How to Remodel a Basement – Insullation and Drywall Tips
Today, we’re going to help you get started on your basement remodel project.
The insulation part of your project is relatively simple and something I would actually suggest for a homeowner to try to do themselves. In many homes insulation of the walls may be needed to improve your home’s ability to keep the heat in during the winter and keep the basement cool in the summer.
The main focus you’d want to think about when insulating your basement is, the quality of insulation material that you want to put into the home. For example R 11 in a typical basement area in Pittsburgh is usually adequate. Some people choose to move up to R 13 but its not necessary.
Any insulation that you use above an R 11 is going to be more than adequate to insulate your home or basement. There is no need to go any higher, otherwise your just spending more money than you need to.
The R value of an insulation is it’s rating. If you have a really large basement say over 1000 sq ft or more than an R 13 would be recommended.
After your insulation is installed, you’re ready for everyone’s favorite part of the project, which is the drywall. NOT!
Poorly Hung Drywall can Ruin Your Basement Remodel
This is something that a homeowner could do if they had enough time and ambition. It’s not an extremely difficult task, but it can be messy and time consuming.
In fact, There are some intricacies involved with hanging and finishing drywall correctly. So if you have never done this before, you may consider calling in someone who can do it for you.
You basically want to make sure that the drywall is hung straight and that when you nail it in, you make a slight dimple. What you’re trying to do is create a smooth surface. So the nails need to be nailed in slightly further than the surface of the drywall. This way, when you tape over them, they can be sanded down and a nice smooth surface will be the result.
The last thing you want to so is have poorly hung drywall that makes your basement look terrible.
Once you have that smooth surface there ‘s many different textures that can be applied to it to make your basement walls look really nice. You can do a smooth wall, you can use a skip trowel to make the wall more textured, or you can actually spray the texture on to the walls.
There are many different things you can do with your basement walls. If you need advice about how to refinish your basement our basement remodeling experts can help you.
Completing the Drywall Process
There’s many different ways to complete the drywall process. Some people have hung the drywall initially with nails to tack it into place, but they’ve come back after and screwed the sheet rock on. If you use nails completely on a long piece of sheet rock, it’s probably not going to hold as well as it needs to. So you want to screw it in once you have it hung successfully. Click this link to see an example of our basement remodeling projects.
If you do hire someone to hang the sheet rock (I.e. drywall) only, be sure not to forget to tape it. Also, be sure to keep an eye on your contractor to make sure they don;t really beat on the sheet rock to get it to fit property because that can make more work for you in the taping and texturing process.
One other reason that people use screws instead of nails is that these nails tend to work themselves loose during the settling process. Your home is made out of wood, there’s water in wood, as that water evaporates. The wood can shrink a little bit over time and you’ll get some settling going on in your home and the nails tend to move a lot more than screws. So if you do tack the sheet into place, be sure to screw them into place and we don’t recommend using nails for the whole sheet.
We hope this post was helpful. If you have any questions about basement remodeling, or refinishing feel free to reach out to our friendly staff here at the Office of Horace Trumbauer.
Contact Us today or Call (724) 481-1411
