John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi, I was going to start a thread about absorption and differs for the room Im about to build but Philadelphia just got hammered with rain and I have water in my basement. I was going to start redoing my basement this weekend so Im glad I didn't.
So my question is what kind of flooring do you recommend in case I get water in the basement in the future. The walls(foundation) are 16 1/2 inch stone and the water was coming in through the stone. We are going to reseal the foundation but what else can I do? I want to do it right the first time so I don't have to redo it. I want to make sure there is drainage so I dont get a mold problem too.

Originally I was going to build the walls detached from the stone foundation and lay hardwood floors or pergo
Here is a temp plan of the room I was about to start building


Thanks guy

Man, break out the SCUBA

Is this place a free-standing house, a row house, a duplex, or what? Can you post a digital pic of the outside, showing the slope of whatever's against that stone foundation? Another showing eaves, downspouts, any crawl spaces, etc -

Do you own, or rent? Any homeowners associations with really strict, stupid rules?

Have you looked much into types/brands of sealing methods? Improving drainage at the bottom?

Is that a fireplace by your mix area, or a window well, or??

This may be of help in figuring out what you can/should/want to do -

http://www.buildingscience.com/resource ... ystems.pdf

That site has a TON of good useful info on nearly every aspect of mold, moisture, etc, if you locked yourself in "sponge" mode you could probably spend a day reading... Steve

Unless you had a downpour the likes of which you'll never see again, I think the pergo and hardwood are out, as is putting anything valuable on the floor.

I'm not an acoustics expert, but if it were me I'd go with vinyl on the concrete. It sounds like you need to put practicality ahead of acoustics and aesthetics. I'm assuming the existing floor is a concrete slab. Vinyl seems pretty tolerant of water and is reflective acoustically.

I take it this is an old house because you mention a stone foundation. There may, of course, be problems with it sealing. Do you have a sump pit and pump? If your house is old it may not have drain tiles around it to collect rain water and deliver it to the sump pit for ejection. Sometimes even a pit and pump alone can help. There are also systems of collection channels on the inside of the basement walls for collecting seepage.

I'd do whatever possible to improve your water situation or it sounds like it will definitely reoccur.

I can relate because I'm near a creek and it gives me nightmares. So far so good & dry, but scary nonetheless.

Best of Luck

I concur; that's part of the link I posted, kind of "get the details but be prepared for bad news" - hope we're wrong, but won't know til more info comes to light... Steve

Hey guys thanks for the replies!! Thank god for shop vac’s!
It’s a single family detached and I own it, well the bank owns it haha.
There is no sump pump in the basement so we are going to have someone come out and work on the outside drainage. My father in law is a contractor so I am waiting to talk to him about it.
I am assuming by fireplace you mean the “bay window” thingy, right above it on the main floor is a bay window so the foundation outlines that

Like mentioned above I am worried about this happening again. I read that link Knightfly and they mention a floating floor so I’m going to do more research on that. As for sealing the walls I am trying to find out what the best type of sealer is. The water was coming through the stone and through the old sealer.
We just bought this house a month ago and there was no water damage to the basement. So I want to turn this negative into a positive and make sure I am doing this the right way the first time so I thank you for your replies knightfly and Philbeddoe.
As of right now I’m more concerned about keeping my basement dry vs. good acoustics. I can’t have all my gear getting wet or even worse…moldy

Since I’m away from home on business this is the only picture I have right now. As you look at the pictures on the left is the bay window. Right below that is the area I am referring to. This is a 2000 sq foot 4 bedroom 2.5 bathroom



I will take more pictures of the house and foundation when I get home.

Oh yeah Im trying to get this done before this guy comes



Thanks
John

This paper may have a few pertinent things, but is more oriented toward new construction;

http://irc.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/fulltext/nrcc ... c44756.pdf

Ideally, you would dig down alongside the outer foundation and lay drainage tile/rock, clean and render the stone from the outside; practically, "yeah, right..."

There are a few companies who offer various sealing systems, the Brits call this "tanking". Here's one company, although I get the feeling they're mostly about concrete, not stone -

http://www.xypex.com/products/xycrylic.html

I would call them and ask if they can help, or if not maybe they can recommend another approach.

Maybe if you were to do the INSIDE by filling between stones with mortar, using their admix; then a sealing coat over that, a sump pump, and full-time dehumidifier set to 40% RH...

The pic looks like drainage AWAY from the house wasn't considered, although it's hard to tell with the shrubs there. Maybe re-shaping the berm next to that wall AWAY from the house and leading any downspouts AWAY from the wall with poured concrete trays, or even just long horizontal downspout extensions??

A raised floor, if used, may help keep moisture away from gear but can NOT be a help in sound control; it may even worsen the sound in the room, because it would need air circulation beneath the floor, so no damping by heavy insulation could be done.

The GOOD news is, when the "organism" in your SECOND pic gets older, all this will seem TRIVIAL... Steve

Thanks for the information Steve, time to get reading. But this is making me wonder if it’s even a good idea to have this room, I guess I need to fix this problem anyway.
Thanks again!

Yeah, considering the future (second pic again) there's times when a Pod, a V-drum kit and good headphones (in the ATTIC) beats insanity Steve

knightfly wrote:Yeah, considering the future (second pic again) there's times when a Pod, a V-drum kit and good headphones (in the ATTIC) beats insanity Steve

haha right you are!!

Lemme guess; in the cans - WHO LET THE DOGS OUT, right??

PhiloBeddoe wrote:. . . Vinyl seems pretty tolerant of water. . .

More tolerant than a wood product? I agree. However, I think vinyl is most tolerant of spills, not water in general. Water that gets underneath a linoleum floor does bad things... at best it discolors the floor, and at worst mold grows under there.

We suffered a major water intrusion from a plumbing defect in the past year, in which I learned just how much damage can occur when water gets its way.