DIY Finished Basement

Planning

• The first step in your basement finishing project is planning. When planning your basement project, the most obvious step is deciding what you want to do with the room. The various uses will require different choices in materials and design ideas. For instance, if you are planning a home theater, there will be electrical requirements for the equipment, and a home office will require phone lines and additional electrical outlets for the office equipment. When planning a child's playroom, more attention should be paid to the flooring and making sure that the room is safe for children to play in.
  Measure out the area where you will be finishing the room. Make sketches of the room and plan where you are going to place the furniture and other items. Measure the ceiling heights and include any ductwork in the measurements. These will have to be a part of the overall finishing plan.
  When determining the plan for your basement refinish, there may be work that will require a contractor, such as an electrician to wire the basement for you. Take note of any work that is required that you are not comfortable doing in your home. Consider the tools that you will need for the job and the cost of the materials. You will also require a building permit to construct the finished basement in your home.

Moisture in the Basement

• Waterproofing the concrete floors and walls in the basement should be the first step before you begin building in the basement. Moisture in the basement will cause damage to the furnishings and could present a mold problem. There are sealing materials that can be applied to the floors and walls in the basement to keep the area waterproof.

Flooring

• A subfloor is necessary on the basement floor if you would like the basement floor to be warmer than the concrete that currently exists. Polystyrene sheets and plywood is a suitable subfloor that is drilled right into the existing concrete floor. With the wood subfloor, you will be able to lay down any type of flooring material that you want for your basement floor.

Walls and Ceilings

• The concrete walls in your basement are likely not going to be plumb. This means that there will be bulges and uneven surfaces in the concrete. The corners will not have 90-degree angles as well. To fix this, you will have to build walls away from the surface of the concrete walls if you want to have straight walls in your finished basement.