Finishing a basement??

[yammerhammer]

I'm looking at finishing my basement... kinda. I have 1700sq ft down there
that is completely unused. I was looking at building a game room, nothing fancy, not looking to impress.

Is it possible to apply furring strips to the concrete with liquid nails then tacking up some sort of paneling to the strips? I know a guy who built a
metal shop, put up paneling and ran conduit on the outside of the paneling
and it looked very good for a cheap set-up.

Any thoughts??

 

[Bubba700]

Having frammed a bunch of basements the problem that your going to run into with the strips on concrete is unless your concrete guys were pretty amazing your walls wont be strait. If thats not a concern go to town, but if you are ever going to resell it the curvy walls will stick out pretty bad.

 

[copter6]

^^X2^^
I have never seen an straight concrete wall

 

[yardsale_oem]

couldnt you snap a straight line on the floor as close to the concrete wall as possible, strip it and then plumb it from there?? I am just curious too??

 

[yammerhammer]

My walls are out 3" from top to bottom.

 

[Bubba700]

couldnt you snap a straight line on the floor as close to the concrete wall as possible, strip it and then plumb it from there?? I am just curious too??

you could but at that point your looking at framing a wall in basically so why not do it right and use full studs instead of strips?

 

[yardsale_oem]

could you rip 2X4 and make a thinner wall? What are you going to do about insulation??

 

[Bubba700]

My walls are out 3" from top to bottom.

That is bad, usually they are only out a half in tops from top to bottom, but usually have some 1in bows in them.

Other thing is it shows you are in CO, dont you wanna insulate it a little bit so its warm in the winter to play down there?

 

[Bubba700]

could you rip 2X4 and make a thinner wall? What are you going to do about insulation??

you could but then your looking at 1 3/4 thick walls that when you lean on them are going to want to break because they aren't backed by anything solid.

 

[yardsale_oem]

well thats no good.................

 

[yardsale_oem]

yammerhammer.......are you looking to insulate over the foundation?

 

[Ex-Member]

When my parents did the basement at the old house, we used wood on the walls and stuck styrofoam between the panels and the concrete.

Wasn't too hard to do.

 

[yammerhammer]

I have a furnace down there in addition to the other upstairs.
As Bubba says, to do it right, a guy needs to frame it and insulate it, I'm looking for just a game room, hang some deer heads, pool table, dry bar built out of barn wood. No sleeping/cooking quarters.

My plan was to run a vapor barrier, furring strips then some panel over that.
Put conduit on the outside along with the box's. Leave the floor unfinished concrete.

Bubba, would I still need to run 16" centers on my frame work if I were to frame it? Could I run 24". I have a floating floor, should I leave about 1"
from the floor?

I guess I should state that its a modular home sitting on a foundation. The ceiling could be a biotch since there are no floor joist. I have tons of hanging ceiling left from the previous owner.

 

[Bubba700]

I have a furnace down there in addition to the other upstairs.
As Bubba says, to do it right, a guy needs to frame it and insulate it, I'm looking for just a game room, hang some deer heads, pool table, dry bar built out of barn wood. No sleeping/cooking quarters.

My plan was to run a vapor barrier, furring strips then some panel over that.
Put conduit on the outside along with the box's. Leave the floor unfinished concrete.Vapor usually ( read: as in every case I have seen) The Vapor barrier is between the framing and the finished wall (panel, drywall etc) That is why on most backed insulation the paper layer faces you and has wings that fold over the framing then is tacked on. This is the interior vapor layer

Bubba, would I still need to run 16" centers on my frame work if I were to frame it? Could I run 24". I have a floating floor, should I leave about 1"
from the floor?Where its non-supporting you should be able to do 24s, in Utah we always did 16s but have seen it both ways, on the floor not sure what you mean by floating. Is it like 3 to 4 in concrete slab poured on gravel? If its like that you should be good to frame all the way to it. Even though its not tied into the foundation they both should be below frost line and you shouldnt have problems of either of them settling if the footings for the foundation and the floor were done right.

