Again, fallen off of the bandwagon, I remember in the days of old (last
Sept/Oct) this thing was getting updated all of the time. Now we are just trying
to keep up with our changes.
So where was I, Oh yeah; So once I have gotten all of the studs up and in place
with the help of a friend, I was able to get ready to move on to other things.
But before I could go too far, I had to get a fire-blocker up in place on the
stud walls. Basically a fire-blocker is just what it sounds like. As you stud a
basement wall, you see that there is some space b/t the stud wall and the block
wall due to the need to have a square wall. That space can be dangerous in the
event of a fire. allowing a chute for fire to follow from the basement to your
upstairs.
The way that we prevent that is by installing small blocks of wood that cover
the cavity b/t the two walls. eliminating the strong updraft that can be created
by a fire. In some states it is code in others not. But I had some extra
trim board I pulled off of the wall that worked perfect for the job.
Wiring/Speakers
I was then able to get my wires run through the walls, sorry for the few
pictures, but i was just in a groove. The important thing to remember are that you want to keep the outlets in the basement a min of 12" off the floor, and that you also NEVER run electrical within 6-8 inches of either audio or data(cat-5 or Coax) because this will cause disruption in the signal.
I actually went ahead and ran the speaker wire close to the ceiling and the Cat-5 about 10 inches above my 12-2 wire but the only impossible place was when I had to pass under the panel box. (well you can't win them all) Also took the time to get the wires for the outlets run, and I plan on a majority of the basement outlets being on 1 circuit, just to keep things simple.
After I was able to get all of the wires run, I could then begin to do my least
favorite project... my dads is plumbing, mine is insulating. Nothing worse than
being covered in fiberglass insulation and having your entire body itch from
the small fibers.
Anyway, we decided that it would be worth it to insulate the basement to keep
that extra bit of warm and actually kill the sound echo a little bit. Nothing
fancy but what is necessary to have those creature comforts. As for what
insulation to use it is primarily up to the person and what you are insulating.
What is most important on insulation is the R value, it is on all bags of it,
displaying its R-Value (basically how many hours it takes to change the temp of
one side to the same temp of the other)
More explained:
Then up went the Vapor barrier, it has some R-value to it, but not really. All
the vapor barrier is for is to keep moisture from condensing on the backside
of the sheet-rock. Also as for thickness of the plastic, its really at your
digression, I used 4 mil, but you can go anywhere from 2-10 mil then just
staple it up with a nailer or whatever will stick it to the studs long enough
to hold it until the sheet rock goes up!
\\Last but not least, to really change the overall look of the basement, we get to put the Sheetrock up. It really went pretty smooth overall, other than i decided to put it up by my lonesome. Not very recommended, it is just useful to have that extra set of hands around to be able to help out with moving and cutting of the sheet-rock. I used some mold-resistant Sheetrock it is nearly the same price as a regular sheet, usually green or purple. Reasonable cost for piece of mind.
Our ceilings in the basement are fairly low, which you will get with an old house. So I had to cut about 12-14 inches off of every sheet... that always stinks when you have to take that much off. Also I made sure to leave at least 1/2"-3/4" inch above the floor of the concrete just to keep any moisture from getting on the rock.
And Over the weekend, we got our back-splash up, and a small "impulse" buy and good use of our scrap wood, you will just have to wait and see......
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