So the fun begins on my Basement Renovation

[TDIGUY]

Hello everyone, I have been reading through some of your basement renovations and am in awe at how they have turned out. It has helped me get motivated on starting on my basement.

I will start with a bit of a backstory and a lot of pictures of where I am at now which is just getting started.

We just moved into our new house this past summer.
We were a family of 5 trying to fit into a small 2 bedroom semi detached house, I finished the basement there and it was working OK but we knew we would need to move soon as there was no room to grow. On top of that we found out number 4 was on the way.

So this summer we purchased and moved into our new house. 2300 sq. ft on almost 2 acres. Two 2 car garages, in ground pool and a small forest at the back of the property. the house is 3 bedrooms on the main floor and 3 potential bedrooms in the basement which was partially finished but all the flooring had been ripped out when the sump pump failed.

the first few months were the typical maintenance projects and getting things up to the way we wanted them, mostly small projects and a lot of yard work to catch up from the neglect outside.

Here are a few shots that really sold us on this being our forever home.
We knew that to get the property we wanted we were going to get a house that needed some work.

A few more details on the house.
It was originally located on the other side of town and moved to this lot 10-15 years ago. When you see some of the basement pictures it does help explain why some of the things were done the way they were.

[TDIGUY]

Now on to the basement,

The original plan was to do a quick finish in the basement, put down some carpet and call it a day for the next few years for the kids to play while we worked on some other projects around the house then dig in and start a major update in the basement.

Unfortunately that changed when I went to swap out a light fixture and found it was wired direct with no box in the ceiling just lots of electrical tape. Than got me digging around looking at some of the other electrical and kept finding things that we not done properly and some potentially very dangerous. so it was decided the basement would now take priority.

There are a few more things I found as well just no pictures to go along with them.

[TDIGUY]

I fixed the lights by installing new boxes in the ceiling and had to add a junction box since the wires wouldnt reach where I needed them because they stripped the jacket off the wire for 16" over to the next joist. So I had to add a jumper and junction box for now. This will be changed/replaced once I pull the ceiling down. This was just a short term fix.

[good2know]

Recommend you check the bottom of the walls very carefully. It doesn't take much for the water to wick up into the insulation. If its wet in there it needs to come out.

[TDIGUY]

As for the basement itself, Here are some pictures of how it sits now.
Demolition will be starting this week.

No walls will be removed for now until I get everything opened up and make sure everything is properly supported. Looks like I might have a couple 2x4 load bearing walls where jack posts have been removed so I don't want to get too far ahead of myself.

Feel free to point out any glaring issues you see in case I missed them.

[TDIGUY]

A few more.

[TDIGUY]

Originally Posted by good2know

Recommend you check the bottom of the walls very carefully. It doesn't take much for the water to wick up into the insulation. If its wet in there it needs to come out.

We had a thermal camera when we did our walkthrough and no signs of moisture in the walls. the plan is to pull all the drywall and inspect the insulation while everything is open then put up new vapour barrier. If needed it will all be replaced as well. I see no signs of water on any of the drywall so I am hoping it was all soaked up by the carpet and kept it away from the walls.

The bigger challenge is it looks like they framed directly against the foundation wall. I am hoping to not need to re frame the perimeter if I can help it but nothing is off the table to get it done right.

It has already turned into a much bigger project than we planned but we plan to be here forever so I plan to do it right.

[xdarrylx]

Great pics (so far)!

Good luck and looking forward to seeing the progress. Cheers!

[TDIGUY]

So looking for some opinions on this part.
All the perimiter walls are framed tight to the foundation wall (no 1"gap)
I would really like to avoid having to reframe the entire perimiter of the house. Is it OK as is or should I pull it out the 1"?

Follow up question, the walls are all yellow batt insulation. Is it worth replacing it as i go? I will be checking it all for moisture or damage and checking the foundation wall behind as I go then putting up new vapour barrier. Will replacing it with roxul or similar make that much of a difference overall?

Thanks!

[TDIGUY]

I also got started on my first bit of demolition and the fun never ends.

The first picture is the back side of the bathroom wall.
Sink on the left, then toilet and shower on the right.
Note the "small" notch in the stud to run water to the toilet. Good thing this in not load bearing and also not a drain with the nice uphill slope.

Second picture is the original foundation for the upstairs stone fireplace plus the new foundation to fill the gap when it was moved to this location.
Pretty sure the I-Beam was part of the support when it was moved.

You can see the jack post on the left, the beam sitting on it was cut off at the fireplace I assume to fit the I-beam. So I need to find out now if this 2x4 wall in front is supposed to be load bearing or if it was braced another way. Will see more once I open the other side of the wall.

Also I am planning to pull out ALL electrical from the basement and start fresh as it just runs everywhere with no rhyme or reason.