Finishing your Basement - Don't Forget the Floors

Are you making a man cave, a workout room, maybe a home office or in-law suite? Doesn’t matter why you are finishing your basement or what you are planning on using it for, you need to think about the type of flooring. 

Of all the surfaces in your home, your floor is the one you are in contact with most often. If you use inappropriate flooring in a basement environment, it will soak up cold from the concrete below, making your space uncomfortable underfoot. Since basements are vulnerable to humidity from the concrete below, it's important that your flooring will not be damaged by moisture. Organic materials like wood and carpeting will eventually grow mold, mildew, and rot.

A concrete slab provides a solid base for a finished floor. But your floor is bound to be uncomfortably cold unless you install insulation along with the subfloor material. That’s why ThermalDry Insulated Floor Decking was developed. Some contractors solve this problem by installing a wood subfloor. We don’t recommend this because, wood absorbs moisture, attracts mold, and eventually begins to decay. As I'm sure you've realized would be a costly mistake since you would have to eventually remove your floor and replace the subfloor. Unlike wood subfloor, our ThermaDry Insulated Floor decking is made from SilverGlo rigid foam insulation and magnesium oxide board, which as always is an inorganic material, never grows mold or mildew. 

Laying down this subfloor system achieves slab insulation and underlayment in a single step with  2-ft. X 4-ft. panels that interlock with tongue & groove joints. The 1in. thick rigid foam insulation creates a continuous thermal barrier, while the magnesium oxide composite provides a stable, waterproof base for the finished flooring you select for your basement.