WTG, I missed your earlier message, thanks for finding that thread!
What I said back in April or whenever it was:

quote:

hence my decision to choose flooring that's water proof/resistant.

So, I don't think these carpet tiles are really water proof or resistant, but as Steve says, they seem pretty durable and are drying out quick. And if a few of them need to be tossed, we could get one more box for $30, so very inexpensive to maintain current flooring.

I think the Dricore Subfloor you linked is maybe what I was thinking of as the more expensive option, just a super quick estimate puts it above $750 to do the floor with those.

More than the expense though, I need to figure out how they would do on an uneven floor. As I think about it, we chose the carpet tiles because of the flexibility, since the floor is fairly uneven and because there's most likely asbestos under the old (original) tiles, we want to leave the old tiles as is and just cover them up.

It may be time to revisit that though.... See, this water thing just opens up a huge can of worms!! :P

Dricore is not really a finished floor, though the company says you can use it as such. It’s not very pretty. It’s more like a plywood subfloor that has something on the back that is waterproof. It has little round feet on the back that raise it off the concrete so air can circulate underneath.

The 2x2 pieces have a tongue and groove construction so they lock together. If the basement floor has bumps or is unlevel in places you just use shims to level it.

You put the finished floor over it.

The dricore runs about a buck fifty a squar foot, as I recall.

It works great if you have a relatively small amount of water. If you get five inches across the whole basement, you still have a big mess to clean up.

I don't have much to offer other than condolences.

Every time my basement has flooded, it either came up through the floor drain because the side sewer was blocked or it was a plumbing leak (one that went a couple of days before I noticed).

My parents' garage used to get a puddle along the wall that was mostly below grade. We dug down and tried to patch it, but nothing really stopped the seeping.


The first thing to check on the gutters is whether all of the downspouts are clear. When I is raining, is there a steady stream of water coming out of every downspout?

And are the bottom ends of the downspouts routed far enough away from the house? You may need another couple feet of horizontal run or a good splashblock to direct the water away from the foundation.

If it has been raining for days and weeks non-stop, the ground is saturated and the water is just looking for somewhere to go. If this is going to happen again (thanks, global climate change), a French drain can help, or even a sunken catch tank.

Proper grading and landscaping also go a long way to directing the water away. Some pictures will help here.

I have an old house and it has old house problems... one common problem around here is that over many decades drain tiles just get clogged with silt and gunk.


Also, even once you've vacuumed and shoveled all the standing water, you may still have quite a bit in the air, any porous surface, remaining flooring, and so forth. Get a dehumidifier. You can probably rent one for a few bucks a day.

quote:

The dricore runs about a buck fifty a squar foot

When I priced it out just now, sold through Home Depot, it’s more like a little over $3.50/sq foot.

Anyway, we’re not going to think about flooring until we get the water problem resolved.

PJ thank for the comments. We do need to think about landscaping too I think. We have two dehumidifiers running down there, one on each side. I think they’re helping a lot.

Oh someone (Mik? Steve?) asked if we have a sump pump, we do not. I have no idea how expensive it wild he to get one installed. They say the dirt her is very hard to drill into and that’s why no one has a basement unless they live on a slope.

Ugh...

2 yrs ago when the old unused water heater in the cottage (shut off) or a pipe from, gave out and flooded the good carpet over cement flooring in the cottage, I hired a pro dehumidifier. I vacuumed up the soaking water first with the same unit first. 24 hrs and it was dry!

Much better than 2 home dehumidifiers (wihich I also have but did not used until AFTER the pro one.

The pro vacuum took 2 x emptying.

Think about it. Rental store here. 50 bucks for the weekend.

quote:

When I priced it out just now, sold through Home Depot, it’s more like a little over $3.50/sq foot.

Maybe you were looking at the insulated subfloor panel they make? You don't need that.

This is the one I was thinking of.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/DR...rd-FG10006/202268752

It's $6.75 for four square feet, which works out to about $1.69 a square foot.

Around here Menards sometimes has it in the $5.71 per piece range and may even have an 11% rebate thing going on at the same time.

LL thanks for the suggestion, I didn't even think to consider renting. I think we are ok for now. We pulled up all the carpet tiles, and then were able to get all the water up so the clean up part of it is taken care for now. But I am sure there are various things we could rent, in addition to professional dehumidifiers, so we will keep that in mind.

Also our wet vac only holds 5 gallons, so it was a huge pain in the *ss -- and in the back!! to be emptying it all the time.

