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Feb. 12, 2010 2:55 p.m. Gimp Dork

I've got a smallish furnace/laundry room in the basement of my townhouse (about 200 sq feet).

The floor is bare concrete. The outside wall is poured concrete with paper-back fiberglass insulation nailed directly to the concrete (no studs). The shared wall is insulated with paper-backed fg between studs. The other walls are open studs with drywall on the other side (making the finished parts of the basement). Ceiling is exposed beams with all the pipes, wires, etc.

I want to make it just look better for me now, and when I sell the place down the road.

I have a couple questions.

Floor: Paint vs vinyl tile - I'm sealing the floor this weekend, but I have to decide how I want to cover it. Paint is cheap, vinyl tile is a little more costy. Other than $$$, any pros/cons for either method?

Outside wall: The insulation is away from the wall in a few spots from when I had to replace the water main into the house. Some metallic tape will fix most of this, but the wall generally looks like crap. I'm not going to stud it, so I assume I'm stuck with it. That is, unless you have any great ideas.

Studded walls: I'm going to build a small workbench into the wall, so I'm thinking about covering the area for the workbench (on the studded interior wall - no insulation) and the shared, insulated studded wall with white peg board. To me, this makes sends and opens up storage options, but would normal people consider this to be a negative? Other options (other than sheetrock - no thanks).
Feb. 12, 2010 3:36 p.m. stuart in mn SuperDork

How in the world did they nail fiberglass insulation to a concrete wall?
Feb. 12, 2010 3:40 p.m. aircooled SuperDork

If the concrete is not too old, you can nail into it with one of those .22 style nail guns.

Vinyl tile has one great advantage on paint and even real tile, it is much better in cold weather if you walk on in it in bare feet.
Feb. 12, 2010 3:50 p.m. EastCoastMojo SuperDork

Just make sure you leave a space for the liquor cabinet.
Feb. 12, 2010 4:21 p.m. patgizz SuperDork

EastCoastMojo wrote:

Just make sure you leave a space for the liquor cabinet.

they dont have kids, the liquor is up in the kitchen like ours.

i think most people would consider white pegboard and workbench an improvement over bare studs. the next people will probably use the bench to fold clothes.
Feb. 12, 2010 4:25 p.m. EastCoastMojo SuperDork

I don't have kids either but if I'm stuck doin' laundry I'm going to have a good time while I'm doin' it.
Feb. 12, 2010 5:05 p.m. Gimp Dork

aircooled wrote:

If the concrete is not too old, you can nail into it with one of those .22 style nail guns.

Vinyl tile has one great advantage on paint and even real tile, it is much better in cold weather if you walk on in it in bare feet.

You are correct on both accounts. I think I'm going vinyl for that reason.

And I have booze in every room now that we got rid of the alcoholic renter.

As far as workbench surface, I was just going to do MDF or something to that effect - would a cheap laminate countertop be better for resale?
Feb. 12, 2010 6:02 p.m. Josh Dork

If you can deal with the installation, I prefer sheet vinyl over tiles, it looks cleaner and holds up better.

Real linoleum would be a bit pricier, but it's a lot nicer than vinyl for many reasons. When I build a place that's probably what I'm going to use for the kitchens, bathrooms and utility spaces.

Are you saying they nailed regular pink fiberglass batt to the wall in there? If it were me I would rip that abortion down and put up rigid foam, which you could then cover with paneling if you don't feel like messing with gypsum board. But as is sits, I can't really think of anything to do there.

For the workbench, you can often pick up remnant/end cuts of laminate countertops pretty cheap, it would look a lot more professional and more importantly be more fluid/stain resistant than MDF. It'd probably end up being cheaper too.
Feb. 13, 2010 11:18 a.m. digdug18 Reader

For the outside concrete wall, I would use spray on 2 part closed cell foam. You can find a contractor to do it, or do it yourself as well. The foam will be a thermal barrier as well as a moisture barrier, thus you won't need an actual sheet of plastic to cover over the outside wall, which should be there by code.

You can use the same spray on foam for the stud wall, and the ceiling, basically, you want to encapsulate the room with the foam. The beneifts you will find soon after is a noticeable decrease in sound coming from the washer and dryer when they are running. I did my washer and dryer room, and with the door shut, you can read a book comfortably in the next room. I can hear the loud buzz though.

I agree with you on the cheap laminate countertop, you can most likely find one for free or really cheap if you keep your eye out on craigslist. They do make nice work bench surfaces, provided the rest of the bench is made out of sturdy materials as well. Then again the laminate is glued onto MDF, the benefit of the laminate on top is that water and such won't get through, because water will almost instantly destroy regular unsealed MDF.

Andrew
Feb. 13, 2010 11:46 a.m. BAMF Reader

By the way, you can also get something called Extira, which is an exterior use MDF. It's a bit more expensive than regular MDF, but it's pretty amazing stuff. I've seen it used for outdoor signage for years with no damage.
Feb. 13, 2010 12:40 p.m. motomoron Reader

I recommend Armstrong vinyl tile. We did our entire basement in it 10 years ago and it's held up very well in both the laundry room which sees minimal traffic as well as the machine/fab/hobby shop which sees everything short of welding. No matter how bad vinyl tile gets you can run a power buffer over it and restore it.

Home Depot and Lowes are the cheapest place to get it. I like the Henry brand adhesive, and have a heat gun handy to soften the tiles where they go over anything less than totally flat.

And by all means do it in black and white checkerboard.