I guess I should state that its a modular home sitting on a foundation. The ceiling could be a biotch since there are no floor joist. I have tons of hanging ceiling left from the previous owner.No Floor Joists? What does your sub-floor sit on? Has to be joists in there some where.


Maybe put a pic or 2 up of what your working with, sure there are some guys on here with other ideas too.

 

[yammerhammer]

It does have joists that the sub sits on. It was built in two halves, brought in on a trailer and set on the foundation. The "trailer" frame is still under there with I-beams across from foundation wall to wall and jacks in the center for support. These are meant to be sat on basement foundations or crawl space foundations. The floor has the frame, insulation the the joists from the bottom up.

Pics later.

BTW, How the heck does one screw/nail studs to concrete?

In case you hadn't noticed, I'm new to this home improvment stuff.

 

[Bubba700]

It does have joists that the sub sits on. It was built in two halves, brought in on a trailer and set on the foundation. The "trailer" frame is still under there with I-beams across from foundation wall to wall and jacks in the center for support. These are meant to be sat on basement foundations or crawl space foundations. The floor has the frame, insulation the the joists from the bottom up.

Pics later.

BTW, How the heck does one screw/nail studs to concrete?

In case you hadn't noticed, I'm new to this home improvment stuff.

Sorta what I was picturing in my head from the ones that I have seen. If it were me this is what I would do, Pull the insulation back far enough to put studs up to the joists then frame around the beams when you come to them. You said you have extra drop ceiling stuff, do a drop ceiling, easiest way around the weird way they insulate and do the beams. Then for attaching stuff to concrete I have done a couple of methods. 1. Use a hammer drill and a 1/4in bit. Drill through the wood into the foundation/floor then drive 2 16d nails into the hole. The other is pick up a stud gun ( used to be like 25$ for the cheap ones) at home depot or Ace. these have a .22 charge that when you hit it with a hammer it shoots a stud throught the wood all the way into the concrete. Works well . Lil loud in a basement though so grab some earplugs too. Really isn't hard stuff to do.

 

[Snow Fox]

It does have joists that the sub sits on. It was built in two halves, brought in on a trailer and set on the foundation. The "trailer" frame is still under there with I-beams across from foundation wall to wall and jacks in the center for support. These are meant to be sat on basement foundations or crawl space foundations. The floor has the frame, insulation the the joists from the bottom up.

Pics later.

BTW, How the heck does one screw/nail studs to concrete?

In case you hadn't noticed, I'm new to this home improvment stuff.

You'll want to use a hammer drill and blue concrete screws. My two downstairs bedrooms, the walls on the concrete side I used 1X2's at 16" centers. I used the blue concrete screws along with liquid nails. I then used 3/4" thick foam insulation and then attached paneling. I finished everything with cedar. It came out really nice, but I was fortunate and my concrete walls were fairly straight. My basement family room I am remodeling right now, I am using 2X4's for the walls, because I want it to be better insulated and all but one wall is concrete. It is a lot faster to frame up as well. My two bedrooms took some time to do.

For what you are doing, I would recommend that you frame everything with 2X4's.

 

[adrenaline junkey]

If it was me i would go ahead and frame in the walls with 2x4. just throw your level on the wall and determine how much you will need to move the bottom plate in to keep the wall plumb. chalk a line and nail bottom plate to it, make sure you use liquid nails to help secure it. the horseshoe concrete nails work pretty good also known as square cute nails. next all you have to do is plumb up with a straight 2x4 and level to get your upper plate nail it in place. mark and cut each stud for a better fit and put them on 16" centers. when running a wall where there is no floor Joice to nail plates to run you a sticker from the first floor Joice to plate on top of the concrete about every 4 foot works nice. hope that helps a little

 

[gusto]

I like to use steel studs for bsmt. Reno's very fast and easy. On my bsmt I used 2 1/2" studs on 16" ctrs withe furring channel at 4'. Insulated with r 8. Used plastic grommets for wiring.