Basement Remodeling: Framing Issues & Tips

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Jeremy Blackwell, I'm here today to help you get started on your basement remodel project. When framing the basement, we try to find the longest wall possible and square from that wall on. In this basement, this would be that wall. This is a great example too, because it shows some of the common things that you'll run into when framing a basement. Here we've got half concrete wall and half wood wall. I like to keep things nice and tight and streamlined, so what I would do is frame from the floor all the way up to the ceiling. Some people frame a half wall here which saves a little bit of space. We'd start by squaring off of the, the framed wall straight down to the floor and then frame all the way up and then we'd continue on the rest of the walls, just as you'd regularly frame a house. Some other common problems in framing a basement are the heat runs that are going to be hanging down from the ceiling. Now you'll frame around these, to make sure that you can hang drywall around it, and that everything is covered up and looks good. Another important thing when framing a basement is you'll run into your heat ducts, the trunk lines that run from usually one end of the house to the other. You'll need to frame around these, but you'll always need to leave room for your return airs. Sometimes the return airs are taken right out of the ceiling, other times we try to take them out of the wall, near the floor. Now the return air is very important because it is what sucks the air that is forced out of the furnace back into the furnace so it circulates itself. Make sure you don't forget your return airs. When we frame a basement, we like to frame everything streamlined. This is a great example of a duct we find the longest point of, of the duct and then we make one straight line and frame all the way down. We do this even if our duct cuts into a smaller area, that way it's more pleasing to the eye when you see it, when it's finished. "