Basement floor leveling and drain extension
jdimari4
| Posted in General Questions on
I’m about to move into a new home and want to finish the basement. From what I can tell the basement has no issues with water. My plan is to level the floor, then put down delta FL and subfloor. The floor has a fairly dramatic slope for the floor drain, is there a limit to how thick floor leveler should be poured? Should it be poured in several layers?
A secondary question I have is what do I do about the floor drains? Do I extended them up to the new flooring or seal them beneath it?
thanks
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Replies
Follow the floor leveler's written instructions for thickness. Some allow you unlimited depth, some much less. Look at Ardex; I believe it is somewhat self leveling and can be installed thick. How thick do you need? You'e sure you don't need those floor drains? They can be handy as cleanouts sometimes.
I sure wish my basement slab/floor had drains. One burst clothes washer hose or pipe in that space will prove their worth.
Peter
Floor drains are something of a mixed blessing. I grew up in an older house in an area with a combined storm and sanitary sewer system. I remember after heavy rains looking down the basement stairs and seeing standing water with, shall we say, “interesting” things floating in it. Extremely nasty. I’ll never have a floor drain again that doesn’t drain to something like a local drywell or sump pump.
Bill
I agree with Peter - they can be handy. When we finished our last basement, we cut PT shims, placed radially around the floor drain areas. Once all of the layers of flooring were installed, you can't tell the concrete is not level. We did install cleanout covers right above the drains in case they ever require servicing. I hope they're never needed, but if (when) we do have a flooding event, there's some capacity for the entire basement floor to still drain under the insulation and flooring and the sloped concrete will help that happen.
Do test for radon before deciding what to do. Floor drains that lead into a dry well under the floor can be a big source of radon if you've got any in your soils.