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Should I finish my basement

Moved in to a new house....one of the main selling points was a concrete basement; walls and floor slab.
The dimensions are perfect for my setup and I will finish the ceiling and do sound treatment as necessary but really wonder if I should also put up sheet-rock ?
As of now wall are painted with water-seal paint, and I have a large carpet on the floor.
I can just hang few drapes on the walls, do some sound treatment and leave it as is...
The looks are OK either way for me - no bearing on my decision.

Just want to hear if some of you have experience with such a "dilemma" (finished vs cement walls) and what would be recommended?

PS: I would NOT want to do any sound treatment under the sheet-rock...as a matter of fact I would only mount aluminium rails to the walls and then attach 1/2inch sheet-rock
ether

Showing 4 responses by sounds_real_audio

sounds_real_audio
958 posts
 
Rello is correct to mention Lindisfarne's concern. That combined with Ejlif's concern can be easily resolved by painting the sheetrock pink.
sounds_real_audio
958 posts
 
Sounds like you live in the south where you may not need insulated walls. Even so I would not want to spend much time in a basement with concrete walls. Throw some wood studs on the walls and insulate and sheet rock texture and paint. Live a little.
sounds_real_audio
958 posts
 
I used to have a pretty damn good hi end room at the RMAF in a hotel room. No reason why you can't do it in your basement.
sounds_real_audio
958 posts
 
I would carpet the floors and finish the walls with drywall. I used some 5' X 9' throw rugs and put them on a couple of walls to reduce reflections. I nailed some carpet tack strip on the wall at 16" OC and hung the rugs from the tack strip. Added to the decor big time and served purpose as well.

Good idea to make sure you have a sump pump down there. Make sure it works. If you are located on a sloped location you might not need one, you would want to have some French Drain around the house or under the perimeter of the basement slab that would drain down hill to the outside of the basement.

Best
Jim
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