Remodeling Your Own Basement

These standards need to be considered when doing any basement project or any other kind of project, large or small. Basements have a few differences from most rooms that might make a remodel something you can do at least part of.

Basement Drywall
Hanging drywall is not that difficult of a task, but it is difficult to do well and quickly. Professionals can start and finish a room in half a day. The seams and screw holes will be near invisible, and the paint will go on smoothly. What the professionals have going for them is they get to practice every day, and if you want to hang drywall well in your basement, you are going to need to practice.

Start in the garage, if it isn't already done. Garages typically have drywall hung without being painted, so yours will not look odd if you practice here. Remember that floor trim and crown molding will cover any mistakes on the top and bottom. What you need to concern yourself with are three areas: seams, screw holes and dust. Dust has nothing to do with the quality of the drywall job, but it can increase your cleanup time dramatically.

Hanging drywall in your basement is something you can do yourself if you are willing to work hard and get dirty. There will be a lot of cleanup, but you can save some money, since it will be forgivable if you make a few mistakes.

Basement Wiring
Do not perform any wiring yourself unless you are a skilled, knowledgeable contractor. Wiring and electricity have a dangerous element that no one should try as a way to save money. However, if you are going to hang the drywall, you need to contract any electrical wiring out out beforehand.

Concrete Staining in Your Basement
A good basement flooring solution is to stain the concrete. This is really hard to mess up, since most concrete stains are a mottled complexion. This look will hide any hiccups in the stain application and make it difficult to see. It might look a little better to go with one solid color, but it might reveal those mistakes you're trying to hide so be aware of that when choosing your design.

The brilliant thing about concrete staining is it gives a very cool effect to concrete and is easy to apply. Not to mention that if you sell the home and someone doesn't like the design, they can just lay concrete right over top of it. A drawback to this process is that once you stain concrete, it is not coming back as you can't remove the staining. So be sure you have the color and look you like, because it's permanent.