Putting in a floating floor in the basement.

Now... I want to make the floor half hard( haven't figured out whether I want wood or tile or what) and half carpet, right down the middle. My room is 22' x 13'. Now...this is in the basement of my house. My question is: what do I do about the floor drain? It is right in the center of the room. Do I cover this drain or what? Also, with me putting the studio in the basement, is carpet or hard wood on the floors alright?

Do you have any issue's w/ moisture or water in your basement? What is your height from floor to ceiling? If you haven't done so yet...look at my thread RE: a floating floor in a basement: http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=839 Lot's of good info... :D Aaron

Floor to ceiling is 7' Moisture: I just finished putting drylok on the walls yesterday. But before the drylok, it was a very minimal amount of moisture at the base of the walls. Why do you ask? Does this change things?

If you follow the guidelines in the very top link in this forum, it will take you to most of the info you need; takes a bit of study, but you need to know this stuff so you don't make costly mistakes - http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3231 Please follow ALL the bolded points you can, it will be worth it... Steve

With such a short clearance as it is (7 feet), I can't see how you could float a floor... Certainly not legally.

Certainly not legally.

That must be another one of those "Country of California" statutes???

Nice try. :roll: No, this is not a California-specific code. According to UBC 310.6.1, minimum ceiling height is 7’6” in habitable rooms and 7’0” in kitchens, halls, bathrooms, and toilet compartments. Sloped ceiling must be 7’6” for a minimum of 50% of room areas. As soon as a room gets air conditioning/heating, it becomes habitable. There might be exceptions for basements and/or at the local level. A friend of mine once converted a small hose into office space in Reno, Nevada (i.e., not California) -- he finished a basement with pretty low clearance. He had to move a lot of plumbing and wiring in order to keep his ceiling heights in compliance with code and to get a final sign-off from the building department. If the bottom of the ceiling joists are 7 feet off the floor, then technically he may not be able to even add one layer of gypsum to the bottom of the joists without RC. :shock: It's up to Big3rd to check with his local building department offiicials to determine what he is permitted to do legally and safely. His town may not use UBC -- he has yet to tell us where he lives.

Nice try. No, this is not a California-specific code.

I'm sure it's not. I was mostly just making a sarcastic comment on California. Their laws are typically more stringent (or anal for some things), and was being strongly opinionated about it. (No offense). I'll refrain from some other opinions I was just about to write as this isn't the thread to discuss it. :wink:

sharward wrote:

Nice try. :roll: No, this is not a California-specific code. According to UBC 310.6.1, minimum ceiling height is 7’6” in habitable rooms and 7’0” in kitchens, halls, bathrooms, and toilet compartments. Sloped ceiling must be 7’6” for a minimum of 50% of room areas. As soon as a room gets air conditioning/heating, it becomes habitable. There might be exceptions for basements and/or at the local level. A friend of mine once converted a small hose into office space in Reno, Nevada (i.e., not California) -- he finished a basement with pretty low clearance. He had to move a lot of plumbing and wiring in order to keep his ceiling heights in compliance with code and to get a final sign-off from the building department. If the bottom of the ceiling joists are 7 feet off the floor, then technically he may not be able to even add one layer of gypsum to the bottom of the joists without RC. :shock: It's up to Big3rd to check with his local building department offiicials to determine what he is permitted to do legally and safely. His town may not use UBC -- he has yet to tell us where he lives.

I live in Detroit, MI. Also, is the floor suppose to be completely level once done in the basement? What do I use to compensate for drain sloping and should the drain be covered?

Good ole detroit,buy a city inspector, etc. LOL (j/k) Hey there local bud. If the basement floor isnt level, you merely need to make sure your studio floor is level. You must have one of those 1920's built homes.... Hate em. I prefer the homes closer to 8 mile (between McNicohls and 8-mile) they tend to have deeper basements. Unless you go west of Wyoming. East of Livernois is the worse....... I am located in Highland PArk (another low basement ceiling city......) All he needs is a variance and they are easy to get in Detroit foir this type of construction. Unless Kwame is trying to crack down...... I had a home on Spkane right by I-96 and received approval to close the celing, etc... and make a basement theatre room. ALSO, do not cover your drains. HAve you seen ouyr recent weather. Sewer system starting to back up. Seems all the drains on the west side of town go to ONE main drain by the rouge river. Very prone to backup when we get a lot of weather. The east side flows down near Conners. SO in case of backup it wont just sit in your house and ruin your gear. We are blessed in the inner city (remember Allen Park last year) And certain parts of our city NEVER have problems..... Remember 1995 when we had massive rains and the streets were flooded for half a day????? And Note this will be a ruff winter Lots of moisture cuz of the high temps and the lake effect snow that will travel and dump on us. (Remember 1982/ 1999)

giles117 wrote:

