Well,
Here's what I did..... (this might be long
)
I needed an office (I run by business from home) so when I moved (about 5 years ago)I decided to split the basement into two rooms and make one half my office and the other a rec room for the family. I only had a half basement to work with as the rest is a concrete crawlspace, good for storage but nothing else. I laid it out so that the main load bearing "I" beam was hidden by the dividing wall between the two rooms. This also took care of the post problems, no support posts in the way.
I started by sealing the walls with a dry-Loc type paint. If there is one thing I hate, it's adamp basement! (I also go over board with sump pumps, back up pumps, and back up...back up pumps!!) Next I framed out the perimeter walls and the center wall. I then (with help from an electrician in the family) ran all of the conduit pipe and wires to all of the outlets, lights and switches.You can't have enough of them (outlets) so plan on a lot. I also ran the cable for the TV's and Internet as well as the phone lines. I then ran the rough plumbing for the service bar I was going to install.
After that was done, I framed out the doorswith 36in door openings. This is important as my furness, water heater, humidifier, etc.. are in the basement and I wanted to have enough roomto bring that stuff in, in case I needed to replace something down the road. I also needed to get some pretty big gun safes down the stairs and into the back room.
Next I installed the insulation, pretty straight forward, just roll it out, cut it to length and staple in place. I decided to insulate the interior divider wall because this would give me some quite while I worked if the kids were playing in the next room.
From there I started to hang the walls. I wanted to go with paneling as I like the look. It's important to get the good thick paneling otherwise the thin stuff will warp between the studs and look like crap. The thinner paneling is designed to go over drywall but I can't stand drywalling and I wanted paneling anyway so I just got the good stuff.
After that was done I cut, stained and installed all of the trim around the doors, windows, etc.... Theninstalled theoutlets, phone jacks, cable boxes, etc...
Next was the ceiling. First I plumbed the ducts for the central air then installed the ceiling. Again I was not about to do any drywall so I opted for a drop ceiling. This too is pretty straight forward and easy to install. Just take your time and make sure everything is level...peice of cake. After it wasup I installedmy air vents, main lights, can lights (over the bar and at the stair landing)andI was done with the ceiling.
I then put in the bar, had a company come in and install the carpetingand voilĂ* I was done!
It's not a big space, my office is 20x12 and the other side is 20x15. I had to leave some room in the back for my work bench, weights, freezer, gun safes...you get the picture, but it's plenty for me and the family.
Here are a few picks
My office:
