Finishing a Basement 10 - Finishing Walls and Ceilings

Intro - Moisture Proofing - Subfloor - Lay Out Walls - Frame Walls - Corners, Doors & Ceilings - Electrical - Heating and Plumbing - Insulation - Finishing Walls & Ceilings

By Murray Anderson

After all the hammering, drilling and sawing, you're getting close to finishing your basement project. The next step is covering up the stud walls, insulation and wiring with your chosen ceilings and wall types. The work sequence here depends on how you have chosen to finish your basement.

If you are putting up a drywall ceiling, you'll want to put it up before you finish the walls (the ceiling will actually sit on top of the walls). However, if you are going to use a suspended ceiling, finish the walls before you move onto the ceiling.

Ceiling Options

Drywall provides a traditional finished appearance to a ceiling and makes a finished basement truly look and feel like a part of the house. However, drywall does have some downsides for the do-it-yourselfer in that it comes in large heavy sheets (4' x 8' or 4' x 10'), that are awkward to get downstairs and difficult for a do-it-yourselfer to work with. Finishing drywall also requires taping and filling the joints with drywall compound. This is a messy, frustrating and difficult job for an inexperienced person, since even minor imperfections are quite noticeable.

Suspended or drop ceilings consist of ceiling tiles "suspended" in a metal grid attached to the bottom of the floor/ceiling joists, and are much easier to install. The metal framing is light and easy to work with, and the ceiling panels themselves are relatively easy to handle since they are much smaller than drywall sheets (usually 2' x 2' or 2' x 4') and lightweight. The major disadvantage to a suspended ceiling is that it gives your finished room a "basement" or industrial look.

Wall Options

In reality, your choices for walls are limited only by your imagination. However, since you went to all the trouble of making sure your walls were plumb and square, installing drywall is an obvious choice. You'll still have the challenges of attaching large sheets of plasterboard, as well as needing to tape and fill the joints, but you won't be working over your head (as you are on a ceiling), and that makes the job much easier. You could even apply a textured or stippled finish to help hide minor flaws.

Solid wood or tongue and groove boards can also make attractive walls. If you want to do something a little different, you could put drywall on the top half of your walls and boards along the bottom half. Angling the boards on a 45-degree angle would also add an interesting touch. Install a chair rail to cover the seam where the materials meet. The drywall can obviously be painted to provide a light bright color while the wood can be painted to blend or sealed with Polyurethane to allow its natural beauty to show through.

Finishing thoughts

• Choose thin baseboards and molding. The room will likely not be as high as those on your upper floors and wider moldings will make the ceiling seem even lower.



• Try to keep your color scheme light and bright. Most finished basements don't have much natural light so light colors help to make them more visually attractive.



• Remember that doors can be shortened by cutting something off the bottom and the majority of people won't even notice. This is a handy tip to keep in mind if you have any doors that you want to locate under ductwork or in a lower area.



• When choosing furniture for you new basement, consider that everything will have to come downstairs. That sectional that looks so great in the store might not fit around the corners in your stairway.

Intro - Moisture Proofing - Subfloor - Lay Out Walls - Frame Walls - Corners, Doors & Ceilings - Electrical - Heating and Plumbing - Insulation - Finishing Walls & Ceilings

Murray Anderson is an experienced freelance writer with articles published in both the United States and Canada. He has written on a wide range of topics, but specializes in home maintenance and how to's.

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