I would like to finish a 2000 SQF walkout basement, but have questions about finishing the floor. My original thought was to place a wooden subfloor on the concrete with a 3/4″ air gap and then place an engineered wood flooring system on top of this. My wife does not want a cold floor and does not want to use any radiant heat. Should I put extruded foam in place of the air gap, I am afraid I’d be inviting mold to grow? Any ideas on how to keep the floor from being so cold during the winter months when we would be using this space the most?
Thanks
Brian
Replies
The walls that are not walk-out ... how are they waterproofed on the outside? Have you ever had any problems with dampness or wet floors in the basement? Winter months ... sounds like you is a yankee ... where you is, boy? Is there any finished flooring down now?
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
No I haven't had any dampness on the floor or walls in the past five years. There is a rubberized coating that was sprayed on the outside walls and then covered with a grid like membrane material that projects the coating and channels water to the base of the wall were the footing tile collects it.
And yes I guess you could say I am yankee, I live south of Chicago!
There's a special product made for this -- a tempered hardboard top and a waffle plastic bottom that holds it up off the concrete. Sections snap together like Pergo or whatever. Then you put your finished floor on top.
I've seen that stuff at H.D.
You might consider cork, it comes in laminate and I believe in rolls. Good insulating factor and supposedly good wearability. No personal experience with it. I've also seen some underlayment that sounds similar to that described above. It's a heavy dimpled mat that you lay the flooring on top of (rather than furring out). I don't recall the brand name, but it was reviewed in FHB some time back. Furring it out with an air gap is pretty common though and would probably be good enough.
See http://www.dricore.com
Regards,
Tim Ruttan
I haven't used the dricore that was suggested, as it isn't sold in this area. But there are other products you can consider. One is Delta-FL, which we used on our basement under an engineered floor. It is a dimpled plastic that gives moisture someplace to go, and also provides an air space. Float ply or OSB over the top and you have a nice subfloor that takes up very little vertical space. For another basement room we used Sub-Flor, which is a lot like the dricore. That option for us turned out to be much more expensive than the Delta-FL and ply solution, but still worked very well. I'd only recommend it if you have a tight space that you can't get 4x8 tongue and groove sheets into. Sub-Flor is 2x2 sheets that are tongue and grooved and fit together as a floating floor.
Thank you for the information.
I think, I'll be going with your recommendation, at 52 cents/SQ FT it beats the paints off all the other ideas that I have read or seen.
Thanks
Brian
You can fasten treated plywood to the floor, place extruded foam panels on top of that, and then fasten plywood on top of the extruded foam, screwing it down through the foam to the plywood below. Then put your finish floor over that. The foam provides insulation and a vapor barrier. Of course the thicker the foam, the better the insulation.
Or tack down 2x4 PT sleepers to the concrete on a grid pattern and fill in between with extruded foam panels (1 1/2" thick foam between the sleepers). Then put another layer of foam over all this and plywood on top, screwed down to the 2x4 sleepers. You will get a better bite by screwing into the sleepers than you will by screwing into the plywood in the first method.
I would also use PL polyurethane adhesive between each layer.
Billy