I am finishing mine now entirely myself and my 14 year old son. We didn't know much about how when we started and had to learn nearly everything along the way. We're approaching a year now into the project. Did everything straight from the raw slab like this project. Drylock, framing, wiring, insulation, drywall, subflooring, finish ceiling, lighting design, everything. The knowledge gained for both of us has been a hundred times more valuable than the gameroom we're about to have.

One thing I learned is that the drilok is nice but the real win is an air exchanger. Code in most places with basements require one anyway if you want to call it finished living space. I can't emphasize enough how much better an air exchanger will make a basement gameroom.

It's all about practice. If you're not sure you have the skill to do something then build something small elsewhere that will practice the skill. If you can't cut a 2x4 square then pick up ten of them and stay out in the yard with a saw until you can. If you can't cut drywall then pick up 3 sheets and cut them to pieces.

I had to rip out drywall that I had hung a couple of times in spots. It just didn't look the way I wanted so I had to figure out what I did "wrong" and start over. Learning a skill is like that. Maybe the most valuable skill I learned in this year long project is to let progress happen as it happens. I don't have a ton of free time so I had to learn to be happy with what I was able to get done. If I stressed over progress then the project would be come just another burden and that wasn't my goal.

Of course, impatience can be a struggle, and right now the whole project is stalled awaiting black light carpet samples. Can't paint without a chosen pattern. Need... samples... to hurry... and arrive...

...and I'll repeat for emphasis that in your style of slab basement a basic air exchanger is just as important as any game. Trust me. If you're in a cold winter region you want a heat recovering exchanger. If you don't know the difference I can explain. I spent a month researching them.

That might perform the same function. I didn't research integration into the existing forced hot air system. The basic idea is that you need something that's going to exchange a third of the air volume each hour (or the full volume every third hour). That forces fresh air into the basement and removes contaminants like dust, mold, carbon monoxide, etc. I'm not an expert but ideally it's taking in fresh air from the outside and not just recirculating air from upstairs. Depending on how many windows you have down there, though, it might naturally draft enough for that. You'd want to run that by your building inspector as he'll know the equations for windows/doors to air exchange.

You install ducting for the air exchanger. That's what I did. It doesn't have to be tons of ducting. I think I ran probably 35' total for all four lines (stale air return / fresh air blower/ external return / external exhaust).

Part of the key is having it be fresh air from outside for the basement. That way mold, spores, etc are flushed outside and not into the furnace for redistribution into the rest of the house.

In this situation it has nothing to do with the furnace. It's an independent system that is not connected to the heating system in any way. The air exchanger is a small box that sits somewhere connected to ducting that comes from an exterior wall and then spiders out through the room.

http://residential.fantech.net/residential-products/indoor-air-quality/hrvs-heat-recovery-ventilators/

That's a great place to read up on the concepts and to pick out a unit. I learned a lot of what I did from that site and from talking to the town building inspector. I ended up installing their VHR704 and have been very happy with the difference it makes in the air quality. That said I haven't run it in the winter time yet.

I did a ton of price searching and by far the best price I found was here:

http://ecomfort.com/vhr-704-heat-recovery-ventilator-hrv-4-top-ports-56-cfm-3-speed-402.html

You'll also need to order the control unit from them. Cost on that will depend on which control unit you pick. I went with a basic dial based humidistat.

I did the *exact same thing*. The lights are track lights installed in between joists. They barely protrude downwards at all. Everything in the ceiling is flat black. I even painted the wiring and ducts. It really does make a difference as your eye is never drawn upwards to make you aware that the ceiling and all that stuff is right above your head. It's just like in a club where you look up and really can't see much of the ceiling.

For the floor I used Dricore panels. Not hugely expensive, only adds 3/4" or so for subflooring, and my son and I did the whole room in a couple of hours. It makes a big difference to not be walking on the cold hard concrete and it provides something like an R5 level of floor insulation even without finish flooring. Plus installed correctly it provides solid airflow for the concrete surface that when combined with the air exchanger keeps the air down there nice and fresh.

Plus if you're going to have a nice black light carpet it has to be on some subflooring...

Or you could put nylon bottomed levelers on and never worry about that.

That pipe along the bottom of the wall is going to cost some floorspace once you start framing.

I'm not sure how exposed metal enclosed between concrete and drywall is any better with moisture than wood. Yeah, it won't mold, but it will rust, and that's also an issue.

Who said it's bad? Not me. I said it might not be better than wood in a basement. What you read isn't what I was trying to say. Obviously, if moisture were that much of an issue, the GC would have had to address that before putting up any framing at all. Any GC who put up any framing in an environment where the moisture would damage it has failed no matter what they framed with.

Yes, you will...

...ELECTROCUTION!

(that's a joke, folks...)

Only the first outlet in any given circuit would have to be GFCI. It makes no sense to have more than one on a circuit. More than one is probably a bad thing as the GF protection does have a tendency to wear out after a few years and you have to replace the outlet (that's why they have test buttons on them).

Your local code might dictate TR outlets, though, in all new construction. I'm in the middle of my gameroom build and I had to do that. Even in the ceiling outlets.

If you're heating the floor below you don't really need the floor insulation. You may be able to just remove it. Or you could try spraying some flat black onto it and see what happens. You might be surprised how well some materials accept sprayed flat black paint.

I did my ceiling this way too. The only drawback is that you still get dust falling from the floor above and you still get lots of cobwebs between the joists. It looks good, and gives you maximum headspace, but there is a bit more cleaning maintenance with the open ceiling.

Nice!

I would have thought a moisture barrier is needed between the concrete and bottom plate. Interesting.

Run the wires anyway and just leave them for future use. And don't run one set of cat6. Run four sets of cat6. You know you'll need more than one later on once you put a smart TV, a game console, and some other random networked device that you don't have yet. It's better to have three ports than to have to keep installing uplink hubs all over the place.

I believe you but I'm not sure I get it. Steel rusts when placed on below grade concrete. Anyone who has put up steel shelves in their basement has seen how the bottom legs rust out eventually.

Heh, thanks for following that up, because I was sitting here like "okay, don't want to argue in dude's build thread, but those are NOT aluminum". Aluminum is an expensive metal and at that thickness you're talking barely stronger than beer cans.

"Manufacturer of studs in NJ"... sounds like a reality show for a personal trainer.

Spackle crew should have left appropriate hardware to dry out the compound. They normally leave a space heater in the room with a strong fan that will keep warm air moving around the room and dry it out. Obviously, they have to come back anyway, since wet spackle hasn't been finish sanded yet.

Set compound still needs to be finish sanded before priming can begin. And primer/paint will take a bit. That stuff can't be rushed.