By Jacques Bouchard

As the real estate slump continues to worsen and homes become more and more difficult to sell, homeowners are finding that the best option for gaining more living space for their family is to finish the basement.  In response to this ever-increasing trend, many companies are designing wall panels especially for use in a basement.

However, these companies are often providing products that are hastily researched, poorly created, or make false or misleading claims about how well they work and how appropriate they are for a basement finshing project.  Before you make a decision on the basement wall product that’s right for your home, consider these five questions:

1. Will my basement walls resist water and moisture?

When it comes to a leak in the basement, it’s not a matter of how, it’s a matter of when. With the pipes, sinks, showers, water heaters, washing machines, toilets, and other water sources in the home, it’s only a matter of time before something breaks.  The water that comes from that break is going to run downhill, and there’s an excellent chance that this means it will make its way into the basement.

Along with plumbing leaks, groundwater and rainwater provides a continuous promise of damaging a finished basement as it sits outside your home.  Without warning, it’s possible for it to leak through foundation wall cracks in the walls and floors, and water that builds up in basement window wells can leak through, pooling on the basement floor.

2. Can the basement walls resist mold?

Whether the basement is leaking or not, water is still able to pass through the porous concrete, stone, or tile foundation walls due to hydrostatic pressure.  This accumulated moisture collects behind and under the basement wall finishings, forming a moist, humid environment.  If these products have any organic material, then this environment will become a reasonable environment for mold, mildew, dust mites, and rot.  Materials like cloth, drywall, fiberglass, wood, string, paint, wallpaper, and most other common building materials will all have at least some organic material and are vulnerable to these types of damage.  As mold and dust mites grow on these materials, they will release spores and waste material into the air that will travel throughout the house and add unhealthy allergens to the home.

3. How durable is the basement wall material?

A basement is finished so it can be used.  This means that you may want pictures, shelves, cabinets, bookshelves, speakers, a plasma TV, mirrors, a wine rack, sports memorabilia, or any of countless other items mounted on the walls.  To decorate your basement the way you want to, it’s best to have a strong, reliable wall material that can hold up to the weight.  Whether you install a game room, a children’s play room, or any other area, you’ll best appreciate a basement wall that will be able to hold up to daily wear and tear without crumbling, breaking, or cracking.  Long-lasting basement walls will also hold wash easily and be forgiving of marks and stains is also important, especially if children or pets are going to be in the room.  Test any wall product you’re thinking of using by drawing a pencil line on a sample of the material.  If the pencil line can easily be removed, then you should be able to wask most stains from the walls.  Additionally, be wary of absorbent basement wall materials- a wall that can absorb moisture can hold water from basement leaks, spilled liquids, and pet stains.

4. How much basement wall insulation is included?

In Canada and northern United States, state building codes are including R-13 insulation on the walls as part of their building codes.  Whether or not this level of insulation is required in your area, it’s good for the energy-efficiency of the home to add effective insulation to all basement walls.   Using hard foam insulation in the basement walls will add to the overall strength of the product, and if the panels also feature a hardboard ceramic panel, then heavy objects will be able to be mounted on the walls with no need to locate a stud.  All walls should be covered in a continuous, unbroken sheet of insulation that travels around the entire perimeter of the home or there will be a hole through which heat can pour out.

5. How well can my basement walls keep sound out?

If you’re planning on using the basement as an area that will generate a lot of noise, you’re going to want a produce that can isolate sound to that area.  However, drywall and other basement wall products do little to keep sound out, and some products even aid in its travel throughout the home!  Hardboard products tend to reflect sound back when it strikes them, making them an effective sound barrier.  Wall panels with soft insulation and cloth covering absorb sound instead of reflecting it, and are therefor effective at giving a room a hushed feel.

Basement Wall Comparison Chart

This chart compares six different common basement finishing wall products. For the sake of this chart, any material not warranted for more than three years is considered ineffective in that category.

* Insulation can be added to these products as well. Be sure it’s warranted against water and mold.

Wood paneling and all types of drywall (including mold-resistant drywall, whose warranty generally runs from 6 months to 3 years) is an inappropriate material for a basement finishing. Fiberglass and cloth basement wall paneling is better to use, with an average R-11 insulation and strong sound absorbtion qualities, but it’s among the least durable and cleanable of all basement wall products, and water and moisture can still damage it fairly easily. Its spongelike insulation will quickly absorb moisture, and unwanted spills, liquids, and pet stains can damage it easily. Wood paneling is more resistant to spills and liquids, but it swells and buckles with moisture.  Wood also easily rots and supports the growth of mold, mildew, and dust mites.  Drywall manages moisture poorly, and when it gets wet, it will become soggy and damaged and will generally need to be replaced.

