Basement Finishing – Home Renovation Process

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No, you won't find hidden cash or hidden bodies, but you will find lots of potential living and play space. Finished basements run the gamut of uses. They can retain their same purpose as a storage/wash room, but with the surroundings tidied up and made more comfortable.

They can become an extra bedroom or even an apartment for rent, if you need an extra source of income. Or, they might be transformed into ultra-swank playrooms for the adults (mancave, theater, bar, etc.) or for the kids.

Yet in newer homes, basements can literally and purposely be left half-finished so that the owner has the option of finishing it if desired. It's a great cost-saving technique that allows you to shift some of the costs of building a home to a later time.

How To Overcome This: In brief, steps to eliminating basement moisture are:

How To Overcome This: The trick is to address not just the finish floor (the floor you see and walk on), but basement subfloor as well.

Subfloor: You won't be attaching your finish floor directly to concrete. Subfloor will both elevate your finish floor above moisture and provide a thermal break. A long-standing option for basements is to construct a subfloor of plywood atop 2x4 sleepers. Nowadays, you can buy 2' x 2' panels going under brand-names such as BARRICADE and Subflor that have closed cell polystyrene insulation and which lock together.

The Finish Floor: Just because you've constructed a nice subfloor doesn't mean you can lay down any kind of flooring on top. Aesthetic concerns aside, the best--as in most practical--type of basement flooring is hard and inorganic: ceramic or porcelain tile, sheet resilient flooring, concrete, or rubber roll. Second to that would be flooring that is affected by moisture but has some degree of recovery capability: engineered wood flooring, laminate, low pile carpet. Not recommended: solid hardwood.

Tip: Our resident flooring expert at About Flooring evaluates 9 types of basement flooring options.

How To Overcome This: Before you start adding heat sources, insulate the basement from the inside with extruded foam plastic insulation. Suggested heat sources: add vents to your existing heating ductwork, thus diverting warm air into the basement (provided your furnace can handle the added space). Or add electric baseboard heaters which have the advantage of per-room, segregated heating.

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Basement Finishing - Home Renovation Process