How long did it take you?

Can some of you share how long it took you to complete finishing your basement. Please state how much of the job you did yourself and how experienced you are with this sort of project. Any other information would be helpful as well.

 

I'm a slow worker and a perfectionist. It's surprising how much of the time you spend is not actually doing something, but thinking about how to do it and roaming around Home Depot. Of course, that's why the pros do it ten times faster than the DIYer.

It took me 18 months, plus three months of planning before I started, of evening and weekends to finish about 800 square feet of my 1100 square-foot basement. This included a bedroom, a bathroom. To give you an idea of the framing complexity, I used eight doors (bedroom, bathroom, storage, mechanical, closets, etc). There were also a number of soffits around duct work (since I drywalled the ceiling). I used all wood studs. I did 100% of the work myself.

The breakdown was 3 months planning, 4 months framing (included replacing four windows), 1 month plumbing, 2 weeks of HVAC, 2 months of electrical rough-in, 1 week to insulate, 3 months of drywalling, 1 month of painting, 1 week to do the electrical trimout, 3 months to build shelving, one month to install the doors, 3 weeks to do the bathroom tiling, 1 week to lay the hardwood flooring, 2 weeks to do the bathroom trimout, and about a month for the final details.

As you see, I took four months framing. But I hear a lot of people tell me they framed their whole basement with their brother-in-law in a week. I can't really explain the wide gap. But as I said, I'm a perfectionist. Only one stud out of 20 at the home center was good enough for me, and my studs are perfectly plumb.

 

Because your a perfectionist, I am going to assume your basement came out the way you intended.

I have completed my planning stage, can't answer how long that took me since I have been planning little by little since we bought our house over 3 years ago. I guess I have been "seriously" planning for about 3 months now. Because I use AutoCAD at work, and I have a copy here at home, I have the entire basement drawn out, with all studs 16" apart, drywall and floor on my pc. Hopefully that will help me do things faster once I start the actual work.

I got everything from Home Depot delivered last week and hope to begin the actual work next week.

 

Did mine bumper to bumper in less than 7 months. I was motivated because we needed the space, so it was 7 months from our closing date. We finished about 1000 sf and I left about 500sf for a future (office) project. Large Bedroom, bathroom, playroom, family room. five doors two windows and two doorways without doors.

I had help hanging the wallboard (got the cielings and half the walls hung in two days with 3 guys to help). I planned to have the drywall finished professionally but the cost was no less than if I had hired hanging & finiahing together. So I finished the drywall myself. That was the longest part. I also had the rough plumbing for the bathroom proffessionally done by friends. I did the finish plumbing myself & tiled the bathroom floor (the biggest surprise on how quickly it went). I did the wiring myself and the HVAC was basically roughed in already in the unfinished basement. I also did all the framing alone. I had the carpet laid by the carpet store. I finished trimming it out a few weeks ago

Is it perfect? No, you can find places where the drywall isn't smooth, and the ceiling texture isn't great. But my wife shocked me saying it looks better than any other basement she's seen We'll see how it holds up to 3 kids and a dog!

This was working 2-4 hours weeknights and 8-10 hours Friday and Saturday.

I need to get pictures posted!

 

I've been working on mine for 2 years and just now got the rough in inspection done on half of it. I'm not exactly rushing it, I only work down there when I have nothing else to do, and with 3 kids, that's not often.

I don't want to know how many hours I've put into it but I really enjoy the work. I've done wiring, plumbing, installed a tub, built some walls, turns out I'm having fun.

 

I am still at it. I painted the walls with Drylock ( I hated that part), which took me about a week. Since then I spen this past weekend putting up my first full wall (25') and started the first part of my next one (about 10' so far). I am surprised that I got so much done this weekend. I can see the progress with every 8' section, I had to redo 2 sections already, but that is to be expected snce it is my first time doing something of this magnitude. And the best tool I have is my mallot, had to knock one section in with it already

 

It took me about 18 months, but I took about 7 months off to not do anything. Total sq footage was about 800. Added an office, work out room, family room and half bath. All of the rough in work went pretty quick, 2 months to get through rough inspection. Drywall and sanding took about 6 weeks. Then all the finish work takes forever!!! Everytime I thought I was getting close to finishing, I'd want to do something else.

When I started I had zero experience with this kind of thing, but now I'll pretty much tackle any job at home. The people here are really helpful!!!

 

I usually do 2 a year on the side.
Four years ago with 2-3 guys, weekends only, about 15 weeks.
Now about 10 weeks, framing to carpet (some sourcing). Extras take longer (ie: bars, closets, baths)
Motivation is the driving factor, I am doing it to earn extra money, so the motivation is high. (Except on my next door neighbors which has really dragged out).
Plus I run into less problems now that there is some experience.