Basement Plans

Hard pressed for space? Plan that sparkling new remodeled attic or basement you've been dreaming about

INTRODUCTION

For some time you've probably been eying that wasted attic or basement space, thinking in terms of a new recreation room, a workshop, a bedroom or even a complete apartment. So you need to get some basment plans.

Yes, it can be done, and cheaply and easily, too, if you're willing to devote a little time and effort to the project.

This book is designed to show you what can be done and tell you how to do it, and please believe us when we say you can do it, even with a very limited knowledge of the skills involved.

Most manufacturers in the field have heeded the pleas of the do-it-your­selfer with the result that new materials are now available to make the job easier and produce a better looking end product. For this reason, we have included information on these new materials as well as those that have been around longer. In all cases, you'll find step-by-step hints to help you do the job in a professional manner with the least amount of waste effort.

Western Pine Assn. Basement recreation area with a nautical decor shows the result of both careful planning and execution.

Thousands of families have successfully completed home remodeling proj­ects, and the number grows larger every year. Now's the time to get started and get your basment plans into action!

If you want to savor the full flavor of being a Midas-rich potentate, take stock of the one most valuable asset you have. Strangely enough, it's space. Any way you figure it, the most costly item in your worldly inventory is the shelter that you provide for yourself, your family and your accumulated possessions. Few items in any family budget are greater than the monthly mortgage payments. But then, few things give as much value in return.

This book is really about space and it's designed for one pur­pose: to prove to you that you can add beautiful, usable, livable space to your present home. If you are low on cash but way up on muscle, you can utilize that dull, drab area below decks or that hot box just under the roof to expand your household hori­zons. What's more, with the suggestions, tips and know-how detailed here, you'll be able to do the job at a saving calculated to chill the bones of a bank appraiser.

At this point, let us toss in a few words of encouragement. For quite a few years the author has been writing a Sunday house­hold column called You Can Do It for the New York News. During that time probably upwards of a million letters have come in from homeowners inquiring about various build-it and fix-it projects. Even today these letters are still quite surprising. It's wildly encouraging to read about the huge scale jobs that average, nontechnical people are willing to tackle. They carry the task through to completion and wind up with a handsome payoff.

West Coisr Lumberman's Assn "Cozy coliseum" on the top floor is host to everything from teenage dances to adult card sessions.

Illustrations courtesy Armstrong Cork Co

With imaginative planning, the drab basement catchall at left was converted into a family room —for less than $300! The first step is to "think big"—then put all your ideas on paper as below.

BASEMENT CATCHALL INTO A FAMILY ROOM-ON A BUDGET
	Electrical wiring	$ 10.00
	Light fixtures, hanging type, two	12.98
	Masonry paint and brushes	16.92
	Furring strips, 1x3 in., 300 linear ft.; cove molding, Vtx2A in., 70 linear ft.; No. 4 nails, one box; staples, one box	15.10
	Acoustical ceiling tile, 277 sq. ft.	58.17
	Flooring tile, 9x9 in. tiles	83.30
	Adhesive, 2 gal.	5.00
	Built-in cupboard—plywood, wood bracing, hardware, semi-gloss enamel	36.27
	vinyl surfacing, 17 sq. ft	7.14
	Fiberboard window sections, 4x8 ft.x'/i in., one sheet	3.52
	Drapery material, sailcloth 8 yds.; curtain rods,- curtain rings	14.00
	TOTAL	$262.40

Young just-marrieds revamp wasted at­tic space into a cosy sitting room or even an apartment. Older folks use their re­tired leisure to transform a dingy, tired basement area into a bright, cheerful family room for carefree entertaining. And in between these age extremes are a whole batch of families strung out along the end­less trackage of commuter lines who are willing to swap their own labor for that valuable commodity called space.

The problem is a universal one for, sad to say, most families are bursting out of their dwellings. Like never before we now have the time and money for elaborate part-time activities. All sorts of hobbies are booming. The paraphernalia that goes with them is starting to engulf us. Boats, out of water, are hugely bulky; guns and trophies are meant to be displayed; model trains, for fullest enjoyment, require the admiration of friends. When you add on the inevitable accumulation of odds and ends that seems to build up almost magi­cally, half the households in this nation are about to explode through the front door.

Other factors must also be considered. These days we have more time for fun. Parties are probably more informal but we tend to have a great many more last min­ute get-togethers. Teen-age activities are jumping. For frantic parents weary of the din there are only two practical escape routes. Either they transform wasted space into a little nest of quiet for them­selves or reverse this approach and con­fine the clamor to a teen-age haven.

In either case, the solution involves more space. If you have the finances to simply add on an extra room or two, great. You don't really need the advice you'll find in this book. But for the rest of us, the families stuck with an existing house and a tight budget, there are only two places to look. It's up to the attic plans or down to the basement plans.

