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What flooring should I put in my basement

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jam022316

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Jul 31, 2008
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971
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Indiana
This last Saturday I had a sump pump failure (second time in 14 years so not too bad) basically made the carpet in the basement moldy and wet. I'm doing my best to **** it out with a shampooer and fans but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to pull the carpet up. I like having carpet down there but I don't want to throw a ton of money into it if it's just going to get destroyed again by a sump failure.

Has anyone used other material for flooring they've been happy with? I thought about tile but that's expensive and cold on the feet. I thought about rubber flooring but not sure in a finished basement how that would look. I just don't want to go through all this again lol.
 
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themiller

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Seattle Suburbs
Fix the pump problem with redundancy. Put cheap carpeting back down. It’s fairly inexpensive compared to other options.

I had 1 pump in my basement. After the first failure I put in 3 more.

Had 2 more failures while I lived in the house. Neither one was a problem.
 
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astroracer

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Jun 22, 2005
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Mid_Michigan
Water proof vinyl flooring. Looks just like wood, snaps in place and requires no paper backing. I am replacing carpet with this in my wood foundation basement. I've never had a sump pump failure but, if I did, this should survive.
Mark
 
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Todd.Brock

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Jul 15, 2008
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Cincinnati
themiller said:
Fix the pump problem with redundancy. Put cheap carpeting back down. It’s fairly inexpensive compared to other options.

I had 1 pump in my basement. After the first failure I put in 3 more.

Had 2 more failures while I lived in the house. Neither one was a problem.
Click to expand...



That’s a lot of redundant redundancy...!

I will say a battery back up setup is about 350 bucks from Home Depot. That saved my finished basement 3x in 5 years


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
D

Done That

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Aug 18, 2017
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MO
I did FLOR carpet squares for some of the same reasons. There adhere to each other using adhesive "dots" on the back and pretty much install like a laminate floating floor. I like that I got a carpet floor but was able to do a DIY install on my own time and to my standards.

You can get a whole range of cost on these, and I went with a commercial grade. You will see this flooring at many hotels etc because it wears so well. Lots of colors, patterns, and pile thickness to choose from.

They get wet you can pick it up and take out side to clean and dry and then reinstall. You get a badly worn tile or a burn mark etc and you can pull that one up and drop in a new one if you order a few spares initially.

Downside is it wasn't cheap, but 7 years later ours looks great and I repalced a tile in the daughters downstairs room when she spilled nail polish on it.....
 
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jam022316

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Jul 31, 2008
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Indiana
Thank you all for the suggestions. I've got some homework to do. In this case I don't know that a battery backup pump would've helped as the motor was just seized/fried we still had power.
 
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Done That

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MO
jam92102 said:
Thank you all for the suggestions. I've got some homework to do. In this case I don't know that a battery backup pump would've helped as the motor was just seized/fried we still had power.
Click to expand...

Most of the small backup sumps are a battery pack + an entire second small pump (DC) that sits in the same pit as your main pump, so you would be covered for loss of power or a broken main pump. Downside is they typically don't have quite the GPM capacity or lift capacity as your main, but it beats nothing.
 
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ranger101ran

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Feb 27, 2011
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427
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Ct.
I had my floor epoxied and put a couple of area rugs. Take the rugs outside once in a while and air them out.
 
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Jazz1

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Jan 3, 2016
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Location
Thunder Bay On.
astroracer said:
Water proof vinyl flooring. Looks just like wood, snaps in place and requires no paper backing. I am replacing carpet with this in my wood foundation basement. I've never had a sump pump failure but, if I did, this should survive.
Mark
Click to expand...

My son used similar product but he put a barrier underneath the vinyl. 2x2 squares that allow floor to breath. The vinyl looks great and just a knife and a square to cut
 
M

metal1313

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Apr 28, 2009
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3,416
Location
clinton NJ
I'm about to lay 650sq ft of life proof brand wood look vinyl from homedepot in my basement. Unfortunately I have to grind the floor first since the p.o. Nailed down the carpet tack strips and used liquid nails as well. They then used a **** load of liquid nails type adhesive through out the basement to hold down at least one previous layer of padding. They also used some clear, super thin and super tacky glue as well. Only one crack in the slab though, and it's in the corner, pretty minor.

I wanted this because it is water proof, repairable, and should deal well with pets
 
G

Garage Flooring

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May 21, 2011
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Location
Grand Junction, CO
jam92102 said:
This last Saturday I had a sump pump failure (second time in 14 years so not too bad) basically made the carpet in the basement moldy and wet. I'm doing my best to **** it out with a shampooer and fans but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to pull the carpet up. I like having carpet down there but I don't want to throw a ton of money into it if it's just going to get destroyed again by a sump failure.

Has anyone used other material for flooring they've been happy with? I thought about tile but that's expensive and cold on the feet. I thought about rubber flooring but not sure in a finished basement how that would look. I just don't want to go through all this again lol.
Click to expand...

My family did ceramic tile in a downstairs basement right before Sandy hit. Pretty sure it was the only thing on that level they did not need to replace.

Dricore is an option.... Ribbed tiles....

Have a look here http://www.dricore.com/en/dinstal.aspx
 
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b-boy

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Oct 2, 2013
Messages
2,155
Location
Buffalo NY
i had a basement in my old house that was a nightmare. I would get water within 30 minutes of losing power. We lost power a lot.

I had 2 major flooding events and a few close calls. I added a water-powered backup pump. It wasn't cheap, but it was worth it. No power required. it saved my **** at least 5 times.

As far as flooring, I'd go with the luxury vinyl tiles. I have laminate in my basement now, but I'll go with the vinyl if I ever replace it.

I had vinyl put in my kitchen. the stuff is fantastic.
 
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siegsuwa

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Oct 4, 2015
Messages
48
Location
Chicagoland
I live in an area with frequent basement flooding problems and I just put the luxury vinyl tile planks down in my basement. About 700 sqft. I went with the vinyl partially because I am a bit concerned about water, but mostly because the concrete is pretty uneven and concave, and the LVT conforms to the floor well.

I have drain tile, a stout sump pump, a battery backup, and I am installing a second fullsize pump soon, with the float offset from the primary. If the primary every fails, the fullsize secondary will kick on when the water level rises above the float for the primary. If the power goes out, I'll be on the battery backup until the generator can be hooked up.
 
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CKS1955

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Oct 12, 2014
Messages
490
Location
Michigan
My preference XPS foam and T&G plywood or OSB subfloor. IMHO better and cheaper than Dri-Core.

Jay
 
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