Basement engineered wood flooring.

[Robatoy]

As hunting season is upon us, I bought a vertical freezer. (Mostly birds, the odd hunk of venison.) Angela thought the laundry room would be a good place for the thing as it has a small footprint.....but.......>>>>>."wouldn't it be nice to do something with that floor (which is now painted concrete)..and, and, and some cabinets..oooo and some countertop space for folding....that dryer is quite old...the laundry tub over *here* would be a lot more convenient...are those ceiling potlights hard to install?...."

[Dave Balderstone]

A colleague installed them in his basement renovation, and thinks they're the cat's pajamas.

[Artemus]

No experience with the OSB stuff. But I did re do a bathroom floor. The builder put in carpet which I pulled up. The concrete needed to be leveled to get rid of the dips & hills so some leveling compound was in order. I then put down 12x12 vinyl self stick squares. All of this came from the Home Despot. Easy to do and no need to put any wood down first. It looked great and the boss loved it. Art

[Ed Pawlowski]

"Robatoy" wrote

My experience is whit the engineered hardwood that is a plywood with a finish on the top layer. Been down 10 years with no problem, including water from a leak that got under it. Thee is a layer of plastic on the concrete and the flooring on top. 10 year, stills going strong.

[Josepi]

I did my basement RecRoom (about 15 x 32') in these tiles about 12 years ago. After a toilet plumbing leek upstairs the Insurance clean-up crew came in and ripped them all out as there was water underneath them. (source of mould) As they found more and more water they proceeded to rip them all out to replace the carpet that was wet and found puddle in the lows spots. (3 stooges). (I have my cold cellar floor lined with the insurance garbaged units in my new house.)

I installed these to help warm up the floors in the basement room. They do nothing unless you have an exit for the cold air stored underneath the tiles.

Also, if you install these units without any through ventilation you will have a puddle under them guaranteed, as condensation forms and cannot get out on the cold, insulated from the warm room air concrete floor surface.

The units are convex shaped to allow the surface to float and must be put down without any rocking. They will not flatten out over time and will annoy you forever, if you don't! Spare pieces of cutoffs can be used if you rip off the plastic bottom instead of buying all the spacer pieces. Trouble is you, sometimes you won't have many cut-offs until the last rows. I am not sure you can stagger the joints due to the convex shape.

If flow through ventilation is provided they should stay dry underneath and you should get some nice warmer carpeted floors in your basement. Other than that they are a waste of money and a source of mould. Sensitive feet can feel the arch in them through the carpet.

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Any and all pointers are appreciated. The web if full of info but I prefer to hear from this group.

[John]

Strip/sand/grind off the paint and put down real ceramic tile. Mortar (in my experience at least) sticks really well to bare concrete. I re-did the basement bath 4 years ago and have had no tile problems. Its a 3/4 bath where I shower daily so the humidity needs dealt with but the tile has held up perfectly.

John

[Robatoy]

Thank you John, but we are now thinking about in-floor heating as well, which can be done with ceramic tile.