Thinking About Finishing Your Basement? Watch This First!

so in today's video we're going to discuss about basements oh my god one of the biggest subjects going out there now listen i know not everybody has a basement if you don't have a basement watch the video anyway it's kind of fun and entertaining and then you can be the smartest guy on your block because most people in this world do not have a clue what to do with their basement because not all basements are the same should we go with this or this that is the question so today's video guys is all about basements basement technology right how to finish them first of all let me just start by saying half of you who are watching this video don't need to waste your time watching any more of it [Laughter] and that is because you own a house that is not designed to be a finished space okay your house is old you shouldn't be living in the basement it's not healthy for you and i say that as a disclaimer kind of tongue-in-cheek because there is a certain line that we drew in technology with building houses in north america where up until that point you have no business finishing the basement all right now in 1970s someway somebody decided that if we start insulating our walls with that white styrofoam and get r1 that we can put in a tiki bar and a pool table and some shag carpet and we can live in the basement space and ever since then everybody has considered a basement as an alternative living space instead of building an addition on your home and they were wrong to do it because those houses in the 1970s were not built for basement dwelling all right now the building material industries were more than happy enough to supply you with all the wood paneling that you could buy and let you build in your basement and everybody since then has come to realize that if the basement has been finished in 1970 or 1980 or even early 1990 everything that was installed in that basement is garbage the minute you bring it down the stairs for the following reasons one foundations weren't waterproof two the concrete pad in the floor didn't even have a vapor barrier under it three nobody who was building basements back in those days understood the concept of moisture relative humidity effervescence how to put in building materials that didn't disintegrate how to redirect water events that are guaranteed to happen in your basement it's all about water management in a basement it's not about the finished look so today we're going to talk water management we're going to talk about which is the right basement subfloor for you do you even need a subfloor why the heck are you even building in your basement all these subjects we're coming right at you let's dive right into this first of all let me just give a clarification first of all let's just get some clarification if you have a house with the basement and it is older than 1995 okay you really want to take two seconds and dig a little hole and find out if you have a vapor barrier underneath your concrete because if you don't your house was never built with the idea of finishing the basement in the first place one of the newest trends in home building now is they put in the rough-in plumbing for a finished bathroom if you have rough-in plumbing for a bathroom in the basement your basement was designed to be finished at some point down the road and that means that the technology is in the subfloor and hopefully around the foundation walls to provide some protection for you against water now huh i know there's gonna be a lot of information it's gonna seem almost conflicting at times so let's just get through it first thing let's talk about the floor if you have a concrete floor and it has a vapor barrier underneath it you're not transferring moisture from the ground continually okay that means when you build in that basement it's not going to rot it's not going to go moldy and at the same time if your walls have got a waterproof membrane outside the concrete and you'll see it because above the ground you'll see that little black dimpled strip okay usually they backfill with like little gravel or pebbles or river stone to make it look pretty but if you don't have those two elements a vapor barrier underneath your concrete and a waterproofing system around your foundation walls you are not controlling the relative humidity entering into that basement you should not build in that room now building science has been trying two different approaches to deal with basements for a long time one how do we build a home so that it's safe to build and finish a basement number two how do we build or finish a basement in a home that doesn't have waterproofing technology so let's deal with the old school first if you have an old-school home before 1995 if you don't have the rough-in for your plumbing of your basement bathroom then you are what i'm going to call class don't build one if you are intent on making that a living space understand that you're taking on a lot of risk okay there are a lot of different ways that water can destroy your basement number one you can have water for different water events come up through the concrete floor and flood your basement most basements don't have a sump pump so they don't actually manage the level of the water underneath the floor and i'm talking about seasonal things heavy rains broken sewer system from an apartment building behind you okay that floods your house out yeah that actually happened to me once i couldn't believe it my concrete actually heaved and split open and my basement filled full of water because a sewer pipe that wasn't on the map for the city wasn't getting maintained backed up and broke and absolutely flooded my home never saw that one coming the point is this basements are built to provide structure for the house they're not designed to be finished in anything before 1995 as a rule of thumb you might find your district or your house is special and that's fine the point is really want to just draw that line of distinction is it a good idea to build in the basement when you build in a basement you're going to have three things you've got to overcome one you've got to deal with relative humidity especially if it's old two you got to deal with water events so now you're dealing with what's the condition around the house do you have window wells are they do they have drains to your weeping tile right do you have the ability for heavy rains or spring thaw events in the winter time to actually move water away from the windows because remember insurance doesn't cover you against water that gets under underneath the window sill yeah that's right if your water comes in underneath your windowsill you're not covered by insurance and it can be absolutely catastrophic the other thing you got to deal with is what's the return on investment now if you're finishing a basement in an old house your return investment is nothing nobody cares okay it's it's your risk you've done it on your own time it's your money if you're going to enjoy it for a few years and that's what you want to do then go ahead but for everybody else who wants to invest money invest means you have to have an expected return and you can only do that if your basement's been waterproof so the products that i showed you at the beginning of the video are examples of different building materials that solve two different problems okay this is a subfloor panel it was designed to be used by homeowners because it's convenient it's lightweight and it has two things it has a dimpled membrane underneath which allows air and water to move underneath the floor okay so you put the subfloor down and let's say you get a little bit of moisture coming in right at the wall where it meets the floor it's a very common joint and your weeping tile and your house is old and you got a heavy water event or your grading around the house is moving towards the house and not away it rains and water comes down the wall finds its way through that crack because they pour the footing and then they pour the wall so there's always room for water to make through that gap that little bit of water can come in it can travel around freely work its way to the drain in the floor and whatever's left has the ability