Looking for opinions or options on what others have done to re-finish a water damaged basement?

We bought our house back in 2007 and in the winter of 2008 had flooding in our finished basement and had to tear out the walls and carpet. We found a lot of holes i the floor that were covered with carpeting. The home was sold as an estate since the owner passed away.

It's been 7 years and we have not been able to afford to re-finish. We had to put in a water drainage system in the basement in 2007 as well which cost us 6 grand. We still get water but it goes through the system in the floor. This was done by basement systems.

We had someone come out to service our system in May and got a quote to re-finish which would cost us $17 grand. Ugh. Im, not working now, but since losing the space and having kids, we really need the space! Our closets and bedrooms are small and we have so many toys with no place to put them. We do have a fourth bedroom we use as an office and were thinking of making part of it a playroom.

My DH considered re-doing basement himself, but has never done it and since we have the drainage system in the concrete, he's afraid to put in walls since we aren't really sure how far down the system is. The company can't say for sure either since it's now covered with concrete.

Sorry so long. Has anyone used paneling to re-finish? We are just trying to figure out if we should wait until we can afford basement systems, or re-do it ourselves to get more space?

Any suggestions ? options that would cost less?

Thanks!!! Chat Icon