Flooring choice for basement/tank area

[muck]

Originally Posted by sphelps

Where would you be today if you always made the "smartest choice"?

hahaha... good call Steve.
I'd go with the bamboo or a cork myself. Your wife will thank you when she cleans it too.

[fishytime]

+1 to the tile/carpet suggestion ....carpet is much nicer and warmer to walk on in a basement (unless you have slab heating)....... although, carpet might not take to well to repeated flooding......not saying at all that I think your gonna repeatedly flood your basement, but.....you never know

[Sebae again]

I would go with stained concrete around the tank and preferably there would be a crack or 2 in it for drainage. That way your better half would only notice a portion of the leaks and spills. ''What ? This stain has always been here. Obviously I did a pretty good job of the floor because it looks so real."

[lastlight]

Haha. Well the cracks I'm sure I could install pretty easily.

I think my next step is to at least go view some of these bamboo floors in person before I make the call.

But generally speaking bamboo will hold up better in the basement?

[fishytime]

any wood product will not hold up to moister very well.....most commercial finishes will not stand up to salt water exposure.....have a look at the two zoa frag stands at the shop the next time your in.....the light colored one was "cleared" with a marine grade varathane.....that one still looks like new(its a little dirty but still looks new).....the dark colored one beside it was done with a commercial grade finish and the clear is literally peeling off of it and the stain is leaching out in spots, in about two years.....granted the stand at the shop gets wet way more often than your floor hopefully ever will be but.....

[wickedfrags]

For about $500 I suspect you can heat that ceramic tile also, REAL nice (specically in a basement). I have done 2 heated floors in the last year with the Nuheat system. Their electronic thermostat has a built in GFI and runs about $180. Tiling basements can also be a pain as they always slope to the drain, sometimes significantly.

Originally Posted by lastlight

I think that's the smartest choice. I've just had tile and carpet in all my places and wanted to try something new. I'd have to tile the back corner where my chair is as well which is not a huge deal but makes that space permanently different than other areas (moving desk later wouldn't be as attractive).

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Haha. Well the cracks I'm sure I could install pretty easily.

I think my next step is to at least go view some of these bamboo floors in person before I make the call.

But generally speaking bamboo will hold up better in the basement?

Bamboo will do well in a basement, just as good as engineered wood if not better. If you're installing directly on the concrete you'll want to lay some tar paper or some kind of membrane first then an underlay and then float the bamboo on top of it all. The bamboo locks together so install is super fast.
Alternatively if you lay tar paper then install a raised sub-floor you could install any hardwood and it would do fine.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by lastlight

I'm doing my basement and had a question for the handy folks on here.

I'm laying down dricore subflooring on top of my concrete foundation. What I finish the room with is still up in the air

1. Carpet
2. Engineered hardwood

I know it's generally bad to lay down real hardwood in a basement but I have heard from some that the engineered stuff is ok? Tank and fishroom are vented outside so the basement won't be anymore humid than a normal basement.

Thanks!

make sure the engineered you buy is rated for below grade instalation or you will void the warenty. I personaly have not seen any engineered that is reated for below grade but I am sure there is at least one out there. I went with Lamanate as it is rated for below grade.

Also with the dri core. don't use it. there are a lot of people who are very disapointed with it as they have to yank it out after a flood due to it swelling. I was going to use it myself till I started reading into it. also it is very expensive. I ended up going with a super seal product myself.
http://www.superseal.ca/all_in_one_subfloor.html

I put this down and tuc taped it, then put a good underlay down and tuc taped that, then put my lamanate flooring down.

Steve

[Dez]

All of my aquariums have been on laminate throughout the last 8 years or so. So far so good. Set up your aquariums well and you should be okay. Most spillage would be in your fish room anyway. Even after I moved from my last place the laminate under all fish tanks looked great. I had one aquarium with a steel stand and I had to use rust remover to clean the laminate buy it looked fine after cleaning. Hope this helps.