waterproof basement floor??

patnshan

Hello,

I am new here and have a question. My wife and I are planning to have our basement finished this winter. We live in WI, and have not had standing water in the basement except once where the sump pump failed after a VERY large storm. What we do have is some visible moisture in the seems of the floor after heavy rains occasionally. It is such that it changes appearance, but does not even feel wet when you touch it. When the rain stops, it dries out and goes back to normal concrete color. Our contractor recommends putting carpeting down right on top of the concrete flooring. My wife is worried about where this small amount of mosture will go.

Would you recommend:
1. Just putting the carpeting down and not worrying about it
2. Waterproofing the basement floor with some sort of product
3. Using some sort of subfloor (hoping not to, as it will decrease floor to ceiling height)
4. Something else?

I am hoping for any and all suggestions on what you would do in this situation. Again, our basement is dry for the most part. No problems with walls, etc. Just this visible moisture, not even standing water, in the cracks occasionally.

Thanks much,

Pat

KUIPORNG

use Dricore, which is the best solution for your situation... otherwise, do what I did on my basement, a similated Dricore solution but one third of the cost:

buy thick non-flat plastic sheets, those use on outside surounding the foundation for water-proofing, lay it down, then lay down the OSB board, then tapcon them everywhere...

this will only reduce your height by less than one inch and you got waterpoof flooring where moisture can circular through the irregular(non-flat) plastic sheets... when installing, may take Dricore advice, opening up vent on various locations on the floor for mositure to escape... I didn't do that on mine because I think mine is very dry and I can always do that in the future if required...

besides mositure problem, this solution also make your basement warmer as no heat can escape through concrete... if you live in a cold place

then you can carpet

patnshan

Thanks for the response. We were hoping not to have to do a subfloor. Dricore is extremely expensive, and I've heard it referred to as "mold food" or "mold candy". I have heard that the less you put down, the easier it is to dry out if there is a problem.

Anybody else with ideas?

Thanks again,

Pat

KUIPORNG

hope what you heard won't be true... anyhow... my basement have on the go for about 9 months... it seems ok... no molding yet... may be it really depends on the humidity condition...