QUESTIONS ABOUT: Getting my basement develped

[MacDaddy77]

Originally Posted by Prototype

Now that I've read this thread, I may tackle doing it myself, considering the savings. We don't need everything done right away. Mainly framing, and a play room I would imagine. Thanks for the inspiration... and any help in advance... ha

If you don't have anyone else, I could come by for an afternoon and do your electrical for you.

Keep in mind though, I am NOT an electrician, I just bought the book

Seriously though, let me know. If you don't have any friends that can give you a hand, I could come by and let you know what to get and maybe a different idea of what you might want for a basement plan.

If you are planning your basement ahead of time, Open your electrical panel and make sure that you have room to add fuses in there.

You can only have 12 outlets on 1 fuse.

[MacDaddy77]

Originally Posted by SeeGeeWhy

Questions to Habby and MacDaddy - are you guys in the trades? How much did your tools cost to get to the point where you could develop your basement quickly? How long did it take? Did you get a permit, and did it pass inspection? What do the results look like?

I have been around trades my whole life. My uncle build homes and I grew up on a farm where my step father would do pretty much everything himself.

for tools to start you are probably looking at $350.00. I would get the following tools to start.

Chalk line
2' square
framing triangle square
2' level
4'level
mitre saw (10" Ryobi at Home Depot is around $100) Buy this because you'll need it for the baseboards and door trim as well.
Hammer (Framing hammer preferrably, but get one that you won't get tired swinging)
Tape Measure
Wire cutters
needle nose plyers
srewdriver with adjustable heads

this is pretty much all that I used to finish my basement. You will find other things that you will want to get along the way bit this should be all you need to get you to the drywall stage.

I kept the studs for all my walls on 24" centres. You can go 18" centres if you want but in my opinion it's just extra wood that isn't needed

[habernac]

Originally Posted by SeeGeeWhy

Questions to Habby and MacDaddy - are you guys in the trades? How much did your tools cost to get to the point where you could develop your basement quickly? How long did it take? Did you get a permit, and did it pass inspection? What do the results look like?

The tools are not mine, they're a friend's. And I'm definitely not in the trades. Nothing too spectacular, cordless drill, table saw, level, square, hammer is pretty much it (no plumbing in mine, waiting to save more money before we do the flooring).

We've just completed the wiring. Drywall and vapour barrier is next. We've done about 20-30 hours of work I'd estimate.

[fredr123]

Has anyone taken any of the homeowner courses from SAIT? I see they have one for framing, plumbing, electrical and a few others that may be beneficial to noobs doing their own basement.

[chummer]

I did most of my own basement but don't want to tackle my kitchen.

Anyone know or recommend a company that does kitchens?

[habernac]

Originally Posted by fotze

Oh the drywall, this is the stage where progress will grind to a halt and you will be irreversibly frustrated to finish the rest.

our's won't be too bad. Not a lot of goofy angles or anything like that. I have a feeling my friend will finish most of it while I'm working (bummer!! hahahahahahahaha).

[millhouse11]

things I'd do myself:
framing
flooring - cork, laminate, tile
putting up drywall
baseboards
electrical (follow the code book)

Things I'd hire someone for
plumbing
installing carpet
mudding and taping. (I tried, and I figure a chimp could've done just as good of a job as me)

this is just my personal list. I don't have any exceptional skill or ability. I'm slow and measure everything quite a few times before I cut. It was a good excuse to buy tools too.

[MacDaddy77]

Originally Posted by SeeGeeWhy

Questions to Habby and MacDaddy - are you guys in the trades? How much did your tools cost to get to the point where you could develop your basement quickly? How long did it take? Did you get a permit, and did it pass inspection? What do the results look like?

Sorry, i didn't answer the rest of your questions.

Personally I didn't get mine inspected

i am quite confident in my abilities so this way i won't get dinged with the extra property taxes that come with developing your basement

i would take a picture but I have jsut finished taping so it wouldn't look like much now.

[MacDaddy77]

Originally Posted by fotze

Oh the drywall, this is the stage where progress will grind to a halt and you will be irreversibly frustrated to finish the rest.

Drywalling isn't the problem Taping IS

[MacDaddy77]

Originally Posted by chummer

I did most of my own basement but don't want to tackle my kitchen.

Anyone know or recommend a company that does kitchens?

What are you looking for?

if you are looking for Cabinets my brother in law is a cabinet maker.

[habernac]

Originally Posted by MacDaddy77

Sorry, i didn't answer the rest of your questions.

