BASEMENT IDEAS: “Semi-Finished” Option an Economical Compromise

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Finishing a basement is one of the most popular home improvement projects, mostly because it’s an effective way to increase living space in your home. The thing is, there are two drawbacks to finishing a basement in the usual way, to the standards of the rest of your house.These  are  high cost, and big hassles/disruption. The semi-finished option sidesteps both these difficulties, as you’ll see.

Start By De-Cluttering

Before you get going, it’s best to plan ahead and eliminate clutter in your basement. This gives more space to work and lets you visualize the outcome better. In line with this, any stuff you won’t need, donate to a charity. This is especially important for those items that are still in good condition. Let someone else benefit from them if you can’t.

Why would anyone want to “semi-finish” a basement? Cost savings is the biggest reason. Finishing a basement in the usual way is not always as expensive as building an addition onto your house, but it can be. And it’s still easy to spend well into five figures finishing a basement as it’s typically done with insulation, drywall and floor coverings. I know some full basement finishing jobs go over $100K.

A second reason for semi finishing is when you have a basement that’s prone to occasional water leaks and moisture issues.  Mold growth and poor indoor air quality throughout your house is a very real threat if a full finished basement gets wet. Creating a more economical, less vulnerable and more attractive basement is where something I call the “semi-finished” basement strategy can help. Done right, it’s note nearly so vulnerable to moisture.

Basement Ideas: Why “Semi-Finish?”

If all you need is space for the kids to play, an area for hobbies or sewing, and maybe a basic extra bathroom downstairs and some laundry space, you really don’t need to go all out with drywall, insulation and luxurious flooring right away. The thing about basements is they’re not either finished or non-finished. The semi-finished basement is an economical, low-stress, in-between option that too few people consider.

The key to a useful and inviting semi-finished basement is making the space look nicer, feel more comfortable and have better lighting – all without creating new finished wall surfaces, ceilings and floors. This approach saves money and also eliminates the risk of water damage and mold growth if your basement is not quite reliably dry every year. No basement should ever be finished with finished floors and interior walls unless it’s 100% reliably dry, 100% of the time as proven from at least a few years’ observation.

One option for making concrete basement floors more kid-friendly is the installation of raised subfloor tiles only, with no finished floor on top. These can handle small water leaks, and can be lifted and dried if leaked water is deep. Even if you only lay down raised subfloor panels in one specific play area, it can make a big difference when you’re a kid building Lego of Meccano on the floor. The video below gives an overview of the basement subfloor panel option.

There are three main steps to the semi-finished basement strategy. First, coat the floor with a tough, thick, catalyzed floor coating, then lay down removable, interlocking subfloor tiles in areas where people will stand or kids will play. It’s amazing how much better this approach makes any basement space look and feel. If you do nothing else but improve the floor, you’ll love your basement much more.

Second, clean and paint the walls with a bright colour. White is my favourite. 100% acrylic latex paint sticks to brick, block or poured concrete walls very well. A shop vac is the best tool to get the bulk of dirt off basement walls. Using white or any light-colored paint will make your semi-finished basement look more inviting and comfortable.

Third, vacuum the floor joists, pipes and wires overhead, then paint that area a light colour, too. I’ll admit that painting areas like these is not easy because of all the obstructions you need to work around, but the results are very good looking, in an informal and rustic way.

Doing it yourself will also give you a sense of pride and satisfaction. It will be a story that your family will share over and over. And if you get your kids in gear to help with the work, it’ll give them a stake in the process and an understanding of the value of work.

Low cost is the biggest benefit of the semi-finished approach to your basement. For less than $1000 in materials and your own labour you can transform a dark, uninviting basement into the kind of place kids can play. In fact, I’d argue that it’s easier to enjoy a semi-finished basement compared with a fully finished one during the kid-rearing years because you won’t be as up-tight about damage and wear.

I recently helped a young couple transform their dark, 100 year-old basement into a play and hobby space and we used a catalyzed floor coating as the first part of the process. Rocksolid Garage Coat is like epoxy in that it hardens by chemical reaction after adding a hardener, but it’s a polycuramine formulation that’s thicker than epoxy and supposed to be 20 times tougher. Only time will tell, but the results look great. So far this has proven to be the most impressive concrete floor coating I’ve seen in action. The thick coating made the century-old concrete look better than anyone expected, turning the space into the kind of place you want to be in.

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– Steve Maxwell