Basement Development & Associated Costs

[Knalus]

Originally Posted by zamler

The potential health risks (if any) aside, no. Green PT lumber often shrinks, sometimes as much as 20%. Unless you have pre-dried the lumber you may end up with shrinking/warping issues. Also regular fasteners can corrode when in contact with the wood. Can you use it and be fine? Yes, but there is potential for problems, so to do the job correctly it is best to just avoid the material.

edit - Use appropriate fasteners. Triple-galvanized or stainless steel is needed for all copper-treated woods including ACQ-B, ACQ-C, ACQ-D, CBA-A, and CA-B.

The new Pressure treated lumber avoids many health issues by no longer containing any arsenic. They replaced the arsenic with Copper, a mineral mammals cannot properly absorb. Can blue lumber claim the same? I have heard blue lumber is made from beetle infested wood, and isn't necessarily the best quality. Besides, most of it isn't rated for contact with moisture, which green pressure treated wood is. If you are going to use moisture rated blue wood, it is just another type of pressure treatment.

You are only supposed to use the pressure treated lumber for the floor plates for your walls. Because it is at the bottom of your wall, the pressure from the top of your wall should mitigate any issues you have with warping (as if regular lumber doesn't warp), and with nail corrosion. If you use it in other applications, then yeah, corrosion is going to cause issues. But you aren't supposed to use it for that. What you are supposed to use it for, the base plate, is perfect, because it will not rot if some minor leakage hits the bottom of your wall. Just make sure that everything is snug, secure, and that you use the proper fasteners, and your good to go.

[Knalus]

Originally Posted by Nyah

Has anyone ever looked into or had a basement window enlarged to accomodate a bedroom? What are the costs? Our windows are too small so we either have to enlarge one or label the room a 'storage room' or 'office' to get a permit. We will be using the room as a guest room... and technically it will be another bedroom. Opinions?

I did this recently. Cost for cutting a hole was about ~$750, and for the window it cost also ~$750. But it is hellishly messy.

[Northendzone]

never priced out a window enlargement, but it feels like it would be in the range of $2,00 to $3,000.

given you would need to cut the walls, get a new window unit and possibly do some work witht eh window well.

[Nyah]

Originally Posted by Russic

In our place the builder was kind enough to build the window about 3" too small for the room to be designated as a bedroom. I could get into more specific detail, but cost was in the $2000 range (a friend of mine paid about $1600, so it can be cheaper). I may have spent more on the single window than the entire floor. The amount of light that now gets into the room is nice. Not $2000 nice, but nice.

It ends up being hellishly messy because the blade has a constant stream of water being poured on it, but the guys we hired did a good job of cleaning.

I hear ya - our windows are tiny. You'd think that in newer houses (2003) they would have built in windows that were a bit larger. If you were developing a basement again, would you do it again or lable the room as something different? $2000 is the price range I was thinking too, so at least it fits into the budget. How long did it take them to do?

[speede5]

Originally Posted by Nyah

Has anyone ever looked into or had a basement window enlarged to accomodate a bedroom? What are the costs? Our windows are too small so we either have to enlarge one or label the room a 'storage room' or 'office' to get a permit. We will be using the room as a guest room... and technically it will be another bedroom. Opinions?

Just had one done last summer, $1500 to go from a 15x30ish to a egress compliant window. That didn't include the well, which was done using stacking blocks. We should have gone bigger since we were doing it, but the owner had already bought the window. (I built the suite, a sub did the window.)

[Nyah]

^^ What company did you use? And was it easy to build up your own well?

[speede5]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

here is a picture of the window in question:

http://s1273.beta.photobucket.com/us...09529547406024

Can't see the stops in that picture, the glazings might come out from the ooutside, BUT, that's a simple box unit window, you should be able to remove the whole thing quite simply. Look all around the inside edge of the frame for screws, remove them and pull the unit into the basement.

[speede5]

Originally Posted by Nyah

^^ What company did you use? And was it easy to build up your own well?

Sorry, I'm in Moose Jaw, probably not very helpful.

All you have to do is dig a hole and lay some gravel in the base. If you can get down to the weeping tile, if there is any, then any water that accumulates can run off that way, but if not then slope the dirt at the bottom away from the house and throw in a foot or so of gravel. We made the walls out of stacking stone, looks nice. Remember the opening in the well has to flow into the window so as not to impede ingress/egress.

