Finishing the Basement - Part 1 - Planning

Posted September 25, 2006 by Chuck Posted in:

I am going to try to track my latest home improvement project - finishing my basement. Luckily when I moved in previous owner had already started the project by framing and dry walling the walls, so pretty much all I have to do is put in the ceiling and floors. I will be doing all the work myself with some help from friends and family so there will be no labor costs involved with the exception of installing the carpet.

The area I’m going to finish is basically divided into 2 area, a large area with a few windows and a smaller area with no natural light. I plan to use the smaller area as a theater room and the larger area for entertaining with a bar. There are a few odd spaces in the basement that need to be boxed and drywalled in but the majority of the ceiling will be a drop ceiling. As posted previously I have already purchased the tiles in a deal I couldn’t pass up before I started. I also have some spare drywall and wood from previous projects so do not think I will need to purchase any.

The first thing to do is take measurements of the room and then figure out what materials you need. Armstrong has a really nice material estimator but unfortunately it does not do diagonal walls, and only supports up to 16 walls and since there are a lot of odd bump outs it didn’t really work for me. I ended up doing it by hand with the help of a friend who knows about ceiling installations. For the ceiling material I know it sounds terrible but I am not going to waste my time shopping around at any local stores - I don’t think there is any possibility they can beat the prices at Lowes or Home Depot with a 10% off coupon and 20% off Dealpass Gift Cards. In general I find that Home Depot has better prices on building supplies while Lowes has better prices / selection on fixtures.

My timeline is I would like to have the whole project completed before Thanksgiving. My budget is fairly loose for this project but right now here is what I predict:

CEILING - $467

Item	Budget
Ceiling Tiles - 9 Boxes	$172.04 (actual)
Main Ceiling Grids - 7 12′ Pieces	$32
Wall Ceiling Grids - 10 12′ Pieces	$30
4′ Ceiling Grid T’s - 1 Case	$77
I Screws - 1 Box	$6
Recessed Lights - 2 Contractor Packs (12 total)	$150