[dd2465]

Ok so here are the befores for my man cave, I have to rethink a few of my ideas but this is a start...

 

[dd2465]

Also if anyone has a good idea on how to make this floor look better feel free to let me know. I hadn't realized how uneven it was until recently so I will probably just end up painting the floor. However any advice/ideas different than boring old paint are welcome.

 

[JumperJeff]

Friends of mine used some kind of epoxy coating on their concrete floors. It filled in all the rough spots, leveled everything out, and makes the floor look wet and shiny all the time. It also keeps the dust way down because it sealed the concrete.

 

[Trann]

If it's not seriously cracked, any sort of leveling compound should do wonders; a big enough crack could just drain out the compound.

If it is, you could try shimming and DriCore tiles to build up a new subfloor but you have those low ceilings so not sure that's going to be ideal.

 

[dd2465]

I will have to move my mess around a little to see how bad the cracks are. I was looking at just grinding down the concrete to be level then staining/sealing it. My wife loves the idea of carpet but I feel like I would just ruin it during one of my drunken nights with the guys. As for the DriCore, I looked at it last time I was at the home improvement store and I think it might eat up too much of my floor. Still debating about putting it behind the bar though.

 

[Trann]

I did carpet and I have a slab that heaved 2" in the center. I felt that even if it got ruined through rot (moisture test suggests no) or some other issue, it could be pulled and replaced a lot easier than a whole subfloor system.

For me, it was too cost and height prohibitive to really level it and the floor could continue to shift (though it hadn't in nearly a decade, hence my decision to build).

For your bar, definitely consider non-carpet flooring of some kind. Spillage percentage is higher there than anywhere else (no matter how drunk you get).

 

[dd2465]

So in moving all of my boxes and crap the problem isn't necessarily that the floor is that uneven but there are a ton of places that look like someone came in with a jackhammer and tapped the concrete once or twice. Like large chips taken out of the floor. I'm curious if the best option is to get a grinder and try to grind down the floor/polish it. Or if I should just resurface it. Or both... Thoughts?

 

[Wedge Rock]

Skim coat, no?

 

[dd2465]

I'm pretty new to all of this, is resurfacing the same as skim coating? From what I've seen on the youtubes you just pour some product on a floor and squeegee it around until it covers everything and then boom, new floor. Am I missing something here (like the actual work part of it)?

 

[StrangeMan]

if you have the cash, this stuff is awesome. ceramic tile that looks like wood:

Wood Tile, the ceramic/porcelain tile that looks like wood!

 

[dd2465]

Yeah that's the same stuff my wife wants to put in the kitchen when we re-do it. I just cant justify spending $6 per sq ft for a basement man cave. Pretty sure she'd kill me. I was looking into staining the concrete to look like wood though. Give it the same look basically, but I'm still mulling it over.

 

[Wedge Rock]

if you have the cash, this stuff is awesome. ceramic tile that looks like wood:

Wood Tile, the ceramic/porcelain tile that looks like wood!

That's badass.

 

[Trann]

Check out vinyl plank flooring yet? Great stuff to work with (cut and snap), not all that expensive, and looks pretty good. Being vinyl, it won't rot or swell.

Redid living room with it; wifey loves it.

 

[dd2465]

Trann, I was looking into that for the basement, I dont know if i can do it without leveling the floor first though. Also do you have any suggestions on flooring isulation (being the basement it gets colder) I feel like if I put down some sort of insulation it would help level and keep the floor warmer, maybe?

 

[Trann]

Any insulation you put on the floor is usually (and I'm no expert) rigid foam or a dricore like product that creates an air pocket through separation. Neither will really level a floor on its own and shimming dricore all over the place can be a real pain to work out the wobbles.

If money and ceiling height weren't an issue, I'd have spent the time installing framing sleepers to level things out, a new subfloor on top, then the new flooring...

Ref. Framing Sleeper Floors - Preparing the Floor - Flooring Prep Installation. DIY Advice

But, for me, that was a hell of a lot of work for very little gain. I reasoned that as long as the floor was true -- that is, not level but with a consistent slope to work with -- then flooring material could still be applied. So my bathroom space has a slope, but I used dricore tiles and a few shims to get it true enough to lay lino on top...

While my wet bar is level atop the dri-core subfloor which is not...

Carpet covers the majority of the open space, unlevel as it is, and I'm willing to live with it that way.

But if you want that vinyl plank across a whole floor, you'll definitely have to do something to reduce the floor's imperfections.

I've probably made things worse now... 8)

 

[dd2465]

haha your killing me. Not necessarily worse, just more that I have to think about. I will be heading to Home Depot tonight to get some more ideas.