Basement Finishing (Northeast Ohio)

[Magua]

So the wife and I (Okay, mostly I) are planning to finish our basement. Our house was built in 2007 and we purchased it 2 years ago with the hopes of finishing the basement for some additional living space. I'm looking for suggestions and ideas for contractors to hire in the NEO area and also any ideas or suggestions on materials to use or just ideas in general.

Right now it's one big wrap around unfinished basement with concrete flooring and poured concrete walls. There's under-stair storage that kind of separates the area in two. One side will be the finished living area and the other side will be a half bathroom and then walled off storage/utility area.

Anyone know of any contractors to recommend in the area? I would like to have the basement walls framed and dry walled, probably dry wall the ceiling since it's cheaper than a drop/tiled ceiling. Half bath put in (the plumbing is already in place). I have a sump pump that I would like to box in as well if possible so it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb.

The basement is very dry and water proofed. We had a little bit of water get in last year when we had a lot of flooding in the area just because my pump couldn't keep up but we were able to pump it out as it was happening.

 

[Zurp]

So the wife and I (Okay, mostly I) are planning to finish our basement. Our house was built in 2007 and we purchased it 2 years ago with the hopes of finishing the basement for some additional living space. I'm looking for suggestions and ideas for contractors to hire in the NEO area and also any ideas or suggestions on materials to use or just ideas in general.

Right now it's one big wrap around unfinished basement with concrete flooring and poured concrete walls. There's under-stair storage that kind of separates the area in two. One side will be the finished living area and the other side will be a half bathroom and then walled off storage/utility area.

Anyone know of any contractors to recommend in the area? I would like to have the basement walls framed and dry walled, probably dry wall the ceiling since it's cheaper than a drop/tiled ceiling. Half bath put in (the plumbing is already in place). I have a sump pump that I would like to box in as well if possible so it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb.

The basement is very dry and water proofed. We had a little bit of water get in last year when we had a lot of flooding in the area just because my pump couldn't keep up but we were able to pump it out as it was happening.

I would think that contractors who can finish a basement would be pretty easy to find. Heck - I finished my own basement on my own. OK - I had help from my brother. But it's really a piece of cake.

 

[ShowMeBuck]

Only advice: paint the walls scarlet and grey.

Because of the prophesy.

 

[Magua]

Turns out we will not be needing any contractors. My father in law does this for a living and I've been talking with him on/off about it but he has been so busy he is booked through the summer already for work. He called me yesterday and said if I still wanted to do it he and my brother in law would come over and the 3 of us knock it out in a few weeks. He has a job coming up where he will only be able to work until early afternoon each day during week so he'll come over and do like 4 hours a day in my basement and then the weekends.

 

[sparcboxbuck]

Turns out we will not be needing any contractors. My father in law does this for a living and I've been talking with him on/off about it but he has been so busy he is booked through the summer already for work. He called me yesterday and said if I still wanted to do it he and my brother in law would come over and the 3 of us knock it out in a few weeks. He has a job coming up where he will only be able to work until early afternoon each day during week so he'll come over and do like 4 hours a day in my basement and then the weekends.

Yup, if you’re not looking to do a lot of custom built ins, what you described should be pretty easy... especially if you have a pro who is coaching you along the way.

I did our basement in our old house pretty much by myself. I did have an electrician do his thing, more because in chicagoland we have a requirement for conduit (read: keeps union labor employed). I didn’t feel like investing in a conduit bender... and it wasn’t too expensive.

I did framing, two doors, windows, drywall, skimming, trim, painting and carpet. We did have it repainted before we moved and had them paint the rafters as we didn’t do a ceiling... more of a loft(?) style basement. We didn’t do any custom built ins at all which made it a breeze. I drank a ton of beer and lost 30-lbs doing the work. It was great exercise.

We’re finishing the basement in the new house this spring. We built it and have been here for three and a half years and finally getting off the duff. But this one, no way in hell I’d do by myself as we’re carrying theme of the above ground down below... so a lot of arches, custom woodwork, granite and built-ins that would take me forever to not do well. I will do a lot of the low voltage wiring for this one (network and speaker) and let the pros do the rest.

A few things that I’ve learned with doing one basement, and having recently built a new house:

1) You can never have enough power outlets
2) If you have an idea where you want to hang a TV on a wall, don’t rely only on studs for the mounting. Make your life easier by putting up a big ass header (or similar) in any area you might hang the tv. It may be a bit more expensive, but you never have to worry about studs being where you want them.
3) same goes for where you might put a TP dispenser in a bathroom if you’re putting in one of those too. I HATE it when my tp dispenser and towel hangers are loose because you have nothing but drywall to work with. Pisses.me.off.
4) consider running network wiring too. We are a heavy data house... both wife and I work in data intensive industries (and from home) so we may be an extreme, but it is nice to have cat5e in almost every room... we also have a wireless mesh network, but the cat5 for work is worth the trouble. I really like this for IP TV stuff. One Roku in our house doesn’t hit our WiFi network and one does. I can tell when we are steaming on the wireless device and are under heavy load. Drop a cat 5e behind where you’d mount the TV too. Worst case, you drop a WiFi connection there.
5) run some wire chimneys to make your life easier. Vertical (a must if you run wires from basement up to first and higher floors) and horizontal if you finish the ceiling in the basement. You’d be amazed how a couple of strategically placed pieces of PVC will save you a lot of headaches in the future. If it’s a newer build, my guess is you have one or more of these already.

