Finally getting started! Basement design planning

Has it really been about a year since I updated this blog? Hard to believe, but true. But work has been going on behind the scenes. Mostly planning - once all of the walls and ceiling joists get covered up with drywall, it's too late to decide you wished you had added lights, speakers, etc. Attached is the current plan, and I'm already thinking about making some changes. But this gives the general idea. For now, look at the HVAC duct runs, as this is where we get started.

As you can see, the hot air and cold air return trunks run thru the center of the basement (left to right). Currently, there is a vent at the end of the warm air trunks - one on the left side of the basement, and one on the right. For better heating and cooling, ductwork will need to be run thru the ceiling joists. Usually, these will run to vent near an outer wall, specifically near a door or window where the greatest energy loss will occur. As you can see, my plans call for this.

But before any of the ducts are run, I needed to consider changes to the trunks. Part of our basement has a lower ceiling height (lower right section) due to a sunken family room above. While there is good headroom, it is not the full eight feet of the left side of the basement, and I wanted to use as much space as possible. If you look below at an earlier floorplan, you'll see that in this area, the builder put the warm air and cold air return trunks away from the north wall and about 4 feet into the room, using valuable space. I wanted to move this trunkwork so that I could both construct a wall as well as soffit yet maximize this space and its headroom. Note the difference between the plans below and the plans above - the warm air trunk is moved against the wall, and the cold air return trunk is shortened.

This plan required some custom-made ductwork - can't buy this stuff at Lowe's. So I drafted some plans, made some roughtdrawings with measurements, and had the following built by a local HVAC/sheetmetal shop. While it is difficult to see in the below image, that is an 'S' shaped warm air trunk, resting inside an open-topped cold air return. The 'S' shaped duct will allow me to move the warm air truck about three feet over to the north wall. As for the cold air return, I plan to elimnate about three feet of cold air return in the middle of the room, but since the furnance needs the cold air feed, I will use the below to relocate this trunk next to the furnace.

In addition to the above needed customer trunks, I also needed to purchase ductwork and associated fittings. The below photo shows the six 5 foot sections of 6" ductwork (for the two runs out to the windows) as well as the diffusers needed to tap the ducts into the warm air trunk. I also picked up two 90 degree vents (10" by 4") as well as some fittings (in case I ran into a tough spot) and some sheet metal to replace the in-joist cold air return ducts.

Next....the fun begins!