[Northendzone]

Originally Posted by speede5

Can't see the stops in that picture, the glazings might come out from the ooutside, BUT, that's a simple box unit window, you should be able to remove the whole thing quite simply. Look all around the inside edge of the frame for screws, remove them and pull the unit into the basement.

looked fairly carefully last night for screws and could find none. I thought that perhaps one of the plastic trim pieces might pop off, but nothing seemed obvious.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

here is a picture of the window in question:

http://s1273.beta.photobucket.com/us...09529547406024

Go outside and look at the window. The frame is probably just tacked in with roofing nails or construction screws and possibly covered with blue seal. You can remove the whole window (the frame and everything) by popping out the nails and pulling the window into the back yard.

That may sound like a lot of work, but it's not. I've had to do it at work many times. Just make sure that when you put it back in, you put it in flush and square, and tack at least every second hole, and then use some Blue Seal on the perimeter.

I can snap a couple of pictures at work tomorrow to help this description if you want.

[Kananaskis04]

Originally Posted by Nyah

^^ What company did you use? And was it easy to build up your own well?

We've used Champion Concrete Cutting on a few of our rentals here in Calgary. I think the price was right around $1400-1500 (a couple of years ago) cutting and window install included. You just have to have the well dug out before hand so they have good access to cut.

Afterwards the well can be bought (pre-fabbed stainless steel), or constructed out of pressure treated timber or pre-formed concrete block...whatever you like best.

[speede5]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

looked fairly carefully last night for screws and could find none. I thought that perhaps one of the plastic trim pieces might pop off, but nothing seemed obvious.

Pics would definately help, sounds like you have a nail fin on the outside then. Depending on the siding there will be different ways to get at it. If it has a brickmold and parging some careful prying should get it out for you like 4x4 said. Cut through any caulking, pull any nails you can find and push from the inside, pry carefully from the outside and it should pop out. A magnet can be helpful to find painted over screws. If it's vinyl there's a tool you can get to seperate the vinyl pieces, which will make the nail fin accesible.

[stang]

So here is my basement plans... Right now its just an open concrete and foam room.





I have some questions... First one of my walls (the one that is for the playroom/bathroom) is right underneath my steel beam... Can I just glue my top plate to the beam for framing?

The "open area" has turned into a bar with a poker table... Bar on left.

[stang]

Another question is... How do you pre wire for a sound system if you don't know what kind of speakers I'm gonna use.... Are mono prices in wall speakers any good?

[fundmark19]

Originally Posted by stang

Another question is... How do you pre wire for a sound system if you don't know what kind of speakers I'm gonna use.... Are mono prices in wall speakers any good?

I have the monoprice in walls I will let you know. They are currently sitting on chairs outside of my walls and sounds good I assume they will only sound better once in the wall

[Northendzone]

Originally Posted by stang

Can I just glue my top plate to the beam for framing?

to me this is a very interesting question and i look forward to hearing from others on this.

for the record, I would think that you would be to glue this. the only concern would be what happens if the glue lets go, then the wall will be flooping around. Can you move the wall a bit and do some bracing off of the joists?

[darklord700]

Originally Posted by stang

Another question is... How do you pre wire for a sound system if you don't know what kind of speakers I'm gonna use.... Are mono prices in wall speakers any good?

I guess you have to decide whether you want in walls or not before doing the wiring. And if you want in walls, you can either do sidewall in wall or ceiling in wall and they'll require different wiring as well.

[fundmark19]

Originally Posted by darklord700

I guess you have to decide whether you want in walls or not before doing the wiring. And if you want in walls, you can either do sidewall in wall or ceiling in wall and they'll require different wiring as well.

Not really you can run all the cables before hand and leave them in the wall. Once you decide if you want inwalls just cut the hole and they will be there still if you don't want inwalls you just cut a hole and put one of those brackets up and wire in your outlet

[stang]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

to me this is a very interesting question and i look forward to hearing from others on this.

for the record, I would think that you would be to glue this. the only concern would be what happens if the glue lets go, then the wall will be flooping around. Can you move the wall a bit and do some bracing off of the joists?

Movin the wall isn't an option... I'd rather just box frame the beam and attach to that. I was just curious if I didn't have to go that route.

The teleposts are going to be in that wall and hidden.

Also I asked about the speakers in the home theatre mega thread. I am
Completely open to suggestions on what kind of system I should go with.

[Northendzone]

barring other advice, i'd go with the box in - more solid over the long (i think).

may want to consider levaing some access to the telepost in case you ever need to give that adjustment nut a little turn becasue your house has sagged a bit.

other other thought on the wiring of spaker/computer cable - you may want to run some vacu-flow tubing in after framing - this way you can easily fish wires thru the wall/ceiling. I wish that i had this piece of advice years ago when i did my cave......