It's my experience that most "real carpenters" don't bother with permits for work on their own houses, but do build to code just in case the shit does hit the fan and they get caught. It's not too hard to get approval later if everything is done right. However building codes vary from town to town especially in the small towns in Upstate NY. I'm not going to say what town my house is in upstate but when the building inspector came for my framing inspection, he took a look in the front door and said " Well, that looks beautiful to me. You sure know what you're doing." I just said "Thank you".



But what's going on here? I thought this was a triathlon forum, not This Old House.

---

---------------------------
''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

Be sure when hanging the drywall to leave 1/4" to 1/2" gap between the floor and the drywall. In the event you ever get a little water in the basement, it is less likely to wick up into the drywall.

how far upstate ? like watertown or futher south ? how far up is upstate?
If their ain"t no inspector ==== well=== thats that. I don't mean do a poor job . most folks don't want the inspector to see their house. it's a tax thing. you ain't got a bilco door to bring in fire wood ?

thom in upstate way upstate

How far up is upstate?

Well, I guess it's a relative term. In the City people call upstate anything north of Yonkers. It seems kind of silly to me to call Westchester upstate but who am I to say. My friends in Woodstock call Lake Placid upstate. Are they right. I don't know. They must be. But I think that everyone will agree about Watertown. It's upstate; way upstate.

I hope that helps.

---

---------------------------
''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

the wife just told me we are north country. we b only 10k from the st lawerence river. you know whats on the other side ! hockey

good luck with the room.

Thom

I didn't bother with a permit for the basement on my last house...and the inspector seemed fine with what I did when we went to sell it. I worked construction as a summer job in college, so I have a pretty good idea of what needs to be done, though I'm by no means a master carpenter. I was just curious about the 2nd five foot opening.

I'm not even sure I have the need to finish part of my basement...and not sure if it's a good idea any way. we have 2 sump pumps that have been going every day for the last 2-3 weeks due to all the rain. it's still dry as a bone...but it's enough to make me wonder if I should even do it. It would just be for a workout room anyway.

just north of albany...that's my unofficial cutoff line for the term "upstate NY". Isn't Watertown in Canada? ;)

I'm in the process of finishing a basement in the Chicago suburbs. Most people I know nailed 2x4s directly into their poured foundation walls, flat side to the wall to save space. We chose to get a permit (around $500 out here), which required us to use "standard construction." This translates into framed 2x4 free standing walls, with green board as a floorplate, that is then nailed into the rafters. Current code allows the 2" side to touch the concrete, but the next code they adopt will require a vapor barrier between the wood and concrete. We left a 1/2" gap between the wood and the wall. Code here requires R-10 minimum exterior wall insulation, but most people use rolls of R-13. Any habitable space downstairs requires an emergency egress, which is basically a pull-out window which measures a certain size in concert with a window well big enough for a person to fit into on the outside. The size of the window well varies-- it has to be bigger and might require a ladder if you are a certain distance below grade. I think ours had to be five cubic feet.

You can usually look up a copy of the local code at the village/town hall. Some places also have a copy in the local library.