Ask Dave your basement remodeling questions

Welcome to Ask Dave, where you can find answers to many of your basment finishing questions. Here you will find an archive of basement questions and their answers.

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Basement Remodeling and Finishing Questions

Below are basement remodeling questions asked or updated in the last thirty days. To see the complete archive click here.

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Question	From	Updated
We currently have an unfinished walkout (30x60ft) basement with insulation tacked to all 4 concrete poured walls. Years ago, I added insulation in the floor joists between the basement ceiling and the main floor of the house to reduce noise (which doesn't work very well) and help the insulation of the house in general. I have had several contractors say they would just leave the tacked up insulation and frame out the exterior walls inside of the insulation to clear the insulation and drain pipes and water lines up above to avoid framing around them and keep straight walls. We will be losing anywhere from 4-6" to 2.5 ft if we have stud walls built in that far away from the concrete walls and we plan to put in recessed lights and run alot of cables in the ceiling for home theatre, etc. I guess we could have alot of shelves or storage space built into the side walls, but I'm not sure we need that. What do you think the best course of action should be with framing the walls in the basement and what to do with the insulation on the exterior walls and basement ceiling? Also, is there another way to keep the home theater or workout room music from traveling upstairs? Also, in general, what do you recommend to use for heating and cooling the basement? (We currently have heat pump/central air and baseboard electric heat in the rest of the house)	William M.	21 Dec 08