Building basement man cave!!!- now with before pics

[rbh]

Anyone built a man cave in the basement.

Looking for a little input on everything from building and insulating against the concrete walls, ceiling, wiring AC/ AV stuff, TV and stereo.

Have a small budget, but lots of buckshe materials kicking around to work with.

And for decorating will need neon beer lights, posters etc beer coasters.

So as can be seen in the pics the heat source is the stove, the studded/drywalled walls that are up will be coming down and moved over to the concrete wall sections and insulated, should I poly between the concrete wall and the wood/insulated sections??

lots of room on the one side for a pool table and can hardley wait to move the walls and open it up down there.

Bye Bye wifes sewing room (to be moved) and the cold room "Hello man cave"

 

[scipper77]

Re: Building basement man cave!!!

Re: Building basement man cave!!!

If it is cold in your basement address that for sure. You are not going to want to spend time down there if it is cold. You could put a fridge down there. They put off a lot of heat.

Also getting furniture in and out of a basement can be a challenge. We almost bought a reclining sectional for our basement until I realized that getting it down there (and one day back out) was next to impossible.

One last thing. Plan for water damage. If you put up drywall leave a big gap at the ground and use plastic baseboard that won't soak up water. I've heard of a $400 water heater doing $1000's in damage to a finished basement.


Make sure you post pics for us. Before and after.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Building basement man cave!!!

Re: Building basement man cave!!!

I would say it depends on the climate and how dry the basement is...... concrete floor? If so I would raise the floor at least an inch with foam and make a floor on top of that.

Insulate the walls and stud them. A single ceiling light depending on size....... or are you doing the entire basement?

Neon beer lights ...... find a beverage salesperson and they will have leads to where to get them.

 

[DECK SWABBER 58]

Re: Building basement man cave!!!- now with before pics

"the studded/drywalled walls that are up will be coming down and moved over to the concrete wall sections and insulated, should I poly between the concrete wall and the wood/insulated sections??"


My basement concrete walls are insulated with that green foam board. It is between the 2x2 studs that the drywall is attached to. After four years so far so good.

 

[dockwrecker]

Re: Building basement man cave!!!- now with before pics

Always use a vapor barrier over insulation on exterior walls. Concrete isn't waterproof, even with exterior foundation waterproofing.

 

[RogersJetboat454]

Re: Building basement man cave!!!- now with before pics

For a bit of nostalgia in your bar, a 3-Slot pay phone can't be beat.

Attached is a picture of one of mine. It is a fully functional Automatic electric from the 60's. Be prepared to spend some dough if you want one though. The silly controller was $200 alone.

Other than that, having a trusty beer fridge is good. Having a beer fridge that accomodates a keg, C02 setup, and loose bottles is even better. Having that beer fridge/kegarator along with a fully stocked bar has me in your man cave....

Not sure if you want the latter.....

 

[dingbat]

Re: Building basement man cave!!!- now with before pics

We finshed our basment 10 years ago. Added over 1,000 sq. ft of living space and a full bath to the house when we where done. The walls where studded out with 2 X 4 and insulated with R16 roll insulation with a mosture barrier. Put full heat and ventilation system in.The warmest rooms in the house in the winter and the coolest in the summer.

Installed a hot water tub and drain system. The entire basment was wired for cable and internet while I was pulling electrical wiring. Its a walkout which is nice when dealing with furniture.

 

[rbh]

Re: Building basement man cave!!!- now with before pics

For a bit of nostalgia in your bar, a 3-Slot pay phone can't be beat.

Attached is a picture of one of mine. It is a fully functional Automatic electric from the 60's. Be prepared to spend some dough if you want one though. The silly controller was $200 alone.

Other than that, having a trusty beer fridge is good. Having a beer fridge that accomodates a keg, C02 setup, and loose bottles is even better. Having that beer fridge/kegarator along with a fully stocked bar has me in your man cave....

Not sure if you want the latter.....

Buddy of mine has one of the older 3 coin pay phones "IT IS CHROME", and I am so jealous, think its NT not AE. coin slots are straight drops not sideway drop like yours, I think????

