basement fish room & man-cave: flooring? tips?

[gweston]

Just wanted to get some thoughts/opinions.

I am finishing part of the basement this summer. In the unfinished space in a corner I'll have a 'fish room' area. The finished space is to be sort of a man-cave in a sense, and I may put my 125gal tank in there ... unless I change my mind and put it upstairs on the main floor and plumb down. In any case, I suspect whatever I do.. eventually a tank (or more) will end up there. Frag tank, quarantine tank, etc.

What sort of flooring would you suggest? The builder said he could just lay down flooring right onto the concrete slab without an air space. Head height is a little bit limited so makes it tough to raise the floor. Carpet is nice due to warmth. But getting water on it seriously sucks. Wood/laminate floor looks better, but may be cold. I'm having a block on what to do. I'd like to do the walls in rough cut wood, sort of a cabin-like feel.

I could go for a water resistant floor, and just put an area rug where the tank(s) aren't.

 

[JayM]

put a couple of coats of drylok paint and an area carpet. Water leaks down hill

 

[cilyjr]

i put down laminate. have had no problems

 

[DoctaQ]

get a dehumidifier

 

[mobie]

I've had tile on my concrete floor for years with no problems. Makes it nice to just mop it up

 

[Liam]

lay the plywood tiles with the rubber backing before you lay any flooring.(except tile)
This will create a moisture barrier and keep the floor a lot warmer in the winter

 

[jprince]

get a dehumidifier

If you run a dehumidifier in your basement with the tanks down there, it will evaporate the water right out of the tank as well as the air in the basement.

 

[rusty18]

I have tiles on my basement floor, direct to the slab. They get pretty cold in the winter and in return the room gets cold. What do you have for heating in the basement? I would go with a sub floor like Liam said if possible. I may put down a large area rug/carpet to help keep the room warmer.
I also run a dehumidifier my w/d is in the "fish room" and I have some tvs, etc in the other part of the basement I would like to avoid rusting.

 

[joelg]

I could go for a water resistant floor, and just put an area rug where the tank(s) aren't.

Best option in my opinion. I am doing mine with ceramic tile and Job Lot area rugs that way when I have a flood its a quick clean up

 

[gweston]

Great tips.

Whatever I end up doing, sounds like I should seal the floor with something first (drylok,etc). If I do tile, it'll go right down then an area rug to cover. If I laminate or use some other flooring, I may use a rubber backed underlay as a temp/moisture barrier.

I'd like this to be flood proof (won't get destroyed easily) .. but I don't want the space to be uncomfortable in the winter. It will be on it's own zone and heated with forced hot water.

I have a dehumidifier. It has been running since I put in the rock curing set up (now not in use). But I keep it running as I store RODI water there. It is in the same area the fish room will be. That may be sufficient for the entire basement space I hope. If I run into humidity problems in the finished space I can devise a fix. Maybe a vent/fan. It gets very dry down there in winter. In summer it can rise up a bit.

I may be leaning towards tile/area rug.

 

[gweston]

I'm going to take a look at vinyl tile or vinyl plank flooring. Hearing good things about it. Very water proof. Supposedly the plank flooring looks very close to wood and is great for basements.

Hopefully this project will get started in a couple weeks.. can't wait until it is all done. Finally a fish room and a man cave/tank room.