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 did up my garage by first lining the walls with 18mm construction ply (on 2x1s) and the (rough concrete) floor with cheap 4mm ply and speed nails. Ten years and about four or five major redesigns later, I feel it was well worth it for the convenience of being able to hang whatever wherever, whenever, quickly. And the floor was a fast fix, allowing me to easily roll various heavy things around. It’s also quite bright (bare block had the place looking like a dirty, dingy dungeon). The 2x1s allowed for easily rewiring and adding plenty of new sockets, very tidy.
