Flood Q: replacing basement flooring - rubber mats?

[barbarabini]

Hello: Irene damage.
Looking for people who have experience with a basement flood. Just ripped out the carpet (we never had water b-4). Not putting carpet down again. Anyone use rubber mats or something else to make it look decent and useful. It has 8 foot ceilings and we use it as a family/play room.

Also, it seemed to get water from seepage (as well as a sewer back up that affected the entire street), do you think that waterproof paint stuff might help (not for the sewer but from the seepage?)?

I just need some ideas. The carpet was over 2500 and I just cannot do it again.

 

[Green Tea]

Won't your homeowner's insurance cover the replacement?

You probably don't want to do rubber mats----they won't breath and moisture will accumulate underneath.

 

[seashoreCM]

Painting the floor will greatly reduce seepage but not at the edges or any cracks across the floor. A more important advantage of painting the floor is to cut down on dust and grit that will always come off of a bare concrete floor. A disadvantage of painting the floor is slipperyness (you can buy sand textured paint to curb that).

A properly working subfloor French drain (perimeter drain) with sump pump will almost always eliminate seepage.

Check valves can be installed in drain pipes to prevent sewage backups into the house.

 

[barbarabini]

Homeowners wont cover hurricane losses unless they exceed 8000.

I will look into a french drain, did not realize they will help with seepage.

 

[NotUrsula]

There are some new flooring systems that are meant to be used in basements that have occasional wet problems. Essentially they are multilayer thick plastic tiles that have a sort of spike bottom. They fit together like a jigsaw puzzle and just sit on the floor; not glued down or even rimmed on the edges. If the floor gets wet you just remove some of them to let the place air out, or if it gets really flooded you can take all of them out, wash them, let them dry, and then reinstall them.

This is one of the products, but there are several on the market: http://www.totalbasementfinishing.com/basement-finishing-system/basement-floors.html

 

[Green Tea]

Homeowners wont cover hurricane losses unless they exceed 8000.

I will look into a french drain, did not realize they will help with seepage.

Read the policy really carefully; it may be if sewers backed up and flooded the house, if you have sewage backup coverage, then its covered.

If you want to paint to keep water out, walls and floor, the only one I found to actually do much is UGL DryLock. I think that was the name. good stuff

 

[Janepod]

French drains are great. Also look at the grading around the perimeter of your house; perhaps that can be improved.

We have Pergo in our basement and love it. We used to have flooding but none (knock on wood) since we regraded the front of the house so water flows away from the house.

Good luck! Wet basements are the pits!

 

[Evi]

Find out exactly where the water came from. Did it come from the walls/ foundation or below grade. If below grade you'll have to find an indoor solution a french trench won't make a difference. If its seepage coming off the walls have a french trench/drain installed a few feet from the wall outside and at leat 2-3 feet deep. It should also wrap all the way to the front to let off the overflow. I would then look into a porcelain tile floor. with a undersheathing that prevents cracking. I don't think its worth putting in those floors that create a space since it can also just mean that now there is a space for mold to grow. Porcelain tile is almost waterproof so it won't get full of water but if water spills ontop of it you'll be able to clean it up.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

At our old house that was built in 1927 there was a very small amt of water that would come in when it rained really hard. I used dry lock on the cement blocks and never had an issue after that. I painted the wall from the floor up to about 3 cement blocks from the floor. I only painted the section where the water appeared.

 

[SandrA9810]

I was thinking, if you wanted sort of soft flooring for playing on, look for marine grade foam products. They're designed to allow water to flow through, and dry out. Rather than looking at a rubber mat.