Want to finish your basement?
What is basement finishing? The whole concept of making a basement a useable space for living in the house, is sometimes referred to in this fashion. But that entails so many different carpentry ideas and systems that most people seem to imagine the cost will be far to exorbant (which is only true if your tastes are exorbant). Waterproofing, walls, ceilings, floors, stairwells, electricity and plumbing all go into finishing the basement, but details like the water heaters and overhangs tend to make the finishing ideas a little non-conventional, and all about cost effectiveness. Creativity is an excellent quality to have for anyone looking to do some expert basement finishing, but the most important tools are lighting and ventilation.
Window shafts are essential ideas for achieving good ventilation and natural lighting systems. Artificial lighting and ventilation can be effective, for basements that simply cannot support any kind of outside shaft structures, but never as cost effective in the long run as a natural shaft system. In fact, basement finishing is an art that revolves around how “open” the basement appears to be. The illusion of openness is the element of success in any basement finishing idea and systems that take this factor to heart are on the road to cost effectiveness.
Before going to work finishing the basement, meditate, that’s easy enough for anybody with creative prowess. If not, then just put the basic needs to be addressed down on scratch paper, sleep on it and the “strategic openness” should appear the next morning, but aside from the sensation of openness, basements also require practical solutions to practical problems like water heaters, overhangs pillars, shallow foundations and such. Basement finishing means dealing with these unexpected factors in a creative and yet efficient fashion.
The unexpected is what professional basement finishing experts deal with everyday. If a basement was built without even one window shaft on the south side, then think seriously about digging some (if not at least one), but more importantly, make sure that no down slopes or broken roof overhangs are going to cause water to flood the basement on rainy days. In fact waterproofing the basement in general is a must first step, since it would be a waste of time and effort to do something wonderful, just to have it ruined by seeping floors, leaking walls or open windows that turn into waterfalls.
Electricity and plumbing, which are usually found in the basement, should be rerouted through accessible areas of the ceiling, walls and floor, so as to make future maintenance and repair jobs far more cost effective, quick and safe. This means running things through floor boards along the corners or pillars in over hangs and even installing and creating service closets for things such as water heaters. Usually this happens when a pillar or two is/are blocking potential basement space. Either relocate the water heater, furnace, water pipes, sewer pipes, electrical wires and drains to accommodate the service closet space, or improvise all over the place in easy to hide fashion.
Obviously it takes longer to redo all the plumbing and electricity to make a basement conform itself to a new style, but that is the whole point of basement finishing; to put the excess space to use for the inhabitants, not the other way around. It may take time to redirect these things if the kind of ceiling, walls and floor are permanent, so perhaps more serviceable walls, ceiling, and floor are better? That is a question that every basement finishing expert must answer. As long as future and comfort are taken fully into account, everything should run smoothly. Use light colors, curves when possible, and work unchangeable areas into closet spaces. Make sure there is natural light and ventilation coming from shafts on the southern most (for those in the southern hemisphere change that to “northern” most!) side of the basement, and where shafts are not possible, silent fans and soft white 40 watt neon lights.
