Basement finishing info please

[MrBlunt]

I'm going to begin the task of finishing the basement and will do as much work as possible by myself, with the help of some family. I'm getting mixed info about the need to seal my basement walls before putting up studs. My house is 3 yrs old with poured walls and I have zero moisture problems. Id like to know what you recommend. A family member is pushing me to drylok the walls which is going to add about 700-800 to my budget and a shit load of time and effort. If this is necessary is there a product that does a similar job and can be sprayed on instead of brushing on like drylok? Originally my home builder told me I could put down 'visqueen' which I'm told is plastic sheeting and it would provide the same type of moisture barrier. Thoughts/recommendations??

Next I recently watched an HGTV program on a basement remodel and they used blown in insulation for the media room by covering the studs to the top with plastic and blowing in the insulation behind it for sound deadening. It seemed like a cheap alternative to putting up the pink stuff so what are your thoughts to adding some r-rating to the basement in this manor. I am using nearly half of the space down there for a home theater room so sound deadening in that area is going to be part of my planning for the area. This is the method that they used in a 110k remodel so it may be a legit practice but again I like to get multiple opinions. Thanks!

[BlackEclipse]

I Googled and found a discussion that said not to use Drylock on poured walls. They recommended a product made by: http://www.kryton.com.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archive/index.php/t-795523.html

Did they attach a membrane to the outside of the basement wall? I would have paid extra to have that done to a new house.

[Insane99Eclipse]

I'm in the process of demo'ing out a room in our basement. I would not recommend the visqueen. This is what I am having to deal with.

Keep in mind my house is from the 40's...

The people that did finish the basement didn't do a great job of it. They used drylock on the 2 outside block walls (you don't have the block walls as I'm assuming your walls are solid concrete?). They then nailed up 2x2's at 16" apart. Inbetween the studs they used foam insulation, not the pink kind but think the kind that your electronics comes sealed in... white and thin maybe 1/4" think. They then used visqueen and stapled that over top. And for some unknown reason used drywall over the top. What the visqueen did was trap the moisture in and rotted the wood and made the drylock basically brittle. Walls sweat due to the temperature differences and the drastic thawing and cooling in the concrete itself. All concrete creates moisture when doing that. When the visqueen traps it in it will just create black mold which is a pain in the ass to deal with. Today my house smells like bleach as that was the next step in our de-molding the basement walls. Steer clear of drywall and use cement board (i think thats what it's called).

Do yourself a favor and try to catch some Holmes on Homes on HGTV. My wife said a show that was on today he was dealing with poured concrete walls. He used some kind of spray on foam directly on the walls thus eliminating the need of a vapor barrier.

As far as insulation I'd look into the blue jean insulation. Not itchy does a good job as sound deading as well. Just not sure what it would be like if it would get wet? I'm keeping in mind that you might be in your current house for awhile and saving yourself the issues of mold growth.

[ucsigep]

I would use green board, not cement board. To my knowledge, green board is moisture resistant, but is basically the same as drywall. Cement board would certainly work, but I think it's overkill and could save money with green board.

And I concur with watching Holmes on Homes. Great show. The episode I caught last night he was redoing a bathroom, in which he put green board on top of cement board.

[Insane99Eclipse]

http://www.single-family-home-remodeling.com/greenboard.html

Good site for the comparison of greenboard and cement board.

Really just depends on your comfort level and if water will ever have the possibilty of being present. Cement board would be over doing it but might be more cost effective if a sump pump would ever go out or the sewer backed up. Seems like either are the way to go.

[Iwishiwascool]

3rd for Holmes on Homes, I DVR it whenever it's on.

He loves some spray foam. I'd be interested in knowing the local costs for it.

[ucsigep]

yes he does.

It does scare me, though, some of the stuff that contractors do that he has to come in and fix. Makes me happy I bought a brand new house.

[Iwishiwascool]

You obviously haven't seen the ones where is works on brand new houses and the original builder was the one that cut the corners.

[ucsigep]

oh, I've seen those. But those don't surprise me near as much as the contractors who come in, promise one thing, and completely screw people. Trust me, my cousin worked for the builder of my house, I know corners are cut in some places. Luckily, I also know the guy who was the superintendant that actually built my house, he's a good friend. I was made aware of all the possible cut corners in my house, and they were all actually fixed within about 6 months of moving in.

[EvolvedDSM]

Any updates on this? My home improvement season has kicked into first gear, but the basement finishing is near the end of my journey. Still, I'd like to give planning some though.

Why bother with insulation? Are you just using it to limit sound from the media room?

[EvolvedDSM]

Chad, thanks for keeping up the discussion :finger

I caught an episode of Holmes where they redid a basement using the pink foam boards as insulation (double 1") and floor padding (single 1")--taped all the seams and used expanding foam in the corners/tops.