Flooring over Concrete

[bilbrelb]

I have a split level and the family room floor is about 4 ft below ground and concrete. Right now old carpet is on it and pad is worn down.

Cats sometimes go on it, I think since previous owners had cats.

I'm thinking of putting different flooring like Laminate hardwood but don't know how it will hold up over concrete if some dampness might come thru.

Anyone have suggestion on best flooring to go over concrete?

I like the carpet because it's family room and like to sit down on it and play with kids but since it's so bad, not sure how long new would last.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[Wgoodrich]

You should be able to put bisquine down as a vapor barrier then install floor joists and normal flooring. I understand you are below grade so better check to make sure no flooding problems are involved before you build a floor system.

Hope this helps

Wg

[AllanJ]

Because cats went on it (do they still?) you may have a nagging odor problem.

An increasingly popular option is a false floor that has little studs underneath that leaves an air space about 1/4" against the concrete. Dricore(tm) is one such false floor which comes in snap together panels. You can put laminate or carpet or tile on top. The overall detracting from headroom would be under 2 inches. Optionally you can add a ventilating system that resembles a radon mitigation system to further reduce moisture down below.

If you must economize I would be tempted to coat the surface with the same kind of waterproofing that they put on the outside of concrete foundations. It would be tricky getting the layer uniform enough to put tile or wood on top of, although carpet pad and then carpet may work fine.

[iain]

you could use a product that has OSB on one side and small plastic dimples on the other they come in squares and are interlocking. the dimples keep it up enough for some air movement and plastic seals moisture .I don't remeber the brand name I buy it from my local supplier RONA in Regina Sask. they have a web site.

It is the only thing I have found to have long term success on concrete when using laminate products.

[JeffeVerde]

We had a similar problem - bought a house from a "crazy cat lady". In some places, they'd pee'd so much it had saturated the drywall AND the studs and plate behind!

For the cat pee problem, give the floor a good scrubbing with a strong bleach mixture - depending on how bad the problem is, you might want to follow up with one of the enezyme cleaners designed to clean pet urine. Once it's completely dried, paint the floor with a good primer (Killz-stain has one for floors).

I use heavy mil plastic sheeting when putting laminate on concrete - but never done a below-grade install before. But if moisture where an issue, you'd have damp carpet, right?

If cost is a primary consideration, I've found that Ikea has the nicest looking low-cost laminate. I've put it in a couple rental houses and it holds up well. They've also got great pricing on the plastic sheeting and a thin closed-cell foam that will provide a little insulation against the cold concrete.

[bilbrelb]

Thanks for the responces.

We finally took the carpet up because we couldn't put up with cats going on it so much because of former owners cats.

Underneath it is lanolium floor tiles. Looks like glue or self adhesive kind.
My wife scrubed it real good with bleach solution.

Is it ok to put plastic vapor barrier down over the glued on lanolium, then the foam underlament then the laminant hardwood?

thanks

[JeffeVerde]

As long as the there are no large voids in the existing vinyl floor tiles (quarter tile missing type gaps) AND you've definitely gotten rid of the cat pee smell, then no worries doing a floating flooring over it - and it will save you a tedious weekend of stripping the old tiles. The only issue would be if that extra 1/8" of thickness affected how the new finished floor height matched up to other surfaces in the room - which seems unlikely - but before starting the install, use a scrap piece of new flooring+underlayment to test the fit anywhere this might be an issue .