Good ole detroit,buy a city inspector, etc. LOL (j/k) Hey there local bud. If the basement floor isnt level, you merely need to make sure your studio floor is level. You must have one of those 1920's built homes.... Hate em. I prefer the homes closer to 8 mile (between McNicohls and 8-mile) they tend to have deeper basements. Unless you go west of Wyoming. East of Livernois is the worse....... I am located in Highland PArk (another low basement ceiling city......) All he needs is a variance and they are easy to get in Detroit foir this type of construction. Unless Kwame is trying to crack down...... I had a home on Spkane right by I-96 and received approval to close the celing, etc... and make a basement theatre room. ALSO, do not cover your drains. HAve you seen ouyr recent weather. Sewer system starting to back up. Seems all the drains on the west side of town go to ONE main drain by the rouge river. Very prone to backup when we get a lot of weather. The east side flows down near Conners. SO in case of backup it wont just sit in your house and ruin your gear. We are blessed in the inner city (remember Allen Park last year) And certain parts of our city NEVER have problems..... Remember 1995 when we had massive rains and the streets were flooded for half a day????? And Note this will be a ruff winter Lots of moisture cuz of the high temps and the lake effect snow that will travel and dump on us. (Remember 1982/ 1999)

Ok, I'm not suppose to cover the drains. Alright, so how do I make the floors level without taking away too much of my minimal height and what materials do I use? I want hard wood and carpet in the control room. Half and half. Oh yeah, why is it so important to float the floors again?

Look here: http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=839 This is a comprehensive thread with play by play for his floated floor. For your purposes I'd lay the studs on their sides to keep as much height as possible. All wood surface is best. Floated floor to isolate the control room from the live room. and exterior noise/vibration...

giles117 wrote:

Look here: http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=839 This is a comprehensive thread with play by play for his floated floor. For your purposes I'd lay the studs on their sides to keep as much height as possible. All wood surface is best.

You know, I've read this thing several times and really is a little over my head. You have to understand that I'm completely ignorant to this process. I've read that cost effective way to float a floor is to put down some carpet padding, your hard wood, and there you go. And if you want carpet, put down padding, tongue and groove flooring, padding again, then carpet. This is what I read. This is what I know. Can you help me?

cost effective for a living space watching movies, etcc. not a studio. did you look at the photos????

Please, please, please do more research on floating floors. It is so often assumed to be "a given" that they are required. Yes, there are benefits if done correctly. However, it is very difficult to do it right, even if you know exactly what you're doing. Unfortunately, there are many opportunities for error, and in those cases your results will be worse than if you hadn't floated a floor at all! :shock: I'm not anti-floating... But I am anti-floating when it's clear that the floater doesn't have the necessary grasp to be successful... Which is a virtual guarantee of failure. Oh, and in case it isn't obvious, the "carpet padding" as a hard wood floor elastomer is a terrible idea. :( I would go into more detail about what is involved in properly floating a floor/room, but I'm short on time, and it's been covered here (and on StudioTips) ad infitinitum. I hope this doesn't come across as too harsh or unsupportive. I really do want to see you succeed in your project. :) It's just that sometimes it takes a little slap upside the head to get a point across. ;-) --Keith :mrgreen:

A bit of follow-up... Here's a quote from Paul Woodlock over at StudioTips:

Paul wrote:

After designing a room within a room with high mass walls, the weak link then becomes the floor. So for those ( Like me ) who need a LOT of soundproofing the floating floor is desirable. The cons of a floating floor is that it's a] expensive, b] Heavy, which usually means ground floor ( or basements ) only, and c] must be calculated properly. . . . A lot of the methods don't really work properly. Sadly floating floors are the victim of misinformation, and there's been many floating floors built in DIY studios ( and even some pro studios ) that a] are pointless or b] don't work. or c] both. (Source)

If you don't already know who Paul is, spend a few days reading his studio build diary, and you'll have a much better appreciation of what it takes to float a floor properly. 8)

He's got a lot of nice pics to go with it as well :)

I've found a product at Lowes that might assist in floating a floor. Check out the website. It will tell you more about it than I could. http://www.subflor.com

Looked at it. Not the best product for THIS job :) The bottom is a hard Plastic that merely ELEVATES your flooring above the concrete to allow airflow, etc..... Hard Plastic is not an isolator like Rubber or neoprene.