Hello.
Wife and I are remodeling the basement of our split level home to make into the main living area. Currently our living room is on the upper level just to the right of the stairs as you enter the home. It is way to small for a living room in our opinion so we would like to make that into a dining room in the future.
Back to the basement.
We have owned the home for 10 years and the basement has flooded 3 times. 1.5 inches of standing water at the worst. The floods were due to power outages in nasty storms and 1 time due to the sump pump burning up. The last flood was about 4 years ago and its been pretty dry since but we are concerned. Flood insurance really isnt an option for us but we do plan to purchase a watchdog backup sump system once we finish the basement but we like to travel and the watchdog only give 6-8 hours of backup which might not be enough time.
Anyway we have a cement slab that the previous owner put berber carpet over. We removed the carpet and it looks like there was laminate tile glued to the cement. No biggie, we actually sealed over the laminate after the last flood and threw some cheap carpet over it.
We are considering many options but are having a hard time weighing the pros and cons of each to find the best solution.
We are considering either Luxury Vinyl snap together floor planks or carpet.
The Luxury Vinyl Flooring is completely waterproof but is expensive. Carpet and pad is cheaper, warmer and would be nicer but again, the possibility of flooding scares us away from this option.
We have concerns about the LVT option because there is no subfloor, it will lay directly on the concrete. We are supposed to leave 1/4 all around for expansion and settlelling but I have read where people have done this and still had some planks start to buckle or cup. The floor will be cold and hard with this option and moisture proof subfloor options always seem to include some sort of wood which, if the basement floods, would get ruined.
Does anyone have any ideas on which way we should go here?
Thanks for reading.
Wife and I are remodeling the basement of our split level home to make into the main living area. Currently our living room is on the upper level just to the right of the stairs as you enter the home. It is way to small for a living room in our opinion so we would like to make that into a dining room in the future.
Back to the basement.
We have owned the home for 10 years and the basement has flooded 3 times. 1.5 inches of standing water at the worst. The floods were due to power outages in nasty storms and 1 time due to the sump pump burning up. The last flood was about 4 years ago and its been pretty dry since but we are concerned. Flood insurance really isnt an option for us but we do plan to purchase a watchdog backup sump system once we finish the basement but we like to travel and the watchdog only give 6-8 hours of backup which might not be enough time.
Anyway we have a cement slab that the previous owner put berber carpet over. We removed the carpet and it looks like there was laminate tile glued to the cement. No biggie, we actually sealed over the laminate after the last flood and threw some cheap carpet over it.
We are considering many options but are having a hard time weighing the pros and cons of each to find the best solution.
We are considering either Luxury Vinyl snap together floor planks or carpet.
The Luxury Vinyl Flooring is completely waterproof but is expensive. Carpet and pad is cheaper, warmer and would be nicer but again, the possibility of flooding scares us away from this option.
We have concerns about the LVT option because there is no subfloor, it will lay directly on the concrete. We are supposed to leave 1/4 all around for expansion and settlelling but I have read where people have done this and still had some planks start to buckle or cup. The floor will be cold and hard with this option and moisture proof subfloor options always seem to include some sort of wood which, if the basement floods, would get ruined.
Does anyone have any ideas on which way we should go here?
Thanks for reading.
