Basement project

[diplomat019]

  My plan is to redo my basement little by little. Here is the info on the basement.  Partnof the basement is finished but extremely outdated.  Id say the finished part consumes about 40% of the actual area.  The rest of the basement is unfinished (slab and foundation walls).  I have seen no signs of water at all. No smells.  No calcium deposits in the walls.  Nothing (lnock on wood). My neighbor said he finished his basement and its bone dry. So my plan is to knock down a wall (non load bearing) and open the area up.  My utilities are all in one corner so about 75% of the basement is free.  Here are my questions:

1- i plan on tiling the floor.  Do i need to put some sort of a vapor barrier down before i tile?  Or can i go right on the concrete slab. 

2- how should i go about insulating the walls?  I have seen videos of people putting pink insulation boards against the wall with adhesive.  I have also seen insulation that has studs built into them. Cant recall the name.  

[sodfather]

For the walls I used the pink foam board insulation with big tap con screws and those flimsy silver discs as washers. For the floor I would use linoleum instead of tile. You can get away with this unless your floor is perfectly level it's easier than tile. Plus I'd be worried about tile shifting unless you have some sort of valor barring infer it. For the ceiling ( depending on the height) I'd pain everything flat black instead of a drop ceiling. I'm 6'1 and didn't want to lose anymore height than needed to. Good luck with the project 

[Gencountyzeek]

Pink board glued to the wall works good, u can tape the seams too if u really want to. Ive tiled small areas in basements before for bar areas with no problems.

[diplomat019]

Thanks.  Linoleum did cross my mind.  You can put grout down too and they look very good.  I have a buddy who did this.  The floor looks level to the naked eye but it could obviously be off.  

 

Seems like pink boards could be the way to go.

 

Im 6'4" and they have an old drop ceiling in place.  Id say its a 7ft ceiling.   A little low but im not uncomfortable so im gonna stick with a drop ceiling.  

[moog5050]

When I finished my basement at my last house, I framed the walls out as close to the block wall as is possible and used standard roll fiberglass insulation over a vapor barrier.  That gives you space to install normal outlets and run wires as needed.

I also went with carpet as the basement slab tends to be cold as is.  I did use a drop ceiling but it was 13 course so I still had a finished height of 8'.

[diplomat019]

52 minutes ago, moog5050 said:

When I finished my basement at my last house, I framed the walls out as close to the block wall as is possible and used standard roll fiberglass insulation over a vapor barrier.  That gives you space to install normal outlets and run wires as needed.

I also went with carpet as the basement slab tends to be cold as is.  I did use a drop ceiling but it was 13 course so I still had a finished height of 8'.

So you put the vapor barrier against the wall?   How did you secure it

[bugsNbows]

Regarding concrete floors, a lot of folks around here use an acid wash to stain the concrete. It looks pretty cool. 

[moog5050]

39 minutes ago, diplomat019 said:

So you put the vapor barrier against the wall?   How did you secure it

My recollection is that I stapled it to a thin strip of wood that I screwed into the block at the top of the wall.  It just hung and I overlapped the plastic sheeting and taped seams.  It worked really well.

Edited September 7, 2017 by moog5050

[First-light]

I painted my basement floor with epoxy paint. They have a bunch of great colors and also threw some specks into the paint while it dried. Throw a area rug down and your good to go. Pretty cheap and quick way to go.

Edited September 7, 2017 by First-light