Hard-board insulation wall panels have the most advantages of all basement finishing wall products. Basement wall panels like Total Basement Finishing’s EverLast Wall Panels include an amazing 50 year warranty against mold and moisture.  EverLast basement wall panels are durable enough to hold an amazing 300 pound per square foot with no need to locate a stud – a half inch drywall board using nylon wall drills has a 17.5 pound safe shear rating, and most soft insulation wall panels can hold no more than ten pounds! Hardboard wall panels with dense, solid foam insulation provide a reliable sound barrier and, and they’re much more durable than any other material when it comes damage from dents and impacts. EverLast wall panels come with with an industry-leading R-13 insulation rating, reflecting back 99.987% of all heat and ensuring that the materials will be code-compliant for decades into the future.  These hard-foam insulated panels also include a Class A fireproofing rating, helping you home be safer than ever!

When you’re looking for the best basement wall panels on the market, look for water-resistant, mold-resistant, durable material. The materials should include soundproofing properties and at least an R-13 insulation rating. The best way to make sure you’re using the best product on the market is to ask many questions, do a lot of research, and above all, check out the warranty!

By Jacques Bouchard

A Monster in your Basement

Imagine this:  Your floor upstairs experiences leaking each time it rains.  Water flows from every crack and crevice in the walls and puddles all over the floor.  Even when there’s no rain at all, it always seems to be damp, humid, and musty up there.  if you store something in the area, you can count on it to grow mold.  If you’ve laid a wood floor and/or carpet in the area, then it’s growing mold and rot while the wood buckles.  All the windows on the floor are rusted and filled with spider webs, and they’re impossible to open.  The floor is cold and clammy underfoot, and the ceiling is sagging and moldy.  In a nutshell, it’s an ugly, smelly, uncomfortable and unhealthy space that you and your family avoid whenever possible.  Could this ever be acceptable?  Of course not!

If it’s unacceptable upstairs, then why would you ever allow it DOWNstairs?

There’s no reason to.  Having an area like that in the home isn’t acceptable.  Your basement is an entire floor’s worth of space, and it’s far too much room to let go to waste.  With the housing market as it currently is, this is a fantastic time to think about how you can take full advantage of every piece of your home you can!  Whether you have a growing family, visiting friends and relatives, or you’re just tired of having a gloomy, dark space in your home, drying and finishing a basement is a great idea.

Make the Most of What You’ve Got!

At about 50% of the cost of building an addition to the home, a basement finishing is the best way to gain new living space without the need to sacrifice lawn space or endure the hassles of building upwards.  Even with the current poor housing market, Remodeling Online reports that the resale value of a home with a basement finishing increases by as much as 97% of

the cost of the installation! Click here to go to Remodeling Online’s web site and view the full report.

Even barring all numbers, a basement finishing is a great idea.  If your basement is leaking, you have the opportunity to take a significant problem in your home and turn it around completely.  Here’s just a few of the problems a damp or wet basement can cause:

1. Water is able to collect around foundation walls in the loose backfilled earth around the outside walls.  As this water soaks concrete, grout, and mortar, it will make its way into the basement air.  Even when the walls look dry, you can be sure that moisture is still seeping through and being pulled into the air, much like dirt in a flower pot is dry even when the pot is heavy with moisture.

2. When a basement is humid, it creates a perfect environment for mold growth. If the moisture is allowed to remain, there’s nothing stopping mold and dust mites from living, thriving, and surviving on all things containing organic material in your basement, including drywall, carpet, fiberglass, and hardwood floors.

3.

When a basement has a musty, moldy smell, it comes from mold spores and the airborne fecal material created by dust mites in your basement.  This basement air moves upwards in your home in the same way that air moves through the hose like in a chimney.  Because this air travels upwards in your house, the airborne materials within the air will also rise into the main home where you breathe.  This can agitate asthma, allergies, and create a variety of other health disadvantages.

4. When a basement leaks, it ceases to be an acceptable area for storage.   Christmas ornaments, books, wedding memorabilia, seasonal clothing, unused furniture, and valuables will not be able to be safely stored in these flooding conditions.

