Basement finishing questions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:7 feet depending on where you are is fine. We just pulled a basement permit. Lowest for ducts is 6.4 feet.

Basement ceiling height shall not be less than 7 feet above the finished floor. Structural members spaced 4 feet or more apart may project up to 6 inches below the required ceiling height.

6.4 is not enough

It sounds like OP is not trying to necessarily make this a "legal" basement re ceiling height, but a place that can be useable for her children to play. In that case, that height sounds fine to me. But obviously depends on what OP is looking to do with the basement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:7 feet depending on where you are is fine. We just pulled a basement permit. Lowest for ducts is 6.4 feet.

Basement ceiling height shall not be less than 7 feet above the finished floor. Structural members spaced 4 feet or more apart may project up to 6 inches below the required ceiling height.

6.4 is not enough

It sounds like OP is not trying to necessarily make this a "legal" basement re ceiling height, but a place that can be useable for her children to play. In that case, that height sounds fine to me. But obviously depends on what OP is looking to do with the basement.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I would prefer it to be legal height but I would need to look at it again. Our contractor did not think there would be a height problem. As for the bathroom situation, I'll have to get our contractor to give it a look because I just don't know what the plumbing situation looks like. There is some plumbing in the basement (there is a washing/dryer and sink) but different from sewage obviously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:7 feet depending on where you are is fine. We just pulled a basement permit. Lowest for ducts is 6.4 feet.

Basement ceiling height shall not be less than 7 feet above the finished floor. Structural members spaced 4 feet or more apart may project up to 6 inches below the required ceiling height.

6.4 is not enough

It sounds like OP is not trying to necessarily make this a "legal" basement re ceiling height, but a place that can be useable for her children to play. In that case, that height sounds fine to me. But obviously depends on what OP is looking to do with the basement.

No, we just pulled a permit and that is what they told me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I would prefer it to be legal height but I would need to look at it again. Our contractor did not think there would be a height problem. As for the bathroom situation, I'll have to get our contractor to give it a look because I just don't know what the plumbing situation looks like. There is some plumbing in the basement (there is a washing/dryer and sink) but different from sewage obviously.

You need to do a rough in. That involves digging up the concrete for the fittings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:7 feet depending on where you are is fine. We just pulled a basement permit. Lowest for ducts is 6.4 feet.

Basement ceiling height shall not be less than 7 feet above the finished floor. Structural members spaced 4 feet or more apart may project up to 6 inches below the required ceiling height.

6.4 is not enough

It sounds like OP is not trying to necessarily make this a "legal" basement re ceiling height, but a place that can be useable for her children to play. In that case, that height sounds fine to me. But obviously depends on what OP is looking to do with the basement.

No, we just pulled a permit and that is what they told me.

Does that mean that you cannot get a permit to finish a lower-ceiling height basement to use as a playroom? I always thought you only need that height to make it into rentable space, or official bedroom space.

[Anonymous]

OP, we had a similar basement although with plumbing roughed in. Height is 7ft, except where we had pipes, etc. We did not want put a huge amount of money into it, but because it was dry (and we made sure to keep it that way, checked out the drainage, got a sump pump) we thought it would be useful. We turned it into the play room/TV room/and made a smaller storage room and put in a few closets. our kids use it ALL the time. their toys are down their, they can do painting, etc and I don't really care if they get paint on the walls, put glitter on the floor, etc.

Ours cost +-20k including putting in a full bath, flooring, drywall, tiling in bathroom, recessed lighting, electric, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:7 feet depending on where you are is fine. We just pulled a basement permit. Lowest for ducts is 6.4 feet.

Basement ceiling height shall not be less than 7 feet above the finished floor. Structural members spaced 4 feet or more apart may project up to 6 inches below the required ceiling height.

6.4 is not enough

It sounds like OP is not trying to necessarily make this a "legal" basement re ceiling height, but a place that can be useable for her children to play. In that case, that height sounds fine to me. But obviously depends on what OP is looking to do with the basement.

No, we just pulled a permit and that is what they told me.

Does that mean that you cannot get a permit to finish a lower-ceiling height basement to use as a playroom? I always thought you only need that height to make it into rentable space, or official bedroom space.

Same height regardless. We are doing a playroom, workshop and bathroom. Otherwise, you just do it without a permit. The legal bedroom space more has to do with an egress window or door.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, we had a similar basement although with plumbing roughed in. Height is 7ft, except where we had pipes, etc. We did not want put a huge amount of money into it, but because it was dry (and we made sure to keep it that way, checked out the drainage, got a sump pump) we thought it would be useful. We turned it into the play room/TV room/and made a smaller storage room and put in a few closets. our kids use it ALL the time. their toys are down their, they can do painting, etc and I don't really care if they get paint on the walls, put glitter on the floor, etc.

Ours cost +-20k including putting in a full bath, flooring, drywall, tiling in bathroom, recessed lighting, electric, etc.

Who did you use? I am getting much higher quotes to do a lot lets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I would prefer it to be legal height but I would need to look at it again. Our contractor did not think there would be a height problem. As for the bathroom situation, I'll have to get our contractor to give it a look because I just don't know what the plumbing situation looks like. There is some plumbing in the basement (there is a washing/dryer and sink) but different from sewage obviously.

Which County?

We just passed our inspections for fc.

Our ceiling is over 7 feet but the I beam is just under the height requirement. I think by 1.5". The inspector passed us.

Perhaps different counties are more stringent with that issue than others? Does your contractor work with permitted projects in your county? If so, he should know how picky they are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, we had a similar basement although with plumbing roughed in. Height is 7ft, except where we had pipes, etc. We did not want put a huge amount of money into it, but because it was dry (and we made sure to keep it that way, checked out the drainage, got a sump pump) we thought it would be useful. We turned it into the play room/TV room/and made a smaller storage room and put in a few closets. our kids use it ALL the time. their toys are down their, they can do painting, etc and I don't really care if they get paint on the walls, put glitter on the floor, etc.

Ours cost +-20k including putting in a full bath, flooring, drywall, tiling in bathroom, recessed lighting, electric, etc.

Who did you use? I am getting much higher quotes to do a lot lets.

+1. DH is a carpenter. He's currently downstairs framing. The basement is about 1200 sq feet. For a bathroom (had to break the slab and do the rough in), a new legal bedroom (had to cut in for the egress window), 2 storage closets, and all of the infrastructure such as tiling, electricity, plumbing, and HVAC, we are looking at close to $40K. I would say that it's $30K in materials alone and another $10K for labor paid out to friends. Finishes are mid range--ie I mixed some Architectural ceramics tile with some home depot tile.