DIY basement remodeling

Spray away then. Be prepared. Spraying in a basement can get a little… “misty”.

The roller attachments suck. Spray with a 319 or 419 tip(assuming you’re using latex) and backroll with a 3/8" nap roller. I worked for Sherwin Williams for 6 years, and have never had anyone use the roller attachment and come out happy with the results.

only ever used a sprayer outside…i can just imagine a good bit of paint getting in the air indoors.

as for finishing walls, you could always do a textured finish if that doesn’t put you off. i bought a texture sprayer a couple of years ago and use it for all of my investment properties since you only have to roughly tape and finish the joints then the texture covers it all. i usually do a light orange peel with knockdown ceilings. it also has the benefit in rental properties of making repair of “tenant holes” not require too much exact finish work.

just a thought, not everyone cares for texture.

Man, I am going to paint my ceiling rafters black as well and this would be sweet to use. I was thinking of picking one up from harbor freight just so I won’t feel so bad about tossing it after I use it. One question is have is, how do you paint around all the electrical wires and water lines? I can’t imagine that you can paint over them.

Remove all the plumbing and electric, paint, re-install !

I’m hoping your being sarcastic…there’s no way you would have to remove all the PVC and copper lines in order to paint…

What, no sense of humor? Don’t see why you couldn’t paint everything. If you didn’t want to for some reason use those foam pipe insulating sticks as a wrap that you could pop on and off.

That’s a good point. My electrical situation is a disaster down there with the old knob and tube. Most of it is dead wires, but I just have to clean it out. I did a lot, but there is so much more to do. I have been using this thread as my motivation to get cracking while the weather isn’t that great.

Save the wiring. Surprised what scrap values are these days. Buffalo’s good for giving people 6 months of indoor projects.

I’m pretty sure they wired my house in such a way to save as much wire as possible.
I have living room outlets connected to the dormer and upstairs bathroom.

I found out because boxes on opposite ends of my baseent cut power to all those locations.

That’s alright, my garage is on the same line as my living room. They are on opposite ends of my property.

Feels like I have spent days covering and taping off everything I do not want painted.

I went through two gallons of primer on 1/2 of the basement. I’m pretty sure I suck at spraying.
I’m going to get 5 more gallons, and work on my conservation so that I might have enough left for walls too.

I did a little work over the holidays.
Started on the 26th with prep.


covered up the mess


Primed with zinser 123 primer


ran out of paint. Needed 3 gallons not two.
Used Glidden Duo, Flat black.


The sprayer also saved a ton of time priming the walls.


My wife and daughter chose the colors. Blue and extremely light grey.


Got the place mostly ready in time for the wifes New Years party.

The little TV had my old NES, SNES, N64, Xbox, PS1 and PS2 available for party guest’s as well.


I put primer on this wall because I was not done with the finishing, but did not want everyone to immediately look at the shitty part as they walked in.

Extra ceiling pics



I’m not sure when I will work on it next and I still have no idea what I’m going to do with the floor.
I was thinking about those 2’x2’ boards with the plastic on the bottom that gets the floor off the concrete but who knows. I’m out of money now.

Looks good!

great job with the ceiling

man that looks great! I have been debating doing my ceiling…my funds for the basement are running low and I just want to be done with it…sooo I don’t think I am going to do it.

The ceiling looks 5x better in person than in the pics.

When do you want to pong?

I don’t pong or foozball…

It was set up for air hockey, but the 1st people to show up at the party switched it before I could take pics.

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The ceiling was 6 gallons of paint and worth every penny.
It just about justified the price of the sprayer as well.

Are you up for suggestions on the floor?

Mine would be floating laminate floor. For several reasons. It’s cheap, it’s easy, it looks good. Also, if and when your basement floods, you’ll be able to rip it out quickly, replace the ruined sections, and be back up and running in no time. Tile is optimal for flooding, but it’s also very cold. The stryofoam under the floating laminate floor helps to insulate the floor a bit.