A Beautiful Finished Basement

If you’ve decided to keep the basement a moldy, wet, and smelly space, then the basement will have little potential for improvement.  However, this is what a dry, healthy basement could become:

• A beautiful basement living room with couches, a TV and a game table
• A peaceful, private home office
• A family game room with a basement wet bar for entertaining guests
• A home gym with weights, mats, and exercise equipment
• A safe, secure children’s play area
• A beautiful and convenient wine cellar

If you’re finishing the basement, it’s wise to use basement remodeling materials that can create a safe and sound vapor barrier between your living space and the cold, damp basement walls and floor.  On the walls, a solid, free-standing cement board with hard-foam insulation with an R-13 rating is best.  With solid materials like this, you’ll be able to attach shelves, cupboards, pictures, a plasma TV, sports memorabilia, or any of countless other decorations and accessories with confidence. The windows in the basement should be installed with double-paned glass and a vinyl frame for the best options for insulation and soundproofing.  The basement ceiling is best installed with a drop ceiling that can absorb noise from both the basement and the  floors above.  The basement floor should be installed with water resistant vinyl tiles that block vapor barrier from the floor while creating a thermal break that allows the surface of the floor to be as much as ten degrees warmer than the floor below.  All surfaces of the basement should be inorganic to prevent mold and able to resist water in case of a flood.

Even if the basement has the best waterproofing products in the market and a vapor barrier is installed on all surfaces, the basement can still be affected by leaks from water heaters, bursting pipes, overflowing sinks, bathtubs, toilets, dishwashers, and countless other things in the home that hold water that can flow downhill into the basement.

Basement Waterproofing Basement Remodeling Contractors in your Town

Not all basement waterproofing and basement remodeling contractors are created equally.  When searching for the best one for your home, it’s best to find a well-established contractor who you can count on to still be in business if you need to service your installation or have warranty work done.  The small business administration reports that 50%

of contractors have their business fail in the first year, with over

96% closing shop within the first five years.  There’s a good chance that you’ll want the company someday in the future to modify, add on to, or service the job.  Find a company that can still be there when you need them most.

Remodeling a basement can be a difficult job. How differently should you treat it compared to any other room in your house? Follow these do’s and don’ts and you’ll be well on your way to a nicely refinished basement that you’ll be pleased with for a long time.

Do:

Eliminate moisture problems in the basement. Moisture can really do a number on a basement. Home improvement expert Danny Lipford notes that a basement can let in an average of 18 gallons of moisture each day. Lipford suggests looking for these telltale signs of moisture problems:

• Musty odors
• Rust on metal surfaces
• Peeling paint
• Discolorations on walls and ceilings

Don’t let moisture ruin your basement refinishing job! The TBF system can eliminate moisture problems by installing an Energy Star dehumidifier and by using an exclusive selection of basement finishing products that can’t support mold or be damaged by moisture.

Double-check Building Codes. Different areas have different building codes. For example, if you build a home in Cincinnati, you don’t need to waterproof the exterior of the basement walls. However, if you want to finish the basement a year later, basement walls will require a waterproofing treatment. “Ask the Builder” columnist Tim Carter recommends checking with your local building department before you begin to work on your basement.

Accentuate the positive. While your basement doesn’t have as much natural light as the rest of the house, it does have a solid floor that can be an ideal base for a pool table, arcade games, or a treadmill and weightlifting equipment. Feeling artistic? Instead of trying to hide some of your basement’s exposed joists and ductwork, you can paint these features to create an industrial, loft-like theme.

Don’t:

Aim to finish the entire basement. Apart from the added cost of finishing the entire basement, this approach will leave you without a utility area where tools, luggage, and seasonal items can be stored. Your money will be better spent creating a premium-quality space in a more limited area.

Overlook lighting. Since there’s not much natural light coming in from outside, a finished basement needs a well-designed lighting scheme. Fluorescent lights, integrated into a finished drop ceiling, provide excellent general-purpose lighting that’s also energy efficient. But you may also want a special light fixture, such as a decorative lamp over a pool table or a small spot light aimed at a dart board.

