Old concrete floor - which floor covering recommended

[weg]

Our large brick garage was partitioned off a few years ago and one side was converted into an office for my husband. We are now turning the other 1/2 into a rumpus room for the boys (any their many friends) but don't know what to put down as floor covering.

Office side has polished concrete with a rug on top but we would like the rumpus side to have either tiles or a floating floor.

My concern is that this garage even though it was built well was built years ago with no council approval and a proper moisture barrier may not have been put in. There are no signs of moisture but I know it does not take much to cause damage to the flooring so would like to get this right.

The other concern is that the concrete floor is level as a whole but not perfectly smooth and this may be a problem if laying floating floors.

Would laying plastic sheeting then particle board be an adequate base for both of these types of flooring.

Or does anyone know what may be more suitable in this case?

We want to do this job well as down the track we intend to seek council approval in converting it into a Granny Flat (Bathroom in office side and kitchenette on the rumpus side with a door created between the 2 rooms)

Cheers weg

 

[toylux95]

with your floating floor bunnings sell a foam underlay that is plastic backed this is to give a lil bit if cushion and to stop moisture getting into the boards.

The other way if the floor is a lil up and down you could use a black builders plastic and some underlay from a carpet shop. It is alot thicker and it can hide the up and downs if there are any.

 

[roderigo]

My parents recently had a house built and the main flooring of the house is just the concrete foundation. What they did was have cuts applied so that it looked like giant tiles, and then had acid staining applied to give it some colouring. Has a great effect and looks awesome.

Another alternative anyway..

 

[oz_guy]

What a great idea Roderigo. Cutting lines to make it look like tiles and then staining to make visually look good. This is a great alternative and one I imagine is quite affordable?

Interesting website you have. I had a Brazilian hammock several years ago. The weaves were not close together. It was laying in a fishing net and hurt your skin after a while. I can see you hammocks very tightly woven and from soft material. I know I am diverging from talking about property so i will end this post now.

Thanks again for the cutting/staining concrete option. In the coming year I plan on renovating my place which does have 2 rooms with concrete floors and you have given me some food for thought. What a great forum this is!

 

[Papps]

Weg, I have a similiar problem. I have a studio under the house which has a concrete floor and I am about to renovate it. The builder feels that unless there is a proper membrane under the concrete, the slab will always retain some moisture, so use of any natural materials won't work. He says tiles are the best solution laid on an applied waterproof coating ( little bit like when you lay tiles in a shower recess). If your floor is uneven they can either lay cement sheeting or there are leveling compounds that you pour on and they find there own level. If this is no good maybe the polished concrete is the go.

 

[toylux95]

the problem with tiles is that if the slab does not have mesh in it over time the slab will tend to crack and this will in turn crack your tiles and pop them off eventualy then if you do not have spare tiles you would have to do a dodgy repair or retile the whole floor. If you had your hart on tiling the floor you would have to use a ruberised tile glue that is meant for wet areas. and depending on the slab itself you can get concrete that is called self levveling it will find the hollows and the unlevel areas then once its set its easy as to do you could also use the self levelling concrete even if you were going to do floating floor.

 

[NSW]

http://www.quick-step.com/australia/au/en/floor/400180.aspx

We used the above in a rumpus room and the result was great.

 

[Hemma]

I think that floating floorboards would be better, but you might need to even the flooring with some cement beforehand, add a waterproof membrane, then underlay and then the boards on top of that. It's just warmer on the feet if you have some kind of timber. Tiles are good, but uncomfortable to walk on in a living area.

 

[Cartoon]

i leveled my floor out with 6mm ply wood.
maxi bond n concreat nails to fix the ply, foam underlay for the floating floor.

look up protector foam from some packaging places. its no different from the foam used for the floating floor (non plastic backed) n cheaper

 

[weg]

Thankyou for the great ideas everyone. It sounds like it's an easy enough thing to get around but I just though it needed to be done right to avoid any problems later. Now all we need to do is work out exactly what we want to lay.

 

[depreciator]

Weg, I agree that tiles might crack. And I find floating timber floors in garage conversions a bit naff. There are some really good coatings around - some epoxy and some other stuff. They're often used in commercial applications. They would be self levelling, but not DIY. When I was in Brisbane not long ago I happened to walk past their builders display centre and went in and had a look at some. There must be a builders information/display centre in Adelaide? I'm thinking this sort of thing would form a water barrier and have a bit of give should the slab move. They come in loads of colours and and they're easy to keep clean, too - I'm thinking of the teenagers hang out.