But what's this area like now? We'll Rive you an example. Just three doors down from the author's chateau a neighbor has a dank dungeon at the foot of his cellar steps. Three minutes down there can grow mold on your shoelaces. A single 15-watt bulb dangling from the cobweb-decorated joists gives a faint glow of light but leaves the coiners of the room in leg breaking darkness. A guest once screamed at the sight of a towel on the floor. He thought it was bleached bones. At the other ex­treme, an attic is usually stuffed with clut­ter, is dark, oddly shaped and enjoys a climate that alternates the Sahara with Siberia.

Actually basement problems generally come as a trio. The area is dark, dank and dreary. If you want another chorus of the same refrain, attics are dark, dry and drab. But this double handful of trouble can be easily banished. All that's required is a measure of time, a generous portion of your own labor and a dollop of ingenuity.

Imaginative Planning

Before you go hog wild at the lumber­yard, take the time to do a decent job of planning the remodeling. Not only will you be able to lop a fat hunk of cash off the material bill, but you'll wind up with a far nicer looking job. Like any big busi­ness enterprise, break the planning up into several stages, from dreams to decisions.

First, gather the entire clan together and think big. Spare no expense, time or labor in your preliminary dreaming. Unleash your imagination, forget about money re­strictions. Include all the various ideas that you have culled from friends' homes, the clips that you've saved from magazines, the ideas you've dreamed about. This free­wheeling gambit serves a practical pur­pose. To an amazing degree many of these wild dreams can actually be included in the finished job. Scaled down or changed they may be, but the central idea and the satis­faction will remain.

You may not actually be able to rip out a wall from the basement plans and turn one corner into a sunken greenhouse, for example, but this same idea may be carried over as a wall mounted, fluorescent lighted indoor planter. The great, elaborate bar copied from an 1890 tavern may turn out to be a simple, wooden serving counter with a hand-painted mural in back that depicts an old time barroom interior. However, unless you allow your ideas to start out as free-swinging fantasy, the completed job may tend to be on the ordinary side.

When you have gathered together this mass of notes, clippings, sketches and ideas, shift your imagination into lower gear. Now is the time to decide exactly what purpose the space will serve. If a portion of the room will be turned into a storage area, there's no need for elaborate prepara­tions, lighting, finishes, etc. All you really want here is dry, usable space. If part of the area will be a laundry, then you want better light, proper floor drainage, a nicer finish on the walls and simple but sturdy cabinets and counters.

When it comes to the space that will be an extension of your living area, lavish time and thought on it. Attic and base­ment are the last remaining space frontiers in your home. Without breaking down the exterior walls and building outward, there are no other ways to acquire so vast an amount of room so cheaply.

To relate your various ideas to the space at hand, try to picture the room as it can be when the bent tricycles have been tossed out, the garden furniture moved to another spot, the cartons of miscellany sorted. Most important, try to picture it as a room. In other words, don't start your planning by saying, "Let's put some tile on the floor, cover up the ceiling and do some­thing with the walls." Instead, your ap­proach should be,

Aiter: Careful planning resulted in this attractive family room created from the basement at top. left.

Remodeled basement can provide room for hob­bies, loo. Note neat under-stairs workshop (right). Delta Power Tools

Soundprooi playroom below was made from gar­den-variety basement. Built-ins conserve space. Massolite Corp.

"Here's the room, this is the final effect we want … now, what do we need to do?"

Carefully planned and conscientiously built, the basement or attic should be as handsome, inviting and cozy as the rest of your house. This is not an idle philosophi­cal thought. Turn out a lackadaisically planned, slap-dash sort of job and you will wind up with little more for your efforts and expense than the same old useless area that merely boasts some ornate trim.

And now get down to the hard core plan­ning. Scale down your ideas to fit family financing and available space. At the same time, make sure your ideas can be carried out without too much trouble and expense.

Writ Cuasl Lumbermen Woodworking or photography, chemistry or bug collecting, there's room for it in the basement.

Massolite Corp. Last but not least is a snack bar to complete the basement recreation room and teen-age haven

Put It on Paper

The simplest procedure involves a large piece of graph paper. Mark off the area you have to work with, using as large a scale as possible (one inch equals one foot works well). Pencil in the walls, partitions and other major alterations. One hint: These items have thickness so be sure to allow for this in the plan. Next add the largest items that will be in the room, built-ins, etc. At this point you will probably receive a nasty jolt. Odds are good that the space pictured in your mind seemed much larger than the actual area available.

There will most certainly be an uncom­fortable moment when you discover it is absolutely impossible to fit a bar, a regula­tion pool table, a sofa plus two easy chairs and a table into the room.

To gel an idea of what your finished remodel­ing job will look like, sketch it on paper. In use here is the NERSICA kit which presents a sim­plified method of drawing all the room details.

Incidentally, there's one pitfall in all room planning. Make sure you measure the furniture so that you can mark it off according to scale on the plan. The author knows of one family that omitted this bit of precision. When they finally came to their senses and compared an actual Ping-pong table with counterpart they had roughly sketched in place, the paper version was roughly equivalent to a hopscotch court for a small squirrel.