Skimp on the details. It’s the little things you do that will make your basement stand out and turn it into a room that everyone wants to be in. Add some decorative lighting around a seating area, put up some photos around your home office space, or hang a large mirror on the wall of your gym area. You can even give the room a theme. Installing a basement bar? Put in a retro jukebox and hang old record albums on the walls. Don’t neglect finishes that you’d use for the rest of your house, either. Bob Villa suggests adding things like crown molding to make the room look more complete.

Be afraid to express yourself. This new living space is yours, so go nuts! Make it whatever you want it to be. Take your basement down a funky route by adding bean bag chairs, beaded curtains and a lava lamp, or add sports memorabilia so you can host Superbowl and World Series parties for years to come. Whatever you decide to do, let us help! Total Basement Finishing is a great system to start your basement design project with. Search through our site for great basement finishing tips and to get a free quote today!

Designing any room can be tough, but a basement can be especially uninspiring for design ideas. Bad lighting, a cold atmosphere and mechanical eyesores popping out everywhere don’t give homeowners much to work with when they’re coming up with remodeling designs. Use these basement design ideas to guide you as you revamp your basement.

Add Your Individual Style
This basement is yours so all of your basement design ideas should reflect your personal style. Not all trends work for everybody, so it’s best to just use them as inspiration rather than copy them completely. Better Homes and Gardens suggests personalizing the items in your basement, such as repeating a pattern throughout the room by adding it yourself to pillows and window treatments. Choose a color and add squares of paint along the hanging edge of a curtain, and then add painted squares of the same color to pillows.

Continue a color scheme throughout the entire basement for a cohesive feel. Better Homes and Gardens recommends taking mismatched items like vases or plates and painting them, or adding metallic accents to them using a paint pen. If you like to take photographs, frame a few and place them around your basement to make it more personal. Do you have a favorite hobby or interest? Express it in your basement by giving the room a theme. Your basement design ideas can have a sports theme, tropical theme, or even a retro theme. Onlinetips.org says that if your basement is especially gloomy, be sure to use bright colors in your accessories to liven it up.

Don’t Break the Bank
Basement remodeling designs don’t have to cost a fortune, especially if you do most of the work yourself. Better Homes and Gardens suggests burlap because at less than $2 a yard, it offers an affordable way to add texture to a window treatment. You could even paint designs or stencils onto it. Use old t-shirts or scrap fabric and make your own pillows to add a personal touch to basement seating areas.

The DIY Network offers a number of useful and affordable basement design ideas. Try sprucing up old furniture by painting it or using fabrics. Upholster an old sofa with new fabric. For a futon, take an old fitted bed sheet and cover the cushion with it. A throw casually tossed over furniture easily provides an inviting and relaxing feel to a room, and a pile of floor pillows offers cheap extra seating. Also, hang a fabric collage on a blank wall for instant, affordable art. DIY even suggests purchasing different-sized pieces of canvas stretched over a wooden frame and tightly stapling fabrics that match your room’s color scheme to them, attaching the longer sides first, then the shorter sides. For a fun, creative touch in a sports-themed basement, DIY proposes making a table by gluing hockey sticks together.

Plan Ahead
Make sure that all of your basement design ideas are planned out before you get started. Better Homes and Gardens recommends planning different activity zones throughout your basement and figuring out what each section of the room’s function is. Leave plenty of room for storage as well, whether you add wall cabinets or even add walls to a corner to make a closet. If you’ve decided to make your basement into a home office, make sure you plan the room accordingly by figuring out how much room you’ll need and having any electrical work taken care of by professionals.

Need a hand? Check out the rest of our site for tons of basement finishing ideas. Let us finish your basement for you with the Total Basement Finishing system. With our system and your basement design ideas, your basement will quickly become one of your favorite rooms in the house! Call or go online today for a free quote.

By Francine Maglione

Though you may not realize it, your basement ceiling can affect your entire house. The type of basement ceiling you choose can affect how much noise travels from your basement to the rest of the house, how warm or cold the floor above your basement feels, and how well the ceiling repels moisture and mold keeping it from spreading up through your house.

Silence is Golden
Let’s say you decided to turn your basement into a media room. You’ve got a big-screen TV, surround-sound stereo system, and speakers almost as tall as you are. What’s the problem? Your wife can’t make a phone call without the person on the other line hearing an action movie blaring in the background.

