Not exactly a woodworking question, but related. I bought an old house and there’s a nice spot in the basement for me to set up my shop, but it’s completely unfinished. Cinder block walls and concrete floor. As far as I know, if I want to actually finish it, I need a permit and inspections, which seems like a lot of hassle. All I really want is to seal the floor (not sure how best to do that) and have a way to hang cabinets. Do I just drill into the cinder block? It feels weird to put a bunch of holes in the foundation of the house. Or do I put up some basic framing to hang things off of? Or does that start to require permits? Any advice? Just not sure how best to proceed.
I wanted to do the same to my house but never went through with it due to time, expense and my health.
Biggest issue I had to deal with immediately was ventilation and keeping the air clean.
Second issue was noise.
I was going to insulate the ceiling not for heating but for sound proofing and that led to thinking of sealing and keeping the free air in the basement. After that was going considering how to circulate and maintain air in the basement and away from the living area upstairs.