If you are willing to spend a little extra time, it's very rewarding to make a small cardboard model of the room. This too should be in scale but here you will have the advantage of seeing the finished job in three dimensions. You'll also have the opportunity to try out colors, fabrics, wall coverings and even furniture arrangements in advance of the hammer and saw details. Many art stores as well as the emporiums specializing in arts and crafts supplies sell ready-packaged scale model kits designed for this purpose. Such an item usually in­cludes cardboard for floors aad walls al­ready marked off in graph form, plus all materials for doors, windows, scale-size furniture and other accessories.

You may also want to make a sketch of the proposed job. If you are one of those people who, like the author, have trouble drawing a straight line, you may be inter­ested in the simplified sketching method illustrated here. It was developed by an association of contractors known as NER-SICA, Inc., to help members show their customers what a finished job would look like. The kit (which dispenses with T-squares, triangles and other standard drafting equipment) is available from NERSICA, Inc. (12 E. 41st St., New York 17, N. Y.) for three bucks.

In case none of these procedures appeal, you may want to try a little system called full-scale planning. Clear everything out of the loom. Mark

Johm-Minrillt Remodeled attic gives plenty of space for spare time activities. Built-ins leave the floor open.

West Coast Lumbermen's Assr- Large gable window lights this teen-age haven designed for noisy activities; TV, phone, etc.

off the position of walls and doors on the floor with chalk. Then move furniture back into place. Simulate the stuff you don't have. An ironing board with a sheet of heavy cardboard will serve to indicate the actual size of the bar; wrapping paper on the floor can be a table, etc.

Try out the room for size. Spread out some plates, silverware, etc., on the "table" and see if you have enough room. At this point, you may discover that a rectangular table will fit in better than a square one. More important, perhaps a drop-leaf table attached to the wall will be more practical. You may even decide to shift the position of a partition wall a few inches in one di­rection or another.

Finally, test the walkways. If the room is a "dead end" area, you will have few prob­lems in this department. On the other hand, if you must pass through it every time you want to use the laundry, look at the fur­nace or get a hammer from the workshop, make sure that you can get through with­out having to do a hip-swiveling dance past the coffee table and around the snack bar.

Practical Hints

While we are on the subject of planning, here are a few brief tips that will help you trim expenses without cheapening the fin­ished job. All require forethought during the planning stage.

1. Keep the forms simple. Every odd shaped wall, every strangely proportioned room, takes its toll in construction time and waste of materials.



2. Plan to use materials in modules. For example, utilize full 4x8 sheets of plywood. You'll get very little mileage out of the scraps that must be trimmed off. Save time and eliminate waste by cutting down on cutting.



3. Don’t split up the space into a zillion little cells. Try to have as few partition walls as possible. Tiny rooms can easily get to feel like nicely furnished versions of Sing-Sing's death row.



4. Ditto for doors. You want to retain light transmission and spaciousness in all rooms. The open plan goes double for attics and basements.



5. Keep fancy trim at a minimum. Al­though the lumberyards haven't caught on yet, the days of ornate mold­ings have long since passed. Plain baseboard, cove molding and door trim is far cheaper, much easier to install and blends neatly with almost any decor.



6. Wherever possible, stick to stock items. This includes doors, windows, Formica slabs, etc. Deviate from this concept and you will wait an eternity until the special order is shipped in from a far distant warehouse. You will also pay, as it's called in the trade, top dollar.



7. Keep the run of attic or basement stairs straight if it's at all possible. The stairs will occupy less space, you'll save by utilizing standard components and you will run less risk if you have some basement plans.

The various jobs that make up the proj­ect must follow in an orderly sequence. Otherwise you may find that you have already closed in a wall that must contain wires or pipes. This is the type of maneuver that can break a man's heart. It transforms what should be. say. a two-hour job, into a three-day episode. Here's a basic sched­ule for attic and basement remodeling that you can use as basement plans for planning your work.

Basement

1. Make basic preparations. Clear out the junk, tear down any walls you don't need. Strip the area down to plain space.



2. Put up studs for partition walls, in­stall furring on existing walls (if necessary).



3. Install electric wiring, outlet boxes, ceiling mountings, etc.; do basic plumbing if the job includes it.



4. Install ceiling furring.



5. Insulate exterior walls.



6. Put up wall surfaces.



7. Put up ceiling.



8. Install any built-in furniture, etc.



9. Lay floor tile.



10. Install moldings, trim, etc.



11. Hang doors, polish off all car­ pentry.



12. Paint and decorate.

Attic

The procedure is pretty much the same as above. However, if you are going to en­large windows, install a dormer or make any other structural changes, do it before step 2.

Leslie Creations. Lafayette Hill. Pa Model kit facilitates planning in three dimen­sions. Partitions, doors, etc.. are all provided.

Marsh Wall Products. Inc. Dingy attic can be converted into comfortable, attractive living quarters with modem materials.

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