There’s no guarantee that your basement will stay dry no matter what waterproofing strategies you may have in place and the only real thing that works is solid basement flooring preparation. Not only that, all basement floors tend to hold condensation coming from the cold concrete and ground underneath. Even new homes aren’t resistant to this. Most of the time people will just lay down an underpad to cover the concrete before installing a basement floor and don’t even realize that they’ve just created a big problem in their basement.
Concrete is porous. It needs to breathe. Temperatures tend to fluctuate quite dramatically in basements which leads to prime conditions for moisture accumulation in a pad just thrown down on top of the concrete subfloor. You want to protect your basement flooring as best as possible and this simply ain’t doing it.
A good basement flooring preparation alternative is the DRIcore Subfloor System. DRIcore was made for cold, damp environments like basements. The panels are manufactured with a high density polyethylene moisture barrier. This raises the subfloor basement flooring 1/4 inch away from the cold concrete. The panels are also topped with a 5/8 inch random wafer board. Because the panels are raised from the surface, it allow the concrete to breathe and allow for moisture seepage to channel freely under the subfloor. The panels come in 7/8″X2′X2′ squares and carry a 25 year manufacturer warranty.
In fact, this basement flooring preparation method is so easy it’s definitely a do it yourself project. It installs via a simple tongue and groove edge just like putting a puzzle together. The panels are easily trimmed and cut via either a circular saw or jigsaw. The system is made to “float” on your concrete floor so there is no gluing and typically its not even necessary to seal the concrete before installation. DRIcore even boasts that it will take on average 50%-60% less time to install than other conventional methods.
In basement flooring preparation, you want assurance that the time and money involved is going to be a worthwhile investment so it’s best to protect what you want to do. DRIcore is an excellent basement flooring preparation product that will do this, and I definitely like that the company has a 25 year warranty on the materials they produce. There are other “tiled” basement flooring preparation systems on the market today, but I prefer DRIcore.