Basement flooring options
 

Curious what people think would be a good option for the floor of our basement. Right now it is carpet which must go. Plan is to remodel both rooms.

The carpet is on an unfinished slab without a crawl space underneath. Our house it cut into a hill, there's a 30" knee wall around the perimeter with a cut out for a full size door.

Water is an issue. Both humidity that comes up through the slab as well as the potential for water to come in at grade or from the dirt cellar (higher grade) under extreme conditions. I've mitigated the most pressing water problems, but there's still always a risk.

Floor to ceiling is only 81" so there's not a lot of headroom either. This could complicate installing a floating sub-floor which I believe would be required to put down wood.

I'm wondering if I don't just RedGuard the whole thing and throw down tile.

Thoughts?

-spence

I put down these rubber tiles:

Freestyle Flooring - Eco-Friendly Commercial Interlocking Flooring

In my case I had old 9x9 asphalt tiles and didn't need to remove them or level the floor, just cut, lay down and interlock the new tiles. I have had it down now for over 3 yrs. I suggested to Fishbones and think he did also.

There's a couple of company's out there that solely specialize in basement water proofing,I'm sure you could get some free estimation or ideas.
I think ceramic tile will be very cold in the winter unless you put down a radiant zone under the tile.

I have the same deal with water, mostly taken care of but always a risk. I bit the bullet and put ceramic tile down. If you put floating floor if it floods your done,and that stuff does not like humidity. The few time ive gotten wet since doing the floor i just suck up with shop vac no wet smell like carpet or soggy fake wood type floor.

If you could deal with the water issue, there was a great article in Fine Home Building magazine a couple of years ago about putting a floor down on concrete. Basically lay 2"x4" pt sleepers down 16" on center with Liquid nails and then ramset them. Then use 1 1/2" foam insulation board between the sleepers, cover with poly for a vapor barrier and then glue and screw down a 3'/4" plywood sub floor. This would put your subfloor at 2 1/4" height. Also leave a 3/4" gap around the perimeter between the plywood and the wall..

2" and I'd have to duck walking through my bathroom door ;)

The water thing is a beotch. Living on a hill with an old cottage (orig part of the house has a stone rubble foundation) and the water thing just never goes away. Only real solution is to rip a lot of landscaping out and do it properly...

-spence

Did that too, Raised the grade of my yard up 15'' to my house and sloped 15 feet away. Helps with the run off but if ground water is the issue.....

I looked into the flooring that PRBUZZ put down and it's a great option for an area where you might get water. I decided not to go with it only because of cost and because the style I wanted was back ordered for a couple months. At $6.33 per sq. foot not installed, it can get pricey for a large area. There are some other options that are good for wet areas and won't break the bank. I ended up going with Flexitec and so far so good.

tile it.
 

i had a very similiar situation in my basement. it was 1/2 finished, 1/2 crawl space. rugs, water issue in spring and after storms, grading issue outside, living on the bottom of a hill in the development. after some outside regrading and redirecting gutters i took care of the water issue.

then just tiled the basement. i had one of ross' subs do the work. plan on using him again for my bathroom..... if i ever get some extra cash.

i would say tile it. i just re-fi'd as well and the inspector said the tiled basement definately added considerable value to the home. not sure if he was just blowing smoke up my butt.

Wife pretty sure she wants to just have the concrete floor ground smooth and the entire thing decoratively stained and sealed. I'd think this would be about as cold as tile in the winter.

-spence

So you have 6/9 from the floor to the ceiling now which pretty much limits things esthetically. Bite the bullet, demo the floor, drop it as much as possible, add radiant and repour. You don't have to demo the whole floor leave the mechanical space, but I would put in a sump so I could pump it if needed.

I was trying to figure how to get radiant in there too, Pete... But since he said he is already cut into the hill, I would bet he wouldn't gain much if anything by chipping out the floor. The original builder probably went short on stone and concrete on the ledge. 50/50 call... If the sump were to be put on the uphill side, you would get an idea of floor and stone depth, assuming he doesn't hit ledge....

Best bang for the buck : rubber sheet flooring on the internet, usually for basement or garage flooring. Choose a width and order the length.It will be delivered to the door.I have condensation in the summer in a few spots which can be vacuumed up.

Yes, it's a funky situation. I'd note as well that the addition with the finished basement was mickey moused pretty badly.

The slab sits right on the ground. Not sure what's under there but with all the ledge trying to drop it would likely be a nightmare. Also I don't want to do anything that might compromise the foundation to this house.

The floor of the dirt cellar is a slightly higher grade than the finished basement. While there is no "proper" perimeter drain/sump I have installed a drain at ground level to collect water that makes it into the dirt cellar and have dug a sump pit at one corner of the foundation where the water table can get dangerously high.

So that's two sumps and a third on battery backup. So far it's worked pretty well.

I think the stained concrete has potential, and if there was still a water issue it would be easy to just pull up area rugs and vacuum up the mess.

My concern with the concrete is that I wouldn't be able to really seal the concrete that well...I'd like to stop the moisture that works it's way straight up through the slab. Perhaps this isn't as big of an issue as I think?

-spence

Jeff,

Look into Radonseal. It is a product that claims to permeate into the concrete up to 4 inches, sealing out moisture and Radon gas.

Spence if you have moisture coming up through the slab staining and sealing really is not an option.The water has no other place to go but up,any finish you apply will eventually fail.

Gotta fix the water issue before thinking about applying a finish to that slab.

That is my concern. I can't say how bad it really is, but I've got to think an unsealed slab without a crawlspace would pull a lot of moisture out of the ground.

-spence

i have a very similar situation in the basement i just restored.
house cut into hill, 6'10" ceiling. South and West sides are full height foundation, north & east are 4" above grade slab... with a door on the south, and wall of windows on both S &E...

about half is finished (probably some time in the 60's) half walled off and unfinished (workshop/storage) but not dirt.

the finished area needed to be re-finished to become useable. it had a nast nasty carpet that had been wet a couple time, and dark panneling.

i used wood toned vinyl tiles glued straight to the concrete. for the flooring.
i figured they were warmer than ceramic, and a lot cheaper.

i used something like this, but at my local HD it was $0.63/ft
Home Dynamix Vinyl Light Wood Slats Square Floor Tile (Set of 20) | Wayfair

I used extra glue even though they have the pre-adhesive peel and stick back to make sure it stuck really good, because the floor is not perfectly flat or smooth in some places.

Overall it came out really good. i also painted the paneling and the ceiling, which made a huge difference.

Finally I got a great deal on stone veneer at the lowes that closed in quonsett, so I refaced the fireplace down there which came out awesome, if i do say so myself. i'll post some before and afters for you if I can find them.

I figured this floor could withstand any water (god forbid) and worst case if it did get ruined by massive flooding, we were not out huge $money$....

I can't locate the before & after pics, but I snapped this shot on my phone this AM.



http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...3-07090320.jpg

Spence. Look into the Alure interlocking planks fom HD. We have used then twice in basement projects and are very pleased. Easy install, waterproof, feels and sounds like real wood ( as compared to Pergo type flooring) and wears like iron.

I second the Allure. Just put it down in our basement. There's a bunch of different styles, from tile to wood look-alikes. Easy to put down, feels great to walk on, and is tough. Had a couple of hot coals come flying out of the woodstove when I was filling it. Made it off the hearth and on to the floor. Got them off pretty quickly but they didn't even leave a mark.

Has a thin rubber-like subfloor attached which insulates pretty well so it isn't too cold to walk on. Real happy with it so far.