The house was built in 1965 and has 7-1/2 foot ceilings throughout. We want to finish approx. 450 sq. feet in the basement. How many cold air returns should we have? Any suggestions as to where they should be located? How many heating vents? I have heard you recommend R 20 insulation for the walls. We were thinking of gluing commercial carpeting to the cement floor - is this a reasonable floor covering? Any opinions on drywalling the ceiling?
Answer:
All you really need is one cold air return grill per room and it is best to have it on a wall adjoining the warm air outlet as opposed to opposite it. As far as warm air outlets go, you'll need at least one on each leg of the L. I would not permit anything less than R-20 on the walls and a commercial carpet on the floor is not going to be hurt by floods provided it has no underpad. I would apply 1/2" gypsum board directly to the bottoms of the joists so as not to lose any more height than absolutely necessary.
