My Man Cave Remodel (2 Viewers)

Tommy

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I figured I would start a thread to document my remodel.

4/3/13 - Removed some brick with hammer and chisel.
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4/8/13 - 3,120 lbs of brick and mortar removed. ($185 cost to dump)
Rented a Demo Hammer from Home Depot ($62 for the day)
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I have a wood stove for sale if anyone local is interested. $250 - takes it. It's a Big Moe - All Nighter.
 
Don't forget to run your cabling for monitors that you might use later! Sure wished I'd done that when I remodeled my basement.
 
A few more pics from tonight. I sort of went around the room to give you an idea of the size and layout. Demo it still under way. A few pieces of paneling and two drop ceilings removed tonight. The expose framing you see (and all the framing you don't see) and the two walls with the unpainted doors are all coming down. It is going to be one big room. ~ 28' x 35'. I have two windows coming to replace those original basement windows.

The one window (next to the exposed framing) that goes into the garage is really helping to get the debris out of the basement and loaded on to truck fast. All the brick was passed through that window in buckets. Saved a lot of trips on the stairs!

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Once completely gutted, I'm going to be putting down a product called Delta-FL on the slab, then T&G plywood (Or I may use Dri-Core, not sure yet)
http://www.cosella-dorken.com/bvf-ca-en/products/foundation_residential/floor/products/fl.php

Rigid Foam insulation against the concrete walls (seems taped), then frame the walls in front of that and on top of the new flooring. The wall that separates my finished basement from my unfinished side will also be built back on top of the new flooring.

The closet of the bottom of the stairs is also coming out, and will be replaced with a bathroom.

Don't forget to run your cabling for monitors that you might use later! Sure wished I'd done that when I remodeled my basement.

Will be doing all new electrical and data wiring. :)
 
The unfinished side of my basement is my temp storage area while the remodel is underway. Have to cover all my stuff with some plastic. I also have to put my chips away so I can use my workbench. :cool:

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Looking foward to seeing the end result. Looks like there's going to be to plenty of space for poker, maybe a foosball or pool table too? As a big city apartment dweller I envy all the extra room you have!
 
4/11/13 - More Demo

After I got home from work this morning, I started taking the off all the baseboards, corner/edge molding, door trim, etc. Pulled some paneling down and then I put a new blade in my reciprocating saw and took some of the walls down.

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The 56" tempered glass table top for my poker table was delivered this morning along with a barrel of GV $500s that I plan to re-label as Terrible's $1000. :)


Looking foward to seeing the end result. Looks like there's going to be to plenty of space for poker, maybe a foosball or pool table too? As a big city apartment dweller I envy all the extra room you have!


I grew up in a South Philadelphia row home so I know the feeling. I used to play a lot of 9 ball and one pocket at the local pool hall, but haven't picked up a pool cue in years. I plan on adding a full bath and wet bar so I think that will use up the remainder of my funds for this remodel.
 
4/12/13 - More Demo this morning before work.

Moved all the lights to a temp feed and cut out most of the wiring. This allowed me to removed the center wall with ease. 95% of the paneling has been removed. Made two trips to the dump today as well.

The room that I took the rug out of already surprising had the wall against the foundation done right. Ridged foam glued to the concrete wall, and the wall built in front of that with bat insulation inside the wall cavities. The ridged foam is foil faced on both sides and the bat insulation has a foil faced vapor barrier. Not sure what the advantages are having the foil on the ridged foam in this application. I may try and save some of the newer bat insulation as it looks pretty clean.

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Not sure about the double vapor barrier (double sided- foil faced ridged foam, and foil faced bat insulation) I will have to check about that. It is usually a no no. I did not find any mold so that is good.


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The wall that is white was done with drylok. I may give it another coat and do the the wall on the left with it once I get the old insulation and framing removed. A little extra protection for peace of mind is worth the few extra bucks.


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Lots of copper to strip for the scrap yard. ;)
 
That's gonna be one fancy man cave! Glad I don't live with my girlfriend, my whole house is my man cave, lol! By the way, put a darts board in there, even if you don't like the game, you will play the hell out of it! It's a real good stress reliever. It's like the pub answer to meditation!
 
