Housing Code - Floor Covering on Concrete Slab

[johnnymo]

All -

I bought a major fixer upper last year and am in the home strech and about to be done. My last project is to touch up on a converted car port. The previous owners inclosed the carport and made it a nice big family room.

By the looks of everything and talking with the my inspector when I bought the house, doesn't look like they built the room to code. The carport had a slight tilt away from the house and they have glued berber carpet directly to the concrete slab, slope and all. The room has french doors that open right onto the driveway and some nice tall windows that start about 6" from the ground.

So, I guess my question is, will I have an issue putting in new carpet. I would like to put in some nice carpet with a pad under it.

(1) Will the pad act as a sponge and absorb moisture from the concrete? (2) Should I build a small subfloor (furring strip thickness)? I can't go much higher, b/c the windows will get in the way and I have those French doors and another door opening inside the room. (3) Should I get an estimate to see how much it would cost for the cement finisher dudes to come out and stain it and make it look nice. (4) Tile it

I want to go cheap, but keep it efficient too.

Thanks for the advice.

[Andrew Duane]

You should put a vapor barrier down, then small furring strips (with insulation between) and a subfloor for the new carpeting. If you are concerned, you could consider skipping carpet and putting ceramic or stone tile down directly. I did that with a bunch of my basement hallway and foyer space and it's great.

BTW, there is a special circle in hell for people who glue carpet directly to concrete floors! Once you start removing that stuff, you'll know what I mean.

[johnnymo]

Thanks for the input. I haven't even gotten that far yet. I pulled vinyl linoleum off hard woods before, and that was the worst thing ever removing that glue. So, needless to say, I won't have to invest in another scraper.