Another basement thread

[RayB]

I want to to do a few upgrades to the unfinished basement in our 5 yr old house, so I can move my home office down there and set up the "arcade" properly. We can't afford a complete proper "finish" so I want to do just the basics. The basement is already roughed in with 2x4s, insulation and vapor barriers on all the "external" walls. There's lighting already (5 lights all wired to one switch), and 2 outlets already used up by "important stuff".

I figured I would:

- paint/seal the concrete floor
- rough in some electric outlets along one or two walls (but not everywhere)
- have an electrician do final hookups on these new outlets

My main questions are:
Is there anything wrong about sealing the floor at this point? (Yes it's dry)
Is there any point to roughing in the outlets myself, or am I setting myself up to end up having it "redone"?
Are there any other considerations I'm forgetting? (I figure sealed floor and power is enough for me to set up my computer down there).

[ChadTower]

Is there anything wrong about sealing the floor at this point? (Yes it's dry)
Is there any point to roughing in the outlets myself, or am I setting myself up to end up having it "redone"?
Are there any other considerations I'm forgetting? (I figure sealed floor and power is enough for me to set up my computer down there).

Sounds like most of the hard work is already done.  Seal it up, rough in the outlets to match the height and such of the ones already in there, and you should be fine. 

[Jdurg]

Yeah, for a basement the water is always the big issue.    But just make sure you have the outlets in the right locations and plenty of lighting as you're not going to get much sunlight in the basement.

[myntik1]

do the floor last, you're goin g to get junk all over the floor.  You might as well wait until you've painted and everything else.

run all of your wires since it will only save you cash. An electricians time = big money.  AND remember when you're tacking the wire to the lunber DO NOT puncture the wire, this could cause the electricity to arc.

[ChadTower]

Running his own wire could make it hard to get an electrician to come out.  Around here most of them won't bother if they are only making terminations.  Not enough money in it for them.

[myntik1]

depends on how he wants go go about it.  If it's a complete job with permits and such I would have a licensed electrician do all of the wiring soup to nuts.  If it's a parial, I would wire it myself and throw an ad on craigslist or such for a journeyman to come over for an hour to inspect my work and give him a hundo.  But for me wheeling and dealing is the fun part.