Ask Me Help Desk - Basement ceiling?

We had half of our basement finished and has been finished for 5 years. Recently we had a very bad rain storm which caused flooding in our basement due to so much rain and the sewers backing up. On our finished side our carpet was soaked with water. We unfortunately did not remove the carpet quick enough and mold grows within 24 to 48 hours which we did not know. As a result we found out the dry wall was wet and 4 feet from the ground up needed to be removed. Also found a little black mold. We hired a team in to remove 4 feet of the wall and clean the air and sanitize everything.

We decided not to rehang new dry wall and continue to take out the rest of the wall since only 4 feet of the wall was removed. My question is this. Since we are going to remove the rest of the drywall, does anyone think it would be weird to keep the drywall ceiling up still but just take the wall out? Our reason for not redoing everything is the fact that it is too much money to do it all over again. We think this is the most cost effective way of fixing out problem. We plan to pain the unfinished basement wall with special basement paint after removing the rest of the dry wall. I just wonder whenever we decide to sell the house what someone might think if they see unfinished basement walls but with a drywall ceiling. Any thoughts? Also since we plan not to put down carpeting again what do you think the next best material to put down on the basement floor? When we pulled up the carpet the old tile that was down looks messy from paint and other stuff from when we finished the basement a long time ago.

Thanks for all your help!! :0)

I can't speak to this as a drywaller or mold expert, but as a recent home buyer, I can tell you I'd be really concerned if I saw that. Basically, it looks like you had water damage and did your best to remove the evidence. As a buyer, I'd pass yours by.

If you are up front about what happened, though, I might consider it. Did these storms / flooding happen often? Was this a rarity? Why did it happen and how do I know it won't happen again? The basement paint is probably more for dampness rather than flooding, right?

Aesthetically, the drywall ceiling will look funny, but not terrible. It will make your basement more of a garage.

Quote:

Originally Posted by krreho

We had half of our basement finished and has been finished for 5 years. Recently we had a very bad rain storm which caused flooding in our basement due to so much rain and the sewers backing up. On our finished side our carpet was soaked with water. We unfortunately did not remove the carpet quick enough and mold grows within 24 to 48 hours which we did not know. As a result we found out the dry wall was wet and 4 feet from the ground up needed to be removed. Also found a little black mold. We hired a team in to remove 4 feet of the wall and clean the air and sanitize everything.

We decided not to rehang new dry wall and continue to take out the rest of the wall since only 4 feet of the wall was removed. My question is this. Since we are going to remove the rest of the drywall, does anyone think it would be weird to keep the drywall ceiling up still but just take the wall out? Our reason for not redoing everything is the fact that it is too much money to do it all over again. We think this is the most cost effective way of fixing out problem. We plan to pain the unfinished basement wall with special basement paint after removing the rest of the dry wall. I just wonder whenever we decide to sell the house what someone might think if they see unfinished basement walls but with a drywall ceiling. Any thoughts? Also since we plan not to put down carpeting again what do you think the next best material to put down on the basement floor? When we pulled up the carpet the old tile that was down looks messy from paint and other stuff from when we finished the basement a long time ago.

Thanks for all your help!!! :0)

We never had flooding in our house before. This was a very bad storm and it rained so hard that the sewers backed up. I live in Cleveland, Ohio so we are not down South were something like this would occur often. I don't know that it will happen again but I do know that our area does not usually get such hard rains where something like this would happen. The mold was caused from the flood from not removing the carpet quick enough since mold grows within 24 to 48 hrs. and we didn't remove the carpet until 4 days later. The mold and air quality/clean up is fixed.

Are plan is to remove the rest of the wall and paint the cinder blocks with special basement paint and lay some sort of flooring/tile down and then that's it. But we didn't intend to tare out the ceiling since there is no problem with that. If a buyer were to come by the basement it will look nice freshly painted but didn't know what one might think when they walk in the room and see cinder block walls not finished with a finished ceiling.

I got you.

Yeah, so if I were a buyer, I'd be a little nervous. If you gave me the story, I'd probably believe it and think that that was the beginning and end of it. And you could sell them on the "all you'd have to do is finish the walls -- the ceiling is done for you!" angle.

Id keep the ceiling up. Installing the drywall shouldn't be all that expensive. Usually the going rate here is $15 installed and finished a board,you'd still have to buy the board.
If your going to sell the house I wouldn't invest the money again without fixing the flood problem, and at the same time can you get your money back out if you do?

So what I feel id do is just leave the ceiling, if future homeowners decide to finish it out again, then the ceiling is already done, and anything is better than insulation over your head.