The basement of my house was an unfinished open space when I purchased the house. The floor was plain cement and the walls were brick, like the rest of the house. Immediately, I knew that I wanted to make the space livable.
After talking with a contractor who had helped me redo other rooms of my house, I realized that the best next step would be to install drywall to make the space feel more enclosed and finished off.
The first place I looked to install the drywall was over the brick walls. The walls were unfinished brick and would crumble to the touch. There were no windows, so it was a really easy decision to make and an even easier plan to execute.
I am somewhat luckier than the average homeowner because I worked as a construction worker while in college. Thus, I knew a little something about how to go about changing a space using construction.
I started by building the frame of the new walls out of plywood. I bolted the frame into the brick using joiners every twelve inches. Once the frame was securely in place, I installed insulation between the planks in the frame. I stapled the insulation so that it wouldn’t bend or fall, but would continue to hold up strong, even over the course of many years.
Next, I purchased about fifteen pieces of drywall to cover the entire basement wall. There were only three power outlets and two power switches on the walls, so installing the drywall was super easy and required minimal cutting. This is probably the quickest drywall job I have ever had to do and one of the only ones I’ve done without assistance.
If you have never installed drywall before, you will find it surprisingly easy to do. Simply hold the drywall board up flush against the wooden framing. Use a nail gun or electricl screwdriver to install nails or screws every 11 inches along the frame. Make sure that the head of the screw or nail does not penetrate the surface of the drywall.
After all of the drywall is up, all you have to do is tape with grid tape along the border of two neighboring pieces. On top of the tape, smear Spackle. Let the Spackle dry for a couple of hours and then sand it down so that it is smooth and even with the face of the drywall.
Once all of the drywall is up, Spackling is done and you’re satisfied with the way your walls look, you are ready to paint and decorate them. Paint your drywall the same way that you would paint any other wall. Begin with a base coat, or primer, and then paint your top layers.
If you are truly ambitious, like I am, you don’t have to stop with the exterior walls. I decided that I wanted to divide the main room of my basement into a living room and an office. I installed a dividing wall using the same steps that I used to install the exterior wall, except I bolted the frame to the cement floor, ceiling and sidewall so that I could leave one side open as the door. Who knew construction and home remodeling could be so easy!