The rest of the demo will be finished tomorrow.


Monday 4/15/13

  • bag the rest of the insulation
  • pull down an old drywall ceiling
  • remove the wall that separates the finished side from the unfinished
  • remove all of the old wall framing
  • remove the rest of the carpet
  • clean out all of the rim joists to prep for spay foam and ridged foam.
  • clean up the floor and mop it (this will help to keep the dust down and from tracking it all over)

Tuesday 4/16/13 (prepping and some general repairs/maintenance)
  • wipe down the metal duct work, then seal all the joints and seams with fiberglass mesh tape and mastic
  • sister two split floor joist (very minimal splitting - but will do it since everything is opened up)
  • prep the window frames for 2 new replacement windows
  • install ridged foam in the rim joist and seal with spay foam.
 
Dang, I'm on Spring Break -- if only I didn't live all the way across the US -- I'd be there in a second to help. Done loads of this type of work and love to help others! Darn. Keep the posts coming -- looks great!

...running speaker wire for surround system or just "background music"?
 
Surround sound, but can also be used for music as well. I hope to have all the prep done and the new windows installed before the end of the month. Then I can start installing the XPS and new walls.

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Two new windows going in tomorrow!
 
Windows installed, and hole from the wood stove chimney sealed up.

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Out of interest, how much does all this cost? It looks like a mighty expensive job. Also, are you doing all of the reconstruction yourself or have you hired someone from outside? It looks like it's going to be absolutely great!
 
My dad and I are doing the work. He has done this type of work for almost 40 years. He is retired now. The materials will cost around $6,000.
 
Started insulating the rim joists today. 2" XPS Rigid Foam (R10), with spray foam sealing the edges. Then will be putting some R13 fiberglass in front of it.

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New layout...moved the bathroom to the other side to work better with the plumbing. My sewer line is about 2ft above my basement floor so I will be using a Sani-Flo Pro upflush system that will also handle a shower, and vanity. The bathroom layout is designed for the Saniflow system. The wet bar will have it's own grey water pump.

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Made this using Microsoft Visio 2013. This is a rough estimate (first draft) with the dimensions.
 
Had some delays as we had to move some plumbing. Putting up the 2" XPS on the walls tomorrow. Should be ready to start framing the walls next week. Will post some pics tomorrow or Tues.
 
I put two coats of DryLok on yesterday just for peace of mind. We had lots of rain this past week and basement remained completely dry as always but it was the first time I had it down to the bare walls so it gave me a chance to see if there were any hidden problem when the old paneling was up.

Started putting up the 2" XPS foam this morning. (i'm on my 15 min union break. ;) )

I am using the plastic anchors sparingly. Don't want to drill too many holes in the foundation. If the foam panel is not laying completely flat then I'll use an anchor to make it tight to the wall. The basement walls are pretty flat and straight so the foam adhesive is gripping well.

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Did a few things before work today... foamed and insulated around the new windows. Sanded and painted another metal frame for a 3rd new window that is going in on Monday. The last two old windows are in the unfinished area and I will replaced those later once this remodel is done.

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Damn man, that looks awesome. Gonna have yourself a regular little parlor, haha.
 
Got the wall where the stairs are done. It was a little tricky because I only had 2" from the concrete wall to the edge of the stringer. We used 1.5" furring lap foam then there will be 1/2" mold resistant Sheetrock on top that. Works out perfectly.

Got the old window that use to be a regular window to the outside before the garage was extended many years ago all bricked up. Also got the 3rd new window install.

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Not much to report and show this week. After taking the ceiling down during the beginning of this project I found that the return air joist bays were never closed off on one side. So it was basically pulling air from a joist bay in a closed drywall ceiling, which is pointless and reduced the draw from the actual return air vents in the house.

So I closed the two bays off and sealed it. The panning where they closed it off on the other side was done so crappy and had lots of leaks I decided to just remove it and re-do it. The return air system is just as important as the supply. I also sealed up many leaks in the supply truck too. It's going to be in the 90's this week so I will get to test the system and see how much the air flow improved.

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Wall are going up over the next 3 days. Will post some pics soon.
 

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