I am finishing my basement and have a problem, i have ductwork that runs the length of the room that i have framed in each side, i was going to hang 1/2" drywall over this but the widest part is 49" and i have been told that over time the drywall will sag, what can i do to put the drywall up without loosing too much headroom? someone said 1"x 3" every 16" apart but i am afraid these will sag as well. The main thing is trying to loose as little height as possible (from the floor to the ductwork is 6ft 4") so if i can find something that is 1/2" to 1" thick would be great. Thanks.

I am in the process of refinishing my basement. My home was built in 1951. Last spring we had some water problems down in the basement, so we had it draintiled. There are some cracks on the concrete block foundation. First, is it necessary to fill these cracks and waterproof the foundation walls on the inside if the basement is already draintiled? Second, there is some old linomlium or vinyl flooring on about half of the basement floor (around 300 sq. ft.). I am going to have this area carpeted after I finsih the basement. The flooring is in really bad shape around the edges and I want to remove all of it for a more uniform level surface. I this step necessary if I'm going to carpet, or should I jsut leave it alone? Thanks, Blake