Re-finishing a crappy previously-finished basement

Our basement is currently half-assed finished. The previous owners did a crap job - there's cheap paneling nailed to studs, no insulation, windows are covered over, nasty peel-and-stick carpet squares, flourescent lighting... you get the idea.

We would like to re-finish it nicely with sheetrock, laminate floors, hi-hats, etc. The room isn't huge, maybe like 16x11.

Since the studs and electricity are already thre, will it be a HUGE expense to re-do? We just want to pretty it up and make it into more of a usable space.

Re: Re-finishing a crappy previously-finished basement

I have a small basement as well, maybe 400-500 sq feet, it previously had paneling and gross tile, not much lighting. I called various contractors, the cheapest price I got was 16.5k... we ended up DIYing with some help from family it and just bringing guys in to do sheet rock and i think it cost us around 7k (this was including maybe 1k of a new washer/dryer too)

Message edited 4/9/2013 1:51:10 PM.

Re: Re-finishing a crappy previously-finished basement

are you doing it yourself? doing it yourself will save a ton of $$$...we redid it for about $2k - drywall, carpet, paint, molding. If we paid someone i'm guessing it easily would have been $10k. It was previously finished though, but we ripped everything down to the studs. If it had to be framed out then i would have hired someone for that and DIY the rest.

ETA: we did not touch the ceiling...just painted it and changed the light fixtures.

Message edited 4/9/2013 2:22:08 PM.

Re: Re-finishing a crappy previously-finished basement

we are going this now. DH pulled down all the paneling, ripped up floors etc.
our room is 19x22 and we paid someone to sheetrock and fix the walls/ceiling/moldings/banister etc. we bought the supplies.
we are putting down a new carpet and DH is painting. all told it should cost less than $4000 for the work and supplies and carpet.