Walk Out Basement: Slab or Framed Floor?
I’ll be excavating to about four feet below grade, at least for the downhill side of the walk-out basement. This will give me the option of having either a concrete slab floor or a wood floor with a crawl space.
Having worked on concrete floors all day on commercial jobs I know how tiring they are to the legs, joints and lower back. That’s one of several reasons why I’d prefer a wood floor but I must be missing a few advantage of concrete floors.
Anyone care to make a case for either type of floor?
Replies
you can always(?) put a wood floor over the comcrete floor. either way, you have to deal with moisture
bobl Volo, non valeo
Baloney detecter WFR
"But when you're a kibbutzer and have no responsibility to decide the facts and apply the law, you can reach any conclusion you want because it doesn't matter." SHG
What's the space going to be used for? If its for a shop with heavy tools, I'd tend to go for a concrete floor. You'll have less vibration transfered with concrete. A wood framed floor can be engineered to minimize the vibration, but its more work.
For an ideal shop floor, I've always thought I'd pour a slab, then put sleepers down at 12" centers, with radiant heat and dust collection in the floor system. I'm still waiting for the opportunity <G>
What's the space going to be used for?
Living space with plumbing fixtures. It'll be about 24X40. Could be recreation area with a bar/kitchen and a guest bedroom/bath.
BTW, I'm still waiting for the oppotunity to have a big shop space too. But I've been wingin' it for so long I probably wouldn't know what to do with a nice shop, just sit there in a daze I guess.
If I had a garage/shop with a concrete floor I'd make up some floating plywood floor panels on sleepers to fit around the machines. Or I buy some rubber pads, the kind that are made for commercial kitchens and for cashiers or other workers who must stand in place on concrete for long periods.
Edited 10/19/2009 11:48 am by Hudson Valley Carpenter