Good luck. Post pix!

 

[Magua]

Yup, if you’re not looking to do a lot of custom built ins, what you described should be pretty easy... especially if you have a pro who is coaching you along the way.

I did our basement in our old house pretty much by myself. I did have an electrician do his thing, more because in chicagoland we have a requirement for conduit (read: keeps union labor employed). I didn’t feel like investing in a conduit bender... and it wasn’t too expensive.

I did framing, two doors, windows, drywall, skimming, trim, painting and carpet. We did have it repainted before we moved and had them paint the rafters as we didn’t do a ceiling... more of a loft(?) style basement. We didn’t do any custom built ins at all which made it a breeze. I drank a ton of beer and lost 30-lbs doing the work. It was great exercise.

We’re finishing the basement in the new house this spring. We built it and have been here for three and a half years and finally getting off the duff. But this one, no way in hell I’d do by myself as we’re carrying theme of the above ground down below... so a lot of arches, custom woodwork, granite and built-ins that would take me forever to not do well. I will do a lot of the low voltage wiring for this one (network and speaker) and let the pros do the rest.

A few things that I’ve learned with doing one basement, and having recently built a new house:

1) You can never have enough power outlets
2) If you have an idea where you want to hang a TV on a wall, don’t rely only on studs for the mounting. Make your life easier by putting up a big ass header (or similar) in any area you might hang the tv. It may be a bit more expensive, but you never have to worry about studs being where you want them.
3) same goes for where you might put a TP dispenser in a bathroom if you’re putting in one of those too. I HATE it when my tp dispenser and towel hangers are loose because you have nothing but drywall to work with. Pisses.me.off.
4) consider running network wiring too. We are a heavy data house... both wife and I work in data intensive industries (and from home) so we may be an extreme, but it is nice to have cat5e in almost every room... we also have a wireless mesh network, but the cat5 for work is worth the trouble. I really like this for IP TV stuff. One Roku in our house doesn’t hit our WiFi network and one does. I can tell when we are steaming on the wireless device and are under heavy load. Drop a cat 5e behind where you’d mount the TV too. Worst case, you drop a WiFi connection there.
5) run some wire chimneys to make your life easier. Vertical (a must if you run wires from basement up to first and higher floors) and horizontal if you finish the ceiling in the basement. You’d be amazed how a couple of strategically placed pieces of PVC will save you a lot of headaches in the future. If it’s a newer build, my guess is you have one or more of these already.

Good luck. Post pix!

We think very much alike!

1) This for sure, especially behind my TV but I also use UPS battery backups on pretty much every major electronic device - especially my basement 70" 4k TV.
2) I already know where my TV will be because it's already setup down there as a living room space but with a huge area rug and furniture/tv/etc. This was already in my plans!
3) I did not think of this really but I guess it's never really been an issue for me lol
4) I have already wired my entire house with Cat6e cable. I work in IT for a living so my home setup is rather extreme. I have cat6e runs going to my 2nd floor office, living room, kitchen, and a few running up a PVC conduit to the attic and then dropping down into a couple bedrooms and to a ceiling mounted Ubiquiti AC PRO AP on the 2nd floor. I also have a ceiling mounted Ubiquiti AC PRO in the basement as well. My entire house gets full 5GHz signal (including my 3 roku's). Everything is fed down to the basement to where I have a wall mounted network rack with a 24port Ubiquiti managed switch, Ubiquiti Secure Gateway router, and my business class modem from Spectrum. I have a Dell PowerEdge T620 server running a host of VM's (including my own internal domain, dns, exchange, security camera, plex, and unifi management servers) with 12TB of storage. All of my network equipment and server are powered by a APC Smart UPS 2200 so when the power goes out my entire network, internet, and server are still running so I can continue streaming from my Surface Pro or something.
5) Conduits, Conduits, Conduits. I work in healthcare IT in an area where we have to have tons of conduits running into rooms or labs for imaging equipment and I am certainly approaching this the same way. Especially since i'll be dry walling the ceiling - there will be multiple conduits running up and through the ceiling with pullback string left in place. My sound system will obviously be running through these as well as a plethora of network cables. I'll probably punch down a quad jack behind my TV (TV, Xbox, Roku, + 1) to meet my networking needs even though I have an AC PRO mounted literally 10 feet from them with no obstruction.

