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What type of floor do you recommend?

3K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  cleveman 
#1 ·
I recently removed the 60 year old 9X9 tiles from my 250 sq/ft basement utility room. I'm assuming these were VAT and took many safety precautions and think I did it all safely. And please no bombarding with warning/information about VAT. I've already read several encyclopedias worth of articles on the topic and that is not why I'm posting (thanks).

The tiles were in pretty bad shape. Some were no longer attached to the floor. Others popped off easily by just sliding a putty knife underneath. And the rest took varying degrees of effort to get off.

I ended up using BEAN-e-doo to remove mastic from about 1/3 of the floor last week. This stuff does a pretty good job as you can see on left side of the photo.



I'm trying to figure out what flooring options makes the most sense. I'm going in all sorts of different directions. I've been thinking about ceramic tiles, Home Depot 'Allure' , which is supposed to be a water proof laminate, and 'Nature Stone', which is a pricy epoxy-stone mixture. Or maybe I should just give up and not even redo the floor and instead just get one of those those interlocking foam/rubber floor mat systems and just lay it down directly over the concrete.

Some of the issues/complications:
  • May have messed up the ability of an adhesive or self leveling cement from being able to stick to the floor where I did use the BEAN-e-doo. I'm hearing that I may need to do some grinding of the surface if I want a SLC to adhere to the area where I applied this stuff.
  • Floor does not really slope toward drain. Have several low spots (or several high spots).
  • Many tiles came off over time so I'm thinking there is a minor moisture problem such as water vapor coming through the concrete slab over the years and eventually unglueing the tile. As far as know basement has never flooded but that doesn't mean it won't some day. I've never seen standing water but the concrete block foundation does get some efflorescence on the lower few feet.
  • Removal of the remaining mastic.

I wish there was a way to use self leveling concrete (SLC) to craft the entire floor to have a slope towards the drain. That way any standing water, from a sink overflow, hot water heater leaking, or washing machine problem, could always end up going to the drain. Without a slope any water could flow towards other areas of the basement outside of the utility room. I think having a slope would open up options for other types of flooring but everything I'm reading about SLC says you can't do something like this.

Any input is appreciated.

Thank you.
 
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#3 ·
Is nice sheet vinyl out of the question? It is inexpensive, relatively easy to install, and the highend material still makes for nice flooring. Congoleum is of course a tried an true upper end material but Armstrong and others still make decent stuff. I would certainly put it in a basement before laminate. And you have a large area to tile.
 
#4 ·
Talked to one of the flooring guys at Lowes today. What I learned is vinyl is attached to the floor with a water soluble adhesive. It can tolerate water for awhile but too much of it and you get problems. But the positive is it does not require an especially flat surface like tile. But tile on the other hand is totally water tolerant however it does require a flat surface.

Vinyl is easy to install where tile is not. Vinyl is less expensive.

Right now I'm leaning toward tile but maybe that's due to my not realizing how much work I'm getting myself into. With tile the floor is going to need some self leveling compund. I've looked into using Henry 565 Floor Pro SCL and even talked to someone from the company about it. I was told it's not going to work over concrete that was treated with a mastic remover. If I want to use it over this concrete I'll need to grind off the surface of the concrete first. This needed is because mastic remover has penetrated the concrete pores and the Floor Pro won't be able to stick to it.

So now I'm looking into grinding off the surface of about 80 sq/feet of concrete. Ugh! If there was a SLC that could stick OK to a surface that was treated with mastic remover that would make things a lot easier.

Another plus with tile is a good water proof transition can be built around the open drain under the sink. With vinyl I'm not so sure about that. Eventually it seems like water will work it's way under the surface where vinyl stops at the drain and that will just create problems.
 
#5 ·
I'm a ceramic tile guy--and vinyl scares me---one blown cut and the entire sheet is spoiled---

With vinyl--all uneven places in the concrete are transmitted to the finished surface.

Call Jif-set---see what they say about using it over your cutback and solvent----
 
#8 ·
I should have mentioned I was thinking the non-adhesive type flooring. And paper templates then transferred to the material for cutouts can save goofs and ensure accurate cuts.

Not trying to talk you into vinyl necessarily. I just want to make sure you have all options to think about. As mentioned vinyl will transfer most surface imperfections to its surface.

Painting with a quality urethane reinforced oil based or epoxy based waterbased porch, floor and patio paint is also a possibility and can look nice with some creativity and use of painter's tape to create patterns.

The two part epoxy systems, especially those applied by a pro with a truck to handle the mixing are a possibility. As Ric mentioned, the kit products are within the realm of a DIYer. Mind the fumes though.

I did not think I would like it but saw a "leather look" concrete floor recently that turned out rather nice looking. Torn kraft shopping bag scraps were glued down and then six coats of urethane applied for this outdoor patio scenario. Could work for a basement?

http://www.recyclart.org/2012/07/paperbag-floors/

 
#10 · (Edited)
After giving this some more thought I'm realizing I'm trying to figure out the wrong thing at this stage. What is more important is to first figure out how to control any water that ends up being released in the utility room. Once that is resolved then start thinking about what kind of floor to put down.

I did a simple test of dumping water on the floor by the water heater, the washing machine, and the drain. This would be to simulate the case of the water heater leaking, the washing machine leaking, or water going into the drain too fast and causing it to overflow. I'm finding for the most part the water wants to flow away from the drain and on paths which will take it outside of the room. This is obviously not a good thing. I think this helps explains the cause of some minor water damage in the corners of the basement that occurred before I owned the house.

I've found a few articles to read on how to put a slope on small concrete areas like a shower floor. But not that much on how to do this for a larger area. I think one the preliminary steps is to determine how much slope is needed from the drain to each of the walls so I that is something I can look into. I'm also thinking maybe the slope does not have to involve the entire floor but just the area under the washing machine, the water header, and withing a few feet of the floor drain. I don't have that much to go on at this point by my hunch is this is not going to be a simple DIY job.
 
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