[fabian]

Please see the attatches photo. Hopefully it looks clear. Basement is 990 total sq ft. I would like to either make a laundry room or even a nice laundry cubby closet with cabinets. Tv area with couch. Wet bar and maybe a computer area. Closing that toilet And sink to make a 1/2 bath. I'm thinking of going with the open floor plan. Also will knock down that wall to the middle left. An just start with exterior walls. Any advice is appreciated.

Bottom right is sumo pump. Washer dryer next to that. Sink and toilet to the left of washer. Furnance on left with hot water heater. Main panel top left. Clean out pit top center. Fridge by stairs. Garage entry doorway right side.

 

[Missouri Bound]

What is in place now? Can you move everything to the furnace area?

 

[fabian]

I can move the washer and dryer over I think. But the toilet and sink would need to be rerouted. Which would include breaking the concrete floor to reroute the drain. Seems very labor intensive to break the concrete. I would really try to keep the layout so I won't have to do any concrete breaking.

 

[tylernt]

Nice drawing.

If you want a wet bar, but without jackhammering, you'll need to put the wet bar near the existing sink so you can route the drain through walls. Might want to go to a 2x6 partition wall to leave plenty of room for the DWV pipe.

When you're removing that existing wall, make sure the joists above aren't overspanned. There are tables on the web to tell you how far a joist of a given size can span. You may need to keep the wall, or build a new load-bearing wall mid-span, to keep the floor above from sagging or bouncing.

Think about moisture and flood control. Is the grade pitched away from the house, do you have gutters, how often does the sump pump run in the rain, do you have a battery or water-powered backup sump pump, etc. You may want to put down a flooring underlay that has those little plastic feet to allow water and moisture seepage to flow to the sump pump instead of being pushed through your finish flooring by hydrostatic pressure. You might consider something like Dryloc for the walls, too.

Cheaper and easier to prepare for moisture now, compared to after water has damaged all the hard work you put into finishing the basement.