from the foam board for air flow. A couple thing I didn’t do (again..looking for advice here) last time is insulate the tops of the walls (above the foundation) or the floors. I looked around at a bunch a different spray foams kit for the tops and it seems (according to reviews at amazon and other places) that everyone is complaining about darn near all the different spray foams kits. Right now I’m leaning toward the Touch and Seal kit but if someone has a success story with another product PLEASE let me know.
As far as the floors I was thinking about foam and plywood but I think that might kill my budget. I have 2100 SQ of floor and at approx.$1 per SQ FT to insulate and plywood. I’m not sure I want to go this route as that’ll burn up about a ¼ of the budget which is 10k to get through finished drywall with paint.
Sorry for the long winded post but I figure the more detail I could provide the better answers I’d get
As Always...Thanks in advance!