Basement Renovation Challenges - Headroom
In previous posts about basement finishes we’ve talked about the challenges of egress and moisture. There is one more design challenge - headroom. If you live in an older home you are already aware of low basement ceilings and HVAC ductwork or bearing beams that are potential head bumpers. The floor structure at the bottom of your stairs is another place you may have to duck or you wind up with a knot on the top of your head!
To maximize headroom and minimize the expense we at Riggs Construction & Design start a finished basement design by determining if we can give our clients the room they need and still build as much wall as possible directly underneath the bearing beams. This not only covers the beam and columns but allows us to rout all the HVAC trunk lines on the unfinished side of the basement.
Other items such as electrical lines, A/C refrigerant lines and gas pipes can be covered by firing the joists down with a 2 x 2 before we hang drywall. This will lower your ceiling by 2” but it is higher than a suspended ceiling and gives the room a much more finished look. Remember that all electrical junction boxes and shutoff valves have to be left accessible so with a drywall ceiling and walls, you will have to put removable plates over the electric junctions and an access panel for shut off valves, meters, plumbing cleanouts or other items that need to be accessed. Fortunately, these access panels are readily available at any supply house, are low profile and can be painted the same color as your walls or ceilings.
Basement stairs can be a bit of a challenge in older homes depending on how they are configured and what is above the bottom of the stairs. The stair opening can be made longer thereby increasing the headroom and still not affect the floor above with some creative structural design. In fact, the existing stair opening structure can be supported with new piers under the concrete floor so that the structural integrity is not compromised and it even furthers your options. If you are lucky enough to have a closet on the first floor that is directly in line with the stair opening, that closet floor can be raised enough to allow you to build a new staircase with the proper tread depth and riser height and still leave you with enough headroom to meet codes. No matter how nice your finished basement is, if it starts with a steep staircase where you have to duck to get down them, it will take away from the pleasure of using your new space.
What happens if you don’t have a closet overhead. What are some options?
Kim,
Without a closet above there is only thing that I know to do and it depends on which way the joists run. If your stairwell run with the joists, you would remove the short header that you are bumping in to, cut back the two or three joists that header is holding up about 11 1/4″ and move that header back to the new cut off joists. Then you would turn a 2 x 12 flat and up against the existing subfloor; in between the long double joists that are holding up the short one. I would recommend some metal brackets screwed to the long double joists to hold up the flat 2 x 12.
There are a few things that make it challenging. Don’t forget to support the 2 or 3 joists with a temporary shoring wall before you remove the short header. Re-install new joists hangers on both the header and the joists. Cut all the nails, don’t try and bend them over or back them out; that are sticking through the bottom of the subfloor sheathing. Before installing that flat 2 x 12 up against the existing subfloor, dry fit it to make sure it goes in then pull it back down and smear subfloor adhesive on the top side so that it will adhere to the sheathing.
If the stairwell runs perpendicular to the joists you can apply the same basic technique but you will have to pour piers to support the existing bearing load points and possibly the new load points prior to cutting away the existing joists. This gets a bit more complicated and I would leave that to a professional.