It’s important to make sure your basement ceiling is an adequate sound buffer. Drop tile ceilings create a better sound barrier while allowing you to easily access things like plumbing and cables. Using high-quality material, rather than just drywall, will help block sound. Plus, drywall is an organic material, which isn’t the best material to have in a damp, moisture-ridden environment like a basement. It can attract mold, dust mites and other allergens that will make your basement an unpleasant place to be.

Don’t Get Cold Feet
The quality of your basement ceiling can have an effect on how warm the floor directly above it is. There’s nothing worse than waking up on a cold morning and making your way across a freezing kitchen floor to get some coffee. Many basement ceilings can be insulated to keep those feet of yours warm during those winter months. But to maintain a comfortable temperature in the rest of your house, it’s important to use sturdy, quality materials to finish your basement that will eliminate a cold and damp environment and prevent it from spreading up into the rest of your house.

Go With the Best!
Cold, damp and moldy air can make its way through your basement and up into the rest of your house. To keep this from happening, trust the Total Basement Finishing system for your basement remodeling. We offer two types of basement ceiling tiles, linen and prestige, that are firm and solid with a 30-year warranty against sagging. They also come with crown molding for a sophisticated look, and are compatible with 2×2-foot fluorescent lighting and downlighting.

With our basement finishing system of walls, ceiling tiles, floor tiles and windows, your basement will quickly become your favorite room in the house. Get a free quote today and learn how we can help you make your basement beautiful!

By Francine Maglione

There are many money saving tips out there that can help your bank account in small ways. How you manage your spending and how you make use of what you already have in your home can make all the difference in this fickle economy. Give these tips a try and stop being afraid of your bank statement.

Begin at Home
Money saving tips can be utilized all over your home. The Simple Dollar has a number of great tips to help you stick to your budget. Want to save money on weekends? Invite friends over rather than going out all the time. For the amount of money it would cost to get food and drinks at a restaurant or bar, you could serve a group of friends at your home for much less!

Do you collect something? If your collection has become something that is more out of habit than something that brings you joy, a good money saving tip might be to ease up on it. Maybe put this hobby on hold temporarily until your financial situation has more wiggle room, or even just limit yourself to how much you collect. However, the Simple Dollar warns against cutting out things that you feel strongly about and have a lot of meaning to you, as you’ll have a greater chance of relapsing.

Change Shopping Habits
Oftentimes, a trip to the mall can be viewed as a form of entertainment. However, if every time you leave the mall you’re carrying several shopping bags, it may be time to find some other way to pass the time.

There are few greater temptations then walking through a shopping mall with plastic in your wallet. To keep yourself from spending more than you should, Simple Dollar recommends leaving the credit cards at home and only bringing enough cash as you’ll need. When you’re going shopping, make a list and stick to it. You’ll be less likely to splurge on other items that way. Also, if you’re questioning whether you should make a purchase, use the 30-day rule. Typically, the urge to buy something passes after 30 days.

Make your home work for you and save you money. Keep your house insulated, especially your basement, which is where a lot of heat can escape and cold air can enter. Our Total Basement Finishing System is just what you need, with insulated walls, windows and flooring to keep cold basement air from rising up through your house. Get your free quote today!

Washington Home and Garden Magazine reminds us that it is time to get ready for the holidays and to host the people we love by providing them with comfortable, cozy guest rooms. The article has excellent tips on how to make sure your guests have the best time possible.

Creating a guest room or in-law suite is a great way to make use of your finished basement. It adds extra space as well as a place for family and friends to stay when they come and visit. It could even help if someone needed to stay in your home for a prolonged period of time. Fill the room with comfortable furnishings to make a guest feel at home.

However, not everyone has a room to spare and transform into a guest room.

If you have an unfinished basement, in a matter of days you can turn it into a room your guests will love. All you need is proper basement waterproofing to make sure it is dry and suitable for finishing, and the proper basement finishing system.

Our patented, award-winning drainage system can be installed in a matter of days, complete with the most reliable sump pump system available today, guaranteed to keep your basement dry all the time. You can then finish your basement with Total Basement Finishing wall, floor and ceiling systems that can be quickly installed with no mess.

You will have a dream guest room for about 50% less than the cost of building an addition, and have it all done in time for the holidays.

Contact us for a free estimate and let us show you the options you have to create a dry, safe and healthy environment in your basement, suitable for finishing.

To make matters worse, a slow economy is causing people to postpone bigger expenses, and the credit crunch made it harder for potential home buyers to qualify for mortgage loans. As a result, there are tons of homes for sale and not nearly enough qualified buyers.