I will be sure to post pictures! It will probably be a little while before we start.

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

I have no advice. I just wanted to mention that every time I see this thread title, I think it says Basement Fishing.

 

[sparcboxbuck]

We think very much alike!

1) This for sure, especially behind my TV but I also use UPS battery backups on pretty much every major electronic device - especially my basement 70" 4k TV.
2) I already know where my TV will be because it's already setup down there as a living room space but with a huge area rug and furniture/tv/etc. This was already in my plans!
3) I did not think of this really but I guess it's never really been an issue for me lol
4) I have already wired my entire house with Cat6e cable. I work in IT for a living so my home setup is rather extreme. I have cat6e runs going to my 2nd floor office, living room, kitchen, and a few running up a PVC conduit to the attic and then dropping down into a couple bedrooms and to a ceiling mounted Ubiquiti AC PRO AP on the 2nd floor. I also have a ceiling mounted Ubiquiti AC PRO in the basement as well. My entire house gets full 5GHz signal (including my 3 roku's). Everything is fed down to the basement to where I have a wall mounted network rack with a 24port Ubiquiti managed switch, Ubiquiti Secure Gateway router, and my business class modem from Spectrum. I have a Dell PowerEdge T620 server running a host of VM's (including my own internal domain, dns, exchange, security camera, plex, and unifi management servers) with 12TB of storage. All of my network equipment and server are powered by a APC Smart UPS 2200 so when the power goes out my entire network, internet, and server are still running so I can continue streaming from my Surface Pro or something.
5) Conduits, Conduits, Conduits. I work in healthcare IT in an area where we have to have tons of conduits running into rooms or labs for imaging equipment and I am certainly approaching this the same way. Especially since i'll be dry walling the ceiling - there will be multiple conduits running up and through the ceiling with pullback string left in place. My sound system will obviously be running through these as well as a plethora of network cables. I'll probably punch down a quad jack behind my TV (TV, Xbox, Roku, + 1) to meet my networking needs even though I have an AC PRO mounted literally 10 feet from them with no obstruction.

I will be sure to post pictures! It will probably be a little while before we start.

Yes, we clearly think alike. For as much as we think alike I cannot believe that you've not encountered #3 LOL! I hate that... and I hate wavy paint lines cut in at the ceilings too. That's my criteria for a painter... if I can cut in a straighter line than they can, they're no good to me.

I looked at the Ubiq stuff when I was exploring our mesh network. I ended up with Open Mesh, have been very happy with that. 5GHz across our entire property which is ~120 x 350, inside and out. I just need to push a bigger pipe coming into the local network once someone decides to run fiber in our hood.

Good luck, have fun with this!

 

[AKAK]

I have no advice. I just wanted to mention that every time I see this thread title, I think it says Basement Fishing.

Completely different thing. Usually its easier after a hurricane. Preferably in Louisiana. Also easier in Louisiana, especially next Tuesday, is a sport I call basement fireworks. Now that shit gets loud... so, don't say I didn't warn you. But the Roman Candles bouncing off the walls makes it worth it.

 

[Buck Nasty]

Completely different thing. Usually its easier after a hurricane. Preferably in Louisiana. Also easier in Louisiana, especially next Tuesday, is a sport I call basement fireworks. Now that shit gets loud... so, don't say I didn't warn you. But the Roman Candles bouncing off the walls makes it worth it.

You can catch a remarkable number of fish if you combine the basement fishing with basement fireworks, however the hardcore fisherman frown on that method.

 

[Magua]

Yes, we clearly think alike. For as much as we think alike I cannot believe that you've not encountered #3 LOL! I hate that... and I hate wavy paint lines cut in at the ceilings too. That's my criteria for a painter... if I can cut in a straighter line than they can, they're no good to me.

I looked at the Ubiq stuff when I was exploring our mesh network. I ended up with Open Mesh, have been very happy with that. 5GHz across our entire property which is ~120 x 350, inside and out. I just need to push a bigger pipe coming into the local network once someone decides to run fiber in our hood.

Good luck, have fun with this!

Yeah I need a bigger pipe too. I switched over to Business Class internet which improved my UL speed but its like 100 down 15-20 up. I'm just east of Cleveland so maybe eventually the fiber will work its way out to the burbs hopefully. I love the Ubiquiti products. Enterprise class equipment at consumer pricing. I also love how all of their equipment integrates into one centrally managed dashboard. I can manage my Router, Switch, AP's, and security camera's all from the same dashboard. The DPI needs a little work but it's nice to see how much bandwidth i'm using for the various services/types of traffic.

 

[AKAK]

You can catch a remarkable number of fish if you combine the basement fishing with basement fireworks, however the hardcore fisherman frown on that method.

I only encourage explosive use while ice fishing.