Living in your mom's basement...

[Cruzergirl]

Originally Posted by Cory

I know right...it looks nicer than my apt

Looks nicer than my house.




But then, my house was built in the mid 70's as a hair salon (a ghetto hair salon).

[askmrjesus]

Originally Posted by caveman

That basement looks effin awesome. how much would you charge to come to Michigan and do my basement?

The beer tab alone could bankrupt a small Baltic nation.

I have no idea, it depends on what you want and what there is to work with. I'd have to know a lot more before I could give you an accurate number. This project cost about 20K.

I could come to Michigan and help you out, but there is another member on this board who has been waiting patiently for me to finish this thing, so I can finish his basement, so it'll be a while before I'm available.

Originally Posted by caveman

What did you use for the ceiling? Did you insulate there for sound? Also, I see some hanging light fixtures, no can lights?
And one more; Flooring? I see a floating engineered hardwood did you level the basement floor first? or a subfloor?

I am working on my plans for my basement so thats why so many questions.

5/8 rock on the ceiling. I offered to install sound board underneath, but the tenant is their middle aged daughter, so we just went with the insulation that was already there.

There are can lights in the "living room" section, and one over the main entry.

Got lucky with the slab, it was only out 1/2 inch over 30 feet, so I didn't have to level it. Ordinarily, I'd lay down 2x4 pressure treated sleepers, with an inch and a half of Styrofoam insulation in between them, topped with one inch tongue and groove ply, but it doesn't get all that cold here, so we went with the thicker variety of under-layment/vapor barrier.

Originally Posted by ericr

I think the kitchen looks dang good too! And I'm with you on wood over metal studs AMJ. I personally don't think the metal studs have as much torsional rigidity as wood unless you have plywood on them as opposed to sheet rock (I'd have to ask my dad though, he's the stress analysis engineer, not me :P). It could be the ones I've seen were just shitty work but I'll use wood on anything I build.

I spent 14 months working on this building in Seattle:

https://picasaweb.google.com/Seattle...92759866626914

The thing was originally a warehouse, and it was built like a tank. 24 inch solid heartwood columns, 4 inch cardecking covered with 3 inches of concrete...I'm reasonably certain you could park a fucking battleship in there with no problems...but...

The city inspector (dipshit) said we had to build a five story shear wall up the middle of the thing, so it wouldn't fall over. Yeah, right, sure. Asshole.

Anyway, all the new work done in the building was metal studs, except for that goddamn shear wall, so that should tell you something.

JC

[Porkchop]

AMJ, whats the cost difference between doing a sheetrock ceiling and a drop pannel ceiling? My dad had originally planned that the ceiling on our basement was going to be sheetrock, but 2 years later and 1 dad down... the plans have changed a little. Mom is thinking of diving back into it, but we need to make some decisions before going foreward. We have the ceiling, carpet, cabinets, and doors left to do.

[askmrjesus]

Originally Posted by Porkchop

AMJ, whats the cost difference between doing a sheetrock ceiling and a drop pannel ceiling?

Huge difference in materials.

If the ceiling is flat, and doesn't have a bunch of shit in the way, (plumbing, duct-work, etc...) rock will be, off the top of my head, 60% cheaper, at least.

JC

[goof2]

Originally Posted by askmrjesus

The beer tab alone could bankrupt a small Baltic nation.

I have no idea, it depends on what you want and what there is to work with. I'd have to know a lot more before I could give you an accurate number. This project cost about 20K.

Was that your cost or what you charged the homeowner? If it was the homeowner's bill was that for both time and materials? That sounds surprisingly "inexpensive" to me.

[OneSickPsycho]

Originally Posted by goof2

Was that your cost or what you charged the homeowner? If it was the homeowner's bill was that for both time and materials? That sounds surprisingly "inexpensive" to me.

I'm guessing materials.

[goof2]

Originally Posted by OneSickPsycho

I'm guessing materials.

I can only imagine that's it. Contractors around here would probably charge $20k just for that kitchen.

[CasterTroy]

Originally Posted by goof2

I can only imagine that's it. Contractors around here would probably charge $20k just for that kitchen.

Around here they're cutting their own throats to try and pick up the smallest jobs.

1%-2% on top of OH and Materials and STILL somebody comes in and cuts them off below cost

[askmrjesus]

Originally Posted by goof2

Was that your cost or what you charged the homeowner? If it was the homeowner's bill was that for both time and materials? That sounds surprisingly "inexpensive" to me.

Ok, totaling up my receipts the number is closer to 25K.

The number is a little bit misleading, since the appliances (and the kitchen sink ) all came from upstairs, but no, that figure is for everything. Close to a 50/50 split, time and materials.

The cabinets aren't particularly high end (about 4k), the flooring was on sale, and I use a lot of coupons.

Here's a helpful tip for you DIY's. The Post Office has a coupon for 10% off at Lowe's, included in their change of address kit. It's good for up to $500 off, and as near as I can tell, you can use them every day with no problems. No, you don't have to move.

Also, I do everything, including the electrical and plumbing. If I subbed
that stuff out, the cost would have been much higher.

JC

[z06boy]

Wow that's impressive...very nice man. Now my basement looks pretty plain in comparison.