i have an unfinished basement. 7 foot ceilings, cinder block walls, low
ductwork. floor is 9x9 tiles. i am thinking of remodeling it, which would
include framing walls. what are good ballpark estimates? just basic
drywall construction, carpet over the tiles. i have no idea. i live in the
balt/wash area.

I'm not sure carpet on a basement floor is a good idea.
Slab temperature will probably be lower than air temperature.
This may well lead to high humidity within the carpet resulting in
mold.

As far as estimates for cost, there are a lot of things that must be
considered:
Ease of access for workers and for materials.
( E.G. Will gypsum board have to be cut outside and carried in?)

I suggest you write down the quality of carpet, where you want walls,
ceiling finish,
work area, and such; then get local estimates.
TB

And nobody here has an idea with that description. So I guess its 1500
sq so I guess 50000$. Get bids....

SeaKan wrote:
i have an unfinished basement. 7 foot ceilings, cinder block walls, low
ductwork. floor is 9x9 tiles. i am thinking of remodeling it, which would
include framing walls. what are good ballpark estimates? just basic
drywall construction, carpet over the tiles. i have no idea. i live in the
balt/wash area.



in detroit area it cost us about 10k. 8ft ceiling, poured walls, center
ductwork. we added toilet which required busting the floor up.

We use carpet tiles on cement.

--
Thank you,


CL Gilbert
"Then said I, Wisdom [is] better than strength: nevertheless the poor
man's wisdom [is] despised, and his words are not heard." Ecclesiastes 9:16

Be sure to "paint" the cement block with water sealer first. I used a
powder I mixed with water and a large wall paper paste brush to apply. Easy
to do yourself. I did not hide my ducts. Just painted light brown to keep
my ceiling as high as possible.


"SeaKan" wrote in message
...
i have an unfinished basement. 7 foot ceilings, cinder block walls, low
ductwork. floor is 9x9 tiles. i am thinking of remodeling it, which would
include framing walls. what are good ballpark estimates? just basic
drywall construction, carpet over the tiles. i have no idea. i live in
the balt/wash area.

SeaKan wrote:
i have an unfinished basement. 7 foot ceilings, cinder block walls, low
ductwork. floor is 9x9 tiles. i am thinking of remodeling it, which would
include framing walls. what are good ballpark estimates? just basic
drywall construction, carpet over the tiles. i have no idea. i live in the
balt/wash area.

Somewhere between one grand and thirty. It's a big ballpark.

R

On Fri, 16 Dec 2005 08:21:56 -0500, "SeaKan"
wrote:

i have an unfinished basement. 7 foot ceilings, cinder block walls, low
ductwork. floor is 9x9 tiles. i am thinking of remodeling it, which would
include framing walls. what are good ballpark estimates? just basic
drywall construction, carpet over the tiles. i have no idea. i live in the
balt/wash area.

============
Way too many variables to even throw you my guess... But you should
know the floor area just price carpet (talk about variables..lol) and
should be able to estimate roughly how many 2x4's and sheet rock etc
that you may need... then do the math and to get a rough idea of
material costs ...figure a contractor will most likely charge you
about 4 times that figure..

When in college many many years ago I worked construction (remodeling
etc) and at that time we figured on cost x 3 as a ballpark estimate...

BUT my figure of 4 times costs .. is most likely low...It should give
you a ballpark idea .. now weather you are in the box seats or in the
bleachers out in right field nobody can say...


Bob G.

On Fri, 16 Dec 2005 08:21:56 -0500, "SeaKan"
wrote:

i have an unfinished basement. 7 foot ceilings, cinder block walls, low
ductwork. floor is 9x9 tiles. i am thinking of remodeling it, which would
include framing walls. what are good ballpark estimates? just basic
drywall construction, carpet over the tiles. i have no idea. i live in the
balt/wash area.

I have a Persian -style rug in my basement and it's very nice. My
basement is 7 feet below grade and it's in Baltimore where it rains a
lot and is quite humid for parts of the year but the basement is very
dry.

I wouldn't put down wall to wall, because you need to be able to roll
half of it up to let the floor dry after there is a flood in the
basement (from any of 8 different sources -- trust me, I know) And
you need to be able to take the whole thing out if it is sewage so you
can wash it on the front yard, let it dry and put it back.

My neighbors had a flood and the wife was whining about her wool rug
or carpet getting ruined. Why anyone would put natural fiber carpet
on the basement floor, I have no idea. It's looking for trouble. I'd
be embarrassed to put a claim into the insurance, even if the
insurance covered it, since a lot of synthetics won't be damaged at
all.


Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let
me know if you have posted also.

SeaKan wrote:
i have an unfinished basement.i have no idea. i live in the
balt/wash area.

pour monolithic floor (one pour, one floor throghout
just get really good office dividers
duct work, hmm letsee, maybe cheaper to invest in
free standing attractive pot belly kerosene burner
(lots of btu's) one with a fan on it. some of these units
are works of art

On Sat, 17 Dec 2005 05:15:08 -0500, mm
wrote:


I have a Persian -style rug in my basement and it's very nice. My
basement is 7 feet below grade and it's in Baltimore where it rains a
lot and is quite humid for parts of the year but the basement is very
dry.

I don't just mean that water doesn't leak in. I mean that after each
of the many floods ** I've had, with a couple exceptions, the water
evaporates within a few hours or a day, even with no breeze because
there is only one door to the laundry room; and a small window (not
always open) and an open stairway to the finished room.

Basement sink overflowed three times when rain made stream overflow
the sewers.
Basement sink was plugged to prevent this backup but I did my laundry
anyhow.
AC condensate didn't go down tube to sump but onto the floor instead,
all the time, In my 3rd effort to fix it, I succeeded..
Water Heater sprung a leak.
Hose to humidifier sprung a leak.
Hose to washing machine sprunk a leak.
Hose to kitchen sink upstairs sprung a leak and more than 52 gallons
of hot water went trhough floor to laundry room.
Rained 7 inches in 30 hours and sump pump couldn't keep up and sump
overflowed
Aquarium tubing connected to sink that I used to slowly water plants
left running for hours (instead of 10 minutes) while I went away for
the afternoon.
Water ran back from inadquately tilted splash trough below gutter
downspout. This only dampened and ruined the lowest 8 inches of 20
inches of sheetrock.

I think only 4 of these leaks made it to the finished room.

And only three of these leaks led to the growth of mold, and the mold
stopped growing on its own after the basement dried. That's what I
mean by dry.

Oh yeah, once I used a split bucket of calcium chloride? to get rid of
humidity and a faint smell but since then I haven't needed that.


I'm waiting to see what else can cause a flood. I can't think of
anything else, but it's more clever than I am.


Most of the damage has been to the cardboard boxes I keep things in,
and a few floor tiles became unglued from the floor. At high traffic
areas, when they became unglued, they were in pieces. I guess they
were in pieces before too but they were fixed in place.

Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let
me know if you have posted also.

The best option I've seen since I've gotten into remodeling has been
the carpet tile system. Goes right over cement and is very inexpensive
compared to traditional carpeting. Additionally, it's very easy to
install on your own if you've got time for that sort of thing. I'm
assuming so since you're here reading our thread.
The tiles (I'm going to guess ceramics since you've not indicated
otherwise) are a cinch to pull up.
As far as the ductwork - how old is your home? Some of that stuff gets
tougher and tougher the older your home gets . . . lets see what the
other pros say about it. And cinderblock is simply a matter of framing
around them. Hopefully you've got enough room.

I'll say that the floor will run you a good 400-500 if you do it
yourself. I couldn't give you a good ballpark on the rest.