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sbarracl

Decided on new basement flooring, any comments?

sbarracl
15 years ago

Thought I would post my plans on my basement play room remodel and would appreciate any feedback.

We remodeled the play room (about 25 x 25) about 4 years ago and became very unhappy with our flooring choice. We did expensive burber wall to wall over most of it with a small "arts and craft" area with Armstrong tiles. The original floor was concrete, about 5' below grade. The issues were the tile was very cold to your feet, and a very heavy rain and a clogged gutter allowed seepage into one corner of the room. Home Depot insisted we use a felt pad under the burber, which was a giant sponge and soon the seepage spread and discolored half the room. Also learned 6 year olds drop food on carpets and it stains pretty bad. Lessons learned and time to redo.

This time we are doing a 10 x 12 TV area with Wicanders 2000 series glue down cork tiles, and the rest with "comercial grade" glue down wall to wall with no pad. Spent a lot of time on the cork and alternate tile choices. Tested the concrete for moisture and it is dry, it is also very level and smooth. The 2000 series tiles have a PVC top coat and bottom coat, and have a 25 year warranty. They are completely sealed and use a special glue that is not "contact adhesive". It is a wet type adhesive. I will only cut the tiles on the carpet seam and will reseal them. I think this approach will stand up the best in case of water intrusion and will not have to be redone again in 5 years. I am very impressed with the tiles and hope they perform as well as they look. Paid about $7 sq ft for the cork, which seemed pricey to me, but I think they offer some advantages over other cork. If I did the planks, I would have to put down plastic as a moisture barrier, and if a lot of water ever got on top of them it would ruin them. I think the glue down tiles will stand up to a lot of water without being ruined.


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