What is the controler??? I thought all you had to do was add a short to ground somewere in the rotary dial mechanism.
(just enough knowledge to make me dangerous)

Bar and fridge to come, need to move walls, wire, insulate and throw up some drywall for now.

 

[Autotech]

Re: Building basement man cave!!!- now with before pics

(just enough knowledge to make me dangerous)


Shoot man I thought thats what you did for a living.

 

[Bubbles Up]

Re: Building basement man cave!!!- now with before pics

Looking good so far , I live in Chilliwack and do taping on the side,have a buddy that packs drywall so I can get you a deal on the board and other stuff.Send me a PM and I can give you his name and number.

 

[geeco1]

Re: Building basement man cave!!!- now with before pics

I just finished my basement this past year. You will want to put insulation on the perimeter walls that are concrete. I used the rubber backed carpet squares in part of my basement and laminate flooring in another part.

Now for the bad. My sump pump went out and the basement flooded with about 3 inches of water. The carpet squares survived. Just had to hose them off and spray with a bacteria inhibitor. The laminate flooring was toast. Had to remove the bottom 2 feet of drywall and insulation. I'm thinking about using the blue foam insulation to put back.

If you have any cracks in your walls, they make a product that can be "injected" into the crack to seal them. It works great. I don't have the exact name, but it is a thin, two-part epoxy. You attach these plastic "nipples" to the wall where the crack is. Then you inject the epoxy through the nipples. when it sets-up, it has sealed the crack. The nice thing about it is that the epoxy is thin enough to penetrate into the crack, not just cover the outside.

 

[RogersJetboat454]

Re: Building basement man cave!!!- now with before pics

RBH,

I don't want to totally hijack this threat with old phone stuff (one of my other hobbies) But you asked....

Your buddy probably has a N.E. (Northern Electric) which was Western Electric/Bell systems Canadian manufacturing arm for Bell Canada.

The coin slot tracks should be twisty like mine in order to ring the bell and gong (1 Ding nickle, 2 Dings dime, Gong for quarter), unless someone has modified it?

The controller makes the phone work similar to as it did when it was in service. Those phones had a special dedicated coin line back in the day that has not been available from the phone company for quite some time. The controller takes the place of the central office coin line. It requires coins (2 nickles, or 1 dime, or 1 quarter) to operate. It will return the coin(s) to the return hopper if you hang up within 60 seconds, and it will collect the coin to the vault if your call goes over 60 seconds. The gentleman who makes the controller is a member of the ATCA (Antique Telephone Collectors Association). He designed and builds the controllers himself.
Heres his You Tube video of it in action;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ahy_wQ4gz8

You can bypass the whole notion of using coins if you rewire the phone, but at that point its a regular phone that acts as a piggy bank.

Heres a couple of pics of my phones guts and the controller;

 

[DJ]

Re: Building basement man cave!!!- now with before pics

"Man Cave". What a laugh.

I dislike the whole idea.

If you and "significant other" can't coexist, in a space, than your prospects are grim.

Being married for 30 years, She has hers (whole house) and I have mine. Garage.

Nuff said.

 

[rbh]

Re: Building basement man cave!!!- now with before pics

"Man Cave". What a laugh.

I dislike the whole idea.

If you and "significant other" can't coexist, in a space, than your prospects are grim.

Being married for 30 years, She has hers (whole house) and I have mine. Garage.

Nuff said.

enjoy the garage, we both will enjoy the man cave/ basement when its done.

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: Building basement man cave!!!- now with before pics

Hey rbh...nice project you got going. We had an identical wood-burning stove at our cottage, sadly when my folks remodeled they replaced it with ceramic and gave it to the contractor.

They are some nice looking stoves.

One thing you can do to help out the man cave is to get in on the Labatt rewards program.

Check out this sweet mini-fridge.

They also have a sweet bubble hockey set that I know you will like.

You just need to convince all you beer-drinking friends to give you their points

Good luck, and don't forget to wire it for tv