Home Page link

Engineered wood floor in basement

Home| Search | About
Login Password
Register Now! Lost Password?

Home Repair - - If it ain't broken, don't fix it. Otherwise look here. 

Page 2 of 2       << first < 1 2 Bookmark this page:  YahooMyWeb Yahoo!  Google Google  Windows Live Favorites Windows Live  del.icio.us del.icio.us  digg digg  Add to Netscape Netscape
Subject Author Date
Engineered wood floor in basement mattmeitzner 10-15-2007
If you were  Registered and logged in, you could reply and use other advanced thread options
Posted by RickH on October 15, 2007, 3:58 pm
On Oct 15, 11:05 am, mattmeitz...@gmail.com wrote:
> As I am planning to finish my basement, I've decided that an
> engineered wood floor is what I'd like. I know the concrete floor has
> to be "pretty level/flat" in order to put a wood floor over top,
> although I've read vastly different definitions of what that means.
> Furthermore, the folks at Lowe's and Home Depot are of little help, as
> they spin completely different stories. I've tried the bowling ball
> test, and there are a couple spots where it definitely takes off in
> one direction for a few feet, but mostly it just rolls a few inches
> here or there. The entire basement is sloped slightly toward the sump
> pump in the corner, which is fine (I don't really care about levelness
> as much as flatness), but I still don't know how flat I really need
> it. The floor definitely isn't wavy by just looking at it, and
> passing a string and measuring depths shows that it's maybe 6-8 mm
> deeper in the middle than near the walls (over 30 ft), but is that
> enough to warrant leveling it with self-leveling concrete mix? I plan
> to use the Delta-FL underlayment, which I've heard can counteract a
> small degree of unevenness, but what is the impact if I install the
> Delta-FL over my concrete floor as-is (even with it being 6-8 mm
> deeper over the course of 30 ft), then install a floating engineered
> hardwood floor above that? If it's too out-of-level, will the floor
> buckle or what? Thanks to anyone who can shed some light on this
> mysterious question to me.

Dont bother leveling, the dips and valleys you described will be no
problem at all, in fact the wood will bridge those and make everything
look real level. But before you lay it, get some acrylic-based
concrete sealer and spread that on heavy with a mop until it soaks in,
Behr, etc. sealer. Put a thick plastic vapor barrier over that. HD
has thick heavy mil plastic roll I think 100 feet by 20 feet. It will
work great as long as it's an engineered flooring made for below
grade.




Posted by on October 15, 2007, 6:21 pm
Thank you RickH for actually providing guidance on the level-ness
required. To everyone else who mentioned moisture - I don't have ANY
moisture problems so far. The house is 10 yrs old and was equipped
when built with the Tuff-N-Dri system for waterproofing, which has a
30 year warranty. Even this past May when my part of NJ got 9 inches
of water in 36 hours, and my neighbors basements were flooded with 5"
of water, mine was bone-dry. It rained hard the other day and I did
the plastic-sheet duct-tape test, it came up dry too. The floor and
interior walls are already coated with a BEHR moisture-resistant
paint, but I plan to do another coat or two just to be safe, and
because there's half a gallon still in the pail. I'm also using the
Delta-FL as more of an insurance policy and to soften the floor
(plastic dimples HAVE to be softer than concrete), and I'm using
engineered hardwood specifically since it's pretty moisture
resistant. So I feel I'm pretty well covered on the water/moisture
side, which is why my main concern was really the even-ness of the
floor. So if anyone has another opinion on if the floor needs to be
leveled, or if the wood + underlayment will kind of self-correct,
thanks for those opinions/advice.





Posted by RickH on October 16, 2007, 8:20 pm
On Oct 15, 5:21 pm, mattmeitz...@gmail.com wrote:
> Thank you RickH for actually providing guidance on the level-ness
> required. To everyone else who mentioned moisture - I don't have ANY
> moisture problems so far. The house is 10 yrs old and was equipped
> when built with the Tuff-N-Dri system for waterproofing, which has a
> 30 year warranty. Even this past May when my part of NJ got 9 inches
> of water in 36 hours, and my neighbors basements were flooded with 5"
> of water, mine was bone-dry. It rained hard the other day and I did
> the plastic-sheet duct-tape test, it came up dry too. The floor and
> interior walls are already coated with a BEHR moisture-resistant
> paint, but I plan to do another coat or two just to be safe, and
> because there's half a gallon still in the pail. I'm also using the
> Delta-FL as more of an insurance policy and to soften the floor
> (plastic dimples HAVE to be softer than concrete), and I'm using
> engineered hardwood specifically since it's pretty moisture
> resistant. So I feel I'm pretty well covered on the water/moisture
> side, which is why my main concern was really the even-ness of the
> floor. So if anyone has another opinion on if the floor needs to be
> leveled, or if the wood + underlayment will kind of self-correct,
> thanks for those opinions/advice.

6 to 8 mm dip spread over 30 feet is actually pretty good for a
basement floor.






Page 2 of 2       << first < 1 2
Similar ThreadsPosted
engineered wood floor in basement June 16, 2006, 2:15 pm
Engineered wood Floor October 25, 2007, 8:11 am
Laminate floor and engineered wood January 21, 2006, 5:59 pm
Installing carpet over engineered wood floor? July 3, 2006, 12:36 am
Leveling above grade concrete floor for engineered wood flooring December 23, 2005, 7:57 pm
Transition from Engineered Wood Floor to Sliding Door w/Metal Sill May 26, 2006, 1:05 pm
wood or concrete basement floor July 5, 2005, 4:18 pm
wood or concrete basement floor July 5, 2005, 4:19 pm
engineered wood floors March 6, 2007, 9:41 am
engineered or solid wood flooring February 28, 2006, 1:28 pm

Contact Us | Privacy Policy

XML SitemapXML Sitemap