Sellers trying to move the property quicker, and not willing to lose money on the deal, know that they need to make their property appeal to a home buyer. That means investing some money in improvements in order to make the home easier to sell.

However, not every home improvement actually pays off, as this article in the New Hampshire Magazine states:

Basement waterproofing and finishing, however, remains one of the best investments you can make in your home in this difficult market, especially if you are planning to sell. In a normal market, an unfinished and wet basement is a major deal breaker. In a market with so much competition, it renders your home virtually impossible to sell.

Lets face it: who wants buy a “fixer-upper” when there are so many affordable homes out there in much better condition?

The good news is that finishing your basement with our patented basement finishing system is affordable, and with our flexible payment options, you can do it in your own terms in a way that is comfortable for you. In addition, we offer a transferable warranty at no charge.

Don’t let your basement keep you from selling your home. Contact us for a free estimate.

Among all the necessary steps to take when hiring a basement contractor, asking for and checking a contractor’s references is most commonly overlooked by the homeowners.

Some are not comfortable with the idea of bothering a complete stranger, or calling someone on the phone to ask about the work performance of another. Others just don’t know how to do it, or what to ask.

In our experience, when our customers are really happy with the service, not only will they not feel bothered for having their contact information used as reference but they will be delighted to provide the information requested.

This is why our policy is to offer references right away before you ask for them, and even before your ever get to meet our representative in person. As for exactly what to ask a contractor’s reference, the NAHB (National Association of Home Builders) website has excellent tips:

Ask the homeowners:

• Would you hire this company again?

• Did the remodeler maintain a neat jobsite, provide regular broom clean-up, and haul away debris including personal trash?

• Did the remodeler keep labor and materials delays to a minimum so that your job could be started and completed on time and within budget?

• Did you find the remodeler easy to work with? Did the remodeler keep you informed as the job progressed?

• Did the remodeler supply you with paperwork in a timely fashion?

• How well did the remodeler deal with the problems that arose?

Although those questions were directed to remodeling contractors, we believe they apply to every contractor in the home improvement industry and we strongly encourage you to use them every time you plan on hiring a contractor.

While many of the ideas on this website are centered around brightening up your basement and keeping it from looking like an old cave, there is one option in which a cave might be the appropriate setting.  If you’re looking for somewhere to escape the summer heat and catch the latest blockbuster movie, look no further than your basement!

Basements by definition are cool, dark places, so in order to spice yours up and turn it into something the local cinema will be jealous of, you just need the right equipment.  Combine the natural advantages of your basement with the necessary advances in modern technology and you’ll have a theater all the neighborhood will be begging to sit in on.

Making a home theater out of your basement can be as simple or complex as you’d like it to be.  On the simple side, you can put in a carpet, some drapery, some comfortable furniture, set up a projection system and you’re done.  Of course, it isn’t even necessary to use a projection system.  Using a large HDTV would work just as well, especially if you hook it up to some serious surround speakers.

You can buy all levels of wall and stand speakers.  Set the speakers up in each of the four corners of the room (or create a whole circle of speakers around the room) for full movie quality sound.  It’s that easy!  Additionally, you can now buy wireless speakers so no more sloppy looking corners, taped lines on the floor or ceiling, or wires for the kids to trip over.

The quality of the screen, speakers, and amplifiers you use will dictate the amount you spend on your theater.  But remember, if you don’t want to spend too much money, you don’t have to.

When Total Basement Finishing does your basement, you can select a flat, non-distracting and (more importantly) sound blocking ceiling.  Your floors, if carpeted, will dull some of the noise as well.  Your walls will also help keep the noise inside the room.  TBF’s wall panels have 2 ½ inches of foam insulation, plus a half inch of hard cement board, which means your spouse won’t be sitting upstairs listening to Armageddon for the third time this week.

Another idea to maximize your theater experience is to decorate accordingly. Buy some old movie posters and some light frames and place them around the side walls.   Put a small refrigerator and microwave in the room for instant snacks and drinks.  Throw some cushions, pillows or bean bags on the floor for the kids to lay on while watching Shrek.  There are all sorts of creative ways to give your theater the quality of commercial viewing while never losing the comfort and convenience of being at home.

No matter your budget, you can transform your basement into the home theater you’ve always wanted.   Contact Total Basement Finishing for more information on how to make your dream theater a reality.