to mix with the air and evaporate and dry out that is a perfect explanation for why this product exists this is designed for pre-1995 for houses that shouldn't have a finished basement this will help you deal with the majority of your water issues okay once you've got this installed you can build all your walls on top of it that's a that's one of the biggest questions we get actually because i did a video and i'm going to link the card here where i did my own dimpled membrane and i put 5 8 tongue and groove subfloor on top and i did it in a house that already had exterior walls and we brought it up to the exterior wall the best scenario is to put all the walls on top the client in that case did not have a budget to take out all their walls and rebuild okay so it wasn't done in the ideal scenario but there is no building code for you have to put the walls on top so they were left in a position are they able to choose the best scenario is always build your walls on top of your subfloor think of it like a dock okay and you want to put the dock on the water before you put the chairs on the dock you don't want to put your chair on the water it's not going to hold up now the contrary material is this this material and there's a lot of different companies a lot of different options out there okay this is just an option this is an insulated panel and it's insulated r3 which is are almost nothing but because it's a passive insulation in a basement where the ground temperature and the basement temperature generally should be different it does a decent job of making a thermal break it works pretty well in newer homes because you don't have to worry about vapor barrier and all that sort of thing it's already built in okay now which one is best for you they both run about the same price about two dollars a square foot this one has no thermal break this one has a thermal break this one allows the water and the air to mix so does this one all right if i had to choose between the traditional panel or the insulated panel i take the insulated panel every day now the biggest difference here is the height this starts to get a little thick okay and one of the problems everybody in a house has to deal with is when they build a basement they build stairs those stairs generally in older houses where the same rise and run on every step from the concrete and building code demands that the height the rise is the same all the way along so as soon as you put a subfloor pin like this your stairs now have to be adjusted you can't just add thickness to every step because your last step is going to be adjusted so you're going to run into issues okay so if you want to use a subfloor panel like this i would suggest don't be advertising to the building code people to come and do an inspection they're going to cause you a lot of grief make you put in a brand new set of stairs having said that if you want to finish a basement in a newer house generally speaking the first step on a brand new home has a higher rise in anticipation of finishing the basement because it's a been created to be a finished space and they sell it to you as a currently unfinished space i know that might come as a bit of safari so you have room to add a little bit of a sub floor now for everybody who's wondering do i need a sub floor in my basement no no you don't you can install your flooring right on the concrete the potential for you to suffer a water damage acid problem is a lot greater because you don't have the ability for all those different kinds of water events to actually dry out okay so you have hot water tanks in the basement that can burst you have window wells that can be flooded over you have groundwater that can come in from the wall at the floor you have different kinds of stone or cinder block that aren't waterproof on the outside and the moisture is just constantly pouring through you have concrete floors that allow humidity to constantly be pulling through so you have all of these different things aside from all the weird freaky events that can happen in nature that fill your basement sewer backups and everything else sub floors will provide you a little bit more comfort okay they're not going to protect you against everything so the best investment for a basement is one that you can afford to lose all right make sure that you are thinking about your insurance package i know it's kind of depressing to think about renovating a basement thinking about insurance but most cases a basement is going to have a water event that requires you to use your insurance so think about this all right when you build your basement try to build it with a subfloor system that isolates you from most of those water events so you don't need to use your insurance all right make sense that way if you ever do need to use your insurance it was one heck of a problem now what i like to do i'm going to put the link to the card here i like to make my own subfloor like this okay i've got my own dimpled membrane i use 5 8 plywood look how thin this is this is not even half inch they've actually made this product a lot thinner over time in order to keep the price down so that it can compete with its neighbor built by the same company with the insulation so this is two bucks a square foot this one's a little bit less my system that was in the video that i just linked to is less than a buck a square foot and it is a better vapor seal and it is easier to install is actually fastened to the concrete and it's going to perform really well now if you live in a house with little craters and you're going to run around on your floor all day long and you want an insulation barrier then go ahead and get this all right it'll do the job but install flooring that isn't going to break the bank i've seen it in videos before even some of the biggest construction celebrities say that you can put this panel down and put down hardwood come on let's use our head all right if you're going to install hardwood in the basement you don't want to just stick it on this panel you've got to add at least another layer of plywood this is too thin to hold a hardwood floor together especially if you're not screwing this to the surface anyway if you've learned anything in this video make sure you hit the like button subscribe to the channel and if you're more confused than you were before that's probably a good thing because there is no such thing as one answer to the question how do i finish my basement i'm telling you right now you've got to take in all the factors of the age of your home the soil conditions around your home the climate that you live in what you're expecting your basement to do for you as far as production is it going to be casual environment or are you looking for a real finished space so you can entertain company or you can have someone living down there there's a bazillion factors that go into how do i answer this question and so if you're still confused and you need help then consider becoming a member because then you can send me information on your home and i can help you out on the member's email design a perfect system for your budget and your use your climate and your conditions the one thing that is for sure if you're finishing a basement you're gonna need flooring so if you haven't seen it click the link here and check out our flooring video in that video i'm gonna go through all the details of how to install all the different flooring make the different transitions the pros and the cons and the esses and the nose the mistakes that people make and how to make it perfect for you cheers

Channel: Home RenoVision DIY

Views: 384,607

Rating: 4.8869286 out of 5

Keywords: homerenovision, renovision, basement renovation, how to finish a basement, basement, basement finishing, basement remodel, diy, basement drywall, home renovision, jeff thorman, home reno, basement renovations, basement remodeling, finishing my basement, basement finish, finish my basement, home renovision diy, basement remodel diy, diy basement finishing, how to finish my basement, diy finish basement, diy basement renovation, finished basement, renovation budget

Id: kxMLd3LNwcQ

Length: 15min 50sec (950 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 22 2020