I'm looking for suggestions to finish one of the walls in my basement. I've included the pictures of the wall below. As you can see the doors are right up against the wall on both sides. There's absolutely no way I can build any type of framing to hand the drywall on. I was thinking about just plastering over concrete, but this wall is quite uneven, you can see with a naked eye that in the middle the wall curves in. Installing drywall over the concrete directly, probably wouldn't work for the same exact reason.
Unfortunately I can't move the doors, on one side (bottom image) there are stairs right up against the door and I can't move them because of the ceiling clearance. On the other side, the wall is concrete as well, and I don't feel like trying to remove concrete to move the door.
Any suggestions at all?
Best Answer
Looking at your wall photos, can I assume that seeing hinges on both left and right, the doors (2) meet in the middle? first we have to make some assumptions based on the yet unknown. if the walls are always dry, seasoned and pose no moisture or condensation issues, there is a couple of ways you can go ahead and finish he walls with drywall. i would consider putting a 1X6 up to a 1X10 finish pine board in the corners. This should clear the hinges. You can then install 1X3 strapping on the concrete wall with PL400 adhesive and short ramset nails or concrete screws. You can then decide if you want to install any blue moisture proof rigid insulation between the strappings. Then install a vapor barrier such as 4mil plastic over the strapping and then install drywall with 1 or 1 1/4 inch screws. You then can finish your drywall and build a neat trim at the ends onto the finish pine boards. The other alternative is to build a regular frame wall out of 2X3's or 2X4's and mount to floor and upper joists. This will allow more insulation and still allow doors to open almost fully, depending on the width of the pine trim at the corners. The wider the trim in the corners, the more fully the doors will open without being restricted by the new wall. If moisture on the walls is possible, you should really consider using Dry-loc or some suitable waterproofing before you even think about closing the concrete in behind a wall. Mold and mildew with ruin your good looking wall and potentially cause foul odors and a possible health hazard.