Steps to Finishing a Room in a Basement

Cleaning

• Before you can begin finishing your basement, clear it out. Begin by moving everything that you can out of the basement, like storage bins, holiday decorations, shelving units, tools and furniture. If you do not have space like a garage for storing these things, move them all to one area of the basement while you finish around them, then move them back. When the basement is empty, scrub it down.

Moisture Evaluation

• Some basements--older ones especially--were not designed with livability in mind. For that reason, you may need to evaluate how your basement traps moisture. Condensation from the earth around your basement and the ventilation in your house can become trapped in the basement, making it moist. While this may not be a problem when you treat your basement like a cellar, it can mean trouble like mold and mildew after you finish the room. Check the ventilation, the sealing and the moisture in the room, as well as your gutters and rain irrigation system outside the house.

Insulation

• Another potential problem with unfinished basements is the temperature. If a basement was not meant to be lived in, it may become excessively cold. Insulating the basement is a process that, while time-consuming, drastically increases the livability of the space. To insulate the walls, frame them, insulate the cavity and refinish the wall around the cavity. One you complete this process, the basement will hold in the heat and keep out the cold much better than before.

Decoration and Organization

• After the basement is moisture-free and insulated, it's time to decorate and organize. Start with big projects, like installing carpeting or hardwood flooring, then move on to the details. For example, find homes for everything that was once in the basement--this may be the time to purge your house of the things you no longer need while organizing what remains.