Basement flip project, drywall vs wood paneling

[Chris Iley]

Just started a new flip and the basement is a mess, it’s currently partiality finished with wood paneling on about 1/2 the perimeter walls that are just attached to wood strips glued to the walls. There has been some water damage to a bunch of the panels so they need to be replace anyways. Is it really worth it to frame out the walls and add drywall or just replace the paneling and paint? The basement does have a fireplace so it could be a great living space for the future owner. It has a low ceiling height so I could never make it a fully finished basement, instead I’ll just spray the ceiling white and add some cheep yet decent looking flooring.

[Jim K.]

@Chris Iley

Sounds like an 80-s vintage northeastern partial-refinish job. Is the exterior basement wall covered in plastic wrap? Fiber insulation blankets between the furring strips (wood strips glued to the wall)? Do you have pieces of fiberglass batts stuffed into the rim joist bays?

You mention there's water damages (probably down near the bottom of the panels, probably not indicated significant flooding issues, with the panels sucking in significant amounts of water migrating up through capillary action).

One problem with that kind of job in that kind of climate is that it breeds a mold factory behind the paneling. It's not dangerous (I'm not a mold scare guy), but there's likely a persistent stink down there that you need a basement dehumidifier to help mitigate. You leave that dehumidifier off for a few hot days, you get a lot of stank.

I'm a big fan of ripping out jobs like these and whatever else you put in, for your base work use steel studs, purple drywall, PVC trim, and foam for insulation behind the drywall. It will of course help you get rid of the mold issues. But more importantly, the fewer flammable materials you have down there finishing that basement, the safer the rest of the house is.

You state you're looking at this as a cheap flip, since you can't do anything about the ceiling. I'm not sure if taking the steel-stud approach is going to be worth it for you. But mold is the main con involved with just replacing a few of the wood panels. You pull those panels, they're probably going to be black on the back from all the mold. Take a look and see what you've got. Even better, post some pics here.