Help finishing basement

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SillyGirl

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Hi everyone,

I'm renting an apartment (moving in next week) and the basement is partially finished. I asked the landlord if he would mind if we finished the rest of it, and he does not care, he just doesn't want to do it himself. Anyhow, so the finished parts of the basement are two sectioned off rooms, where they added drywall and a ceiling with lighting. The rest of it plain concrete flooring, the ceiling is open to where you can see the floor joists from above, with exposed insulation between, and the walls are insulated and wrapped with silver shiny thermal stuff. (I don't know much about home repairs obviously) This picture I found online most closely resembles it..
61428d1324411380-basement-insulation-question-121611182124.jpg


So I'm wondering if there is a relatively easy way to put some sort of walls up and close off the ceiling? Or am I totally out of my league? I did the moisture testing and it came up fine, even when we had a good bit of rain. I plan to put down some carpeting, and I was thinking I could maybe just staple some decent fabric across the ceiling to give an impression that's it finished. Mainly I'm just curious what to do with the walls or how to go about that. When I felt around, I couldn't really determine any studs, so I don't know that they put any in over the concrete before they did the insulation stuff. Thoughts? And I'd like to keep it relatively cheap since I'm doing it myself and I don't own the home. Do you think I could do some sort of paneling for walls? Like, it doesn't have to be great, drywall isn't necessary, just something to make it a bit more habitable so I can use it as a spare bedroom/playroom.

Thanks
 
Welcome the site. This can be real touchy, as a renter you will not be reimburst for any expenses but you could be held resposible for damage done.
In the photo you posted the concrete is only a few inches high and they have insulated the wood structure. That would indicate the ground level outside would be slightly lower than the inside floor.
So what is the ground level outside the rooms you are talking about?
If you have a soft insulation against the concrete, it may be a problem.
 
You will have to start by re-framing the inside with stud walls so you do not puncture the insulated walls. If you don't know how to frame a wall ... it might be time start learning from this very good basic video(attach your bottom plate with TAPCON concrete screws, not nails ... rent a framing nailer ... ):
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTbTL2dM2sQ[/ame]

Here is a long "design" video which deals with a lot of problems:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-zjwHMK9sQ[/ame]
 

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