Hopefully we won't have a next time, but if we do, I'll look into rental options!

WTG, thanks for that! No, that is exactly what I was looking at, I just did the math wrong!

It's actually showing $7.64 per tile here, so a little more than your price, but still only about $1.90 per square foot, which is way less than the $3.80 price I had come up with! :P

I think what we need to do, in this order, is:
1. get gutters professionally cleaned
2. get professional advice and quotes for about what might need to be done outside around the foundation in terms of drainage, french drains etc.
3. pour concrete leveler or something similar in the finished side of the basement to cover up the old asbestos tiles
4. install truly waterproof flooring in basement studio

Unfortunately, I am not getting any call backs from my calls to schedule quotes for gutter cleaning and water solutions company.

Especially if it turns out that the gutters are clogged, I'd put gutter guards at the top of the list to consider.

And don't let anyone talk you into the absurdly expensive one piece Rain Guard type gutters. You can get a handyman to install some that are just as effective at a fraction of the price.

We bought these for our 5" gutters when they were on sale, so they were less than $2 a linear foot. Took my handyman about four hours at $50 an hour to install 200'. But you probably can get someone for a lower labor rate; this isn't rocket science.

https://www.costco.com/easyon-...oduct.100019377.html

I can order them on your behalf and have them shipped to you. Otherwise, you could spring for the $60 annual membership and buy them yourself.

So easy to clean gutters yourself. There are tools with extensions to reach. We cleaned the cottage gutters last month with just an old hoe!

Mr. SK has been cleaning the gutters but there are some spots he can't get to. On the walk-out side, the house is basically like a two story house and I don't want him up on a ladder that high. We may need to see what kinds of tools we can get. He did do some extra cleaning this morning, so hopefully that will help because we have rain in the forecast all week.

Thanks for that link WTG. We'll look into it. When we first moved here, I read a lot about different kinds of gutter guards, and it seemed like the only websites I found recommending them were sites selling them, and all the DIY sites were basically saying, no don't use them, and they had a bunch of reasons why it's better not to.

So needless to say, we're a little confused about that...

quote:

Originally posted by ShiroKuro:
It's actually showing $7.64 per tile here, so a little more than your price, but still only about $1.90 per square foot, which is way less than the $3.80 price I had come up with!

Do you have Lowes nearby?

https://www.lowes.com/pd/DRIco...erlayment/1000510831

Also remember Home Depot will price match if a local competitor has the same product in stock at a lower price.

You are all mighty! Now can you figure out how to make those roofing companies call me back?

quote:

Originally posted by ShiroKuro:
Mr. SK has been cleaning the gutters but there are some spots he can't get to. On the walk-out side, the house is basically like a two story house and I don't want him up on a ladder that high. We may need to see what kinds of tools we can get. He did do some extra cleaning this morning, so hopefully that will help because we have rain in the forecast all week.

Thanks for that link WTG. We'll look into it. When we first moved here, I read a lot about different kinds of gutter guards, and it seemed like the only websites I found recommending them were sites selling them, and all the DIY sites were basically saying, no don't use them, and they had a bunch of reasons why it's better not to.

So needless to say, we're a little confused about that...

We had the plastic ones for about ten years, but they do tend to flex and sometimes pop loose under the weight of snow and ice, which I don't think is a problem where you are.

Our neighbor, whose attic is better insulated and doesn't tend to have the ice that we get, has had them for over a decade with few issues.

If you go the plastic route, I would use the ones that have nylon mesh on the back to cover up the larger perforations. Keeps the fine junk out.

Avoid the foam style that you lay into the gutter. Not a good design.

I think the stainless ones like we now have are the way to go. You just tuck the one side up under the shingle and then stick down the other edge on top of the gutter with the two-sided tape provided with the gutter. Or if you really want them on there, screw the guard down with the hardware they provide.

We were without gutter guards for more than 20 years and had regular problems. Trees around here drop buds in the spring, seeds in the summer, and leaves starting in September. Gutter cleaning is something that needs to be done multiple times a year.

In our experience, the gutter guards have made things much better.

All of the above is based on actual homeowner experience.

We will definitely look into them. But we need to find someone to do the install, or else help at least, like I said, some of the gutters are too high.

Ugh, I wish these people would call me back. It's obviously a sellers' market for these businesses

Look on Craigslist to get them cleaned out but keep an eye on them.

You can kind of tell who is honest and who isn't.