Personally I didn't get mine inspected

i am quite confident in my abilities so this way i won't get dinged with the extra property taxes that come with developing your basement

i would take a picture but I have jsut finished taping so it wouldn't look like much now.

I'm only getting the wiring inspected. Screw the city on taxing me for having more "livable" space in my home.

[MacDaddy77]

Nice to see someone else screwing the system


Damn the Man

[Antithesis]

Originally Posted by fotze

Another factor to consider is how is the basement now?

How old is the house? My house in Sunnyside was built in 1905, I tried to to that basement, what an abortion. The floor was at leadt 0.5 feet out of level not much more than 5 feet away. The joistiz were pretty uneven after all those years. Dealing with the abortions from all the previous owners attempts was just too much.

I thought engineers could do anything!

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by fredr123

Has anyone taken any of the homeowner courses from SAIT? I see they have one for framing, plumbing, electrical and a few others that may be beneficial to noobs doing their own basement.

I took similar courses at NAIT awhile ago, and I would highly recommend them to do your basement.

Originally Posted by MacDaddy77

Sorry, i didn't answer the rest of your questions.

Personally I didn't get mine inspected

i am quite confident in my abilities so this way i won't get dinged with the extra property taxes that come with developing your basement

i would take a picture but I have jsut finished taping so it wouldn't look like much now.

You know if you did electrical without a permit and your house burns down, you can be denied insurance?

I learned that at the electrical course at NAIT.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by fredr123

Has anyone taken any of the homeowner courses from SAIT? I see they have one for framing, plumbing, electrical and a few others that may be beneficial to noobs doing their own basement.

That's an excellent suggestion. I'm probably a year or two off from doing mine, but that's a great idea.

[Ashartus]

I agree with a lot of the suggestions here. In particular, you'll save a lot of money by doing whatever you can yourself. Framing is relatively easy so long as you plan things out ahead of time and measure carefully. Same with wiring - electrical takes a bit of planning and obviously you need to follow code. Even plumbing isn't that hard for the most part if everything is already roughed in. Putting up the drywall can be hard work (particularly on the ceiling), but again if you measure everything carefully you should be able to do a good job. Mudding/taping is one thing that might be worth hiring someone to do unless you're prepared to take a lot of time to make it look good.

Definitely get the permits from the city. I've been told there was a law passed a couple of years ago so that if you sell your house, you legally have to disclose whether any work was done without a permit, so not getting a permit could affect your property value. If you want to avoid the higher property taxes for a finished basement, get the permits and most of the inspections (electrical rough-in, framing, plumbing), but leave off the final electrical inspection - that way you can tell the city you aren't done yet if they try to raise your taxes.

[Sliver]

I paid to have somebody do my basement in 2006. It was about $25,000 for probably about 750 square feet as well. One bathroom, one bedroom, living room, staircase and a couple of closets. Seems like great value to me. I probably got 70% of that back when I sold the house this year and I spent all the time I would have been banging nails away downstairs hanging out with my wife, kids and friends instead. Plus the job was done in 2 months which is way faster than I could have done it myself so we were enjoying our basement sooner. Money well spent IMO plus it looked perfect. I strongly dislike the do-it-yourselfer look, but I'm pretty picky lol.

[fredr123]

What's the prevailing wisdom on finishing a basement ceiling: drywall or dropped panels?

[Thor]

Did everything in my basement (2 bedrooms, 1 full bath jetted tub, a poker room and home theater), cost me about 15,000 took about 5 months since it wasn't exactly fulltime.

The big thing for me was I did a drop down ceiling, have 9 foot ceilings when we built the house, so that worked great, not easy to install though.

But I will say the one thing I did pay for, well 1 of 2, was someone to come in and do the taping and finishing of the drywall. Thats a hard a** job and the professionals are ridiculously FAST so really in terms of cost and time its a no brainer.

I'd not skimp on plumbing or electrical, find friends or friends of friends they'll do it for a good price and its well worth it.

Make sure you have your permits and get inspections done, protect your own butt in the future.

If you do end up hiring people, check their refrences, see how long they've been in business, check with the BBB, and get at least 5 quotes from different companies, make sure you ask them in detail about the costs, especially how the payment plan works, etc.

So many bad companies out there unfortunately, gotta be careful.

[Antithesis]

I'm doing dropped panels, my father-in-law who has much more experience than I do in these matters strongly suggested dropped panels, and my stepfather, who has an incredible aptitude for mechanical-type things, insists upon them as well.