Black and Decker: The Complete Guide to Finishing Basements

If you want extra space in your house, you can look upwards (attic), look sideways (addition), or look downwards (basement). Adding space by finishing your basement is far easier than putting on an addition (additions are not DIY projects by any stretch of the imagination). Creative Publishing has put out a guide under the Black and Decker brand called The Complete Guide to Finishing Basements. It is certainly complete. But is it any good?

This is a fat, 250+ page guide that takes you from inspiration to completion. I am not exaggerating when I say "complete," either. For instance, the guide not only presents you with at least six different basement flooring options, but goes into intricate detail about how to install each type of flooring.

If you own any other Black and Decker guides, you will find significant overlap. For example, I own their Walls Guide and found portions repeated in this Basements Guide. Two points here. First, this is often information that can be applied to many different contexts. Second, keep in mind that information that may seem to be an exact copy isn't always the same. Hanging drywall below grade is subtly different from hanging drywall above grade.

How do these Creative Publishing guides excel? The images. The images are what make these Black and Decker guides. As with previous guides, we still have the same elaborately constructed sets populated by a diverse set of people--everything well-lit and professionally photographed.

Younger readers may be startled by the professionalism of these images. To these readers, the images may not seem "real" enough. If you want "real," spend a day or two searching for user-generated content online and see what kind of basement you'll be able to finish from that advice. After squinting at grainy, darkly-lit photos (accompanied by little or no text narrative) taken by irritable DIY homeowners, you'll be praying for a crisp and clean view of the project at hand.

If you're looking for a style book, you won't find it here. While the guide is prefaced by a small handful of basement idea images, that is not the point of this book. The point is technique, and the guide does this well. It tackles those hard topics that no one wants to think about, such as moisture, repairing floor cracks, resurfacing concrete floors, etc.

Even so, the guide does include a few additional ideas at the end: gym, home office, wine cellar, bar, family room, laundry room, and more.