Slanted concrete floor

[gbondo9]

I have a room in my basement that I would like to start building on as a small home studio. In my master/dream plan - this would just be the console/womb room, as I have another room planned for tracking - but for now - if I could just get it flat, I would be happy.

I've just started reading "Home Recording Studio:" by Rod Gervais, (and I also bought Guerrilla Home Recording to accompany it), and I'm interested in doing this right...although like most people here - my budget is small. I have time on my side though.

So anyway - its poured slab concrete floor with cinder block walls. (Ill get the dimensions and maybe some pics up soon).

The floor is very rough and very slanted toward one corner. From the little reading Ive done thus far - it sound like concrete slab floor is good.

But how do I overcome the slant?

Do I just compensate with some kind of framing? Or build on the deck concept and put some posts in? Am I gonna want to fill int he gaps with sand?

Any advice is appreciated (even if its just "keep reading and ask questions when your done.").
Thanks,
Todd

[Jeff_D]

Look into a self leveling floor topping- Its a cement or gypsum based floor topping that you mix up and pour-its flowable and it self levels. Every kind I've seen requires that you put something over it like tile or wood, etc. I think that is because if you dont cover it it will dust easily under foot traffic. Different products can go up to certain depths- i.e. some can only go from 1/2" thick to feathered edge. Figure out how much your floor is out and try local concrete material suppliers for a product that will work.
Good luck- hope that helps some...

[PhiloBeddoe]

Your basement floor may be intentionally sloped to allow for water to drain towards a drain or sump pit. Be careful about modifying the slope.

[iqi616]

My basement floor slopes too - towards the drain. I'm still at the design stage but I'm looking at building up the support for the floating floor to level it out.

[Jeff_D]

maybe its obvious, but I'd make sure you dont have any water problems in your basement before you do any finish work. I wouldn't even start unless I KNEW the place was dry for at last a few years ( to account for problems that may be seasonal- i.e. heavy spring rains). Also, make sure you're not affecting the drainage path for a washing machine or water heater or any other appliance that is prone to spewing water all over the place when it breaks.

my 2c

[Treeline]

Just put carpet all over it. Use shag in the lower area.


*sorry; asthma attack hitting me*





One issue is how much of a slant are we talking about? When we redid our house, the living room ceiling had a deflection of about four inches in 20 feet. It would have required some kind of optical illusion paint scheme to look straight, and then we'd have to keep everyone out of the one end of the room. So we fixed it with structural steel. 4" deflection is now 1/8", but you should see what that did to the studio floors upstairs!!

It's all good when you're rebuilding, but it sure takes talent. Any fool can hammer in a straight nail - it takes a certain perverse skill to hammer in the stuff I usually end up working with.

[SonicClang]

Like what the others said, all basement floors are slanted towards the drain.

1) If there's a drain in the corner you're referring to, you don't want to modify the slope. I've seen building inspects come and make people break up a concrete pad and re-poor it because the slant wasn't just right. If water does get in your basement, the drain is essential.

2) If there isn't a drain in the corner you're referring to then your floor may be sagging. If it's sagging away from the drain then you should probably look into if it needs to be fixed. If the drain is on the high side of the floor... well, water won't run up hill

Check those two things out.

[gbondo9]

All - thanks for the replies!! I really appreciate it.

The drain thing is a great point. I don't know if it applies to my house or not. Ill probably have an inspector come take a look before I do anything drastic.

I've drawn a rough sketch (in mspaint!!) of a side view of my house. The green representing the proposed room, the arrow representing the slant, and the brown representing the hill I live on. My basement opens right up to the back yard and the whole basement slants toward the back yard. Ill have to get a line level and figure out how many inches we're talking here.

Thanks again everyone.

[c7sus]

I had the same problem with the floor in my garage when I did a room addition in there. I wound up raising the floor elevation so I could span with 2x8's hung on joist hangers from a ledger. I brought me to 8' elevation for the interior walls.

[Dani Pace]

If the slant isn't enough to make things topple over, don't worry too much about it. If you are planning to add a floating floor, just get it level, shims on the low end would be the easiest solution.

[Joepie]

I have a slightly slanted floor (old building, starting to sag) and although annoying it's really not a problem. The only thing I had to set level was my computer, cuz the CD-writer didn't seem to work when it was tilted. Go figure.

[SonicClang]

Hey, a slightly slanted floor might actually help acoustics the floor and ceiling aren't parallel then haha

[gbondo9]

OK - so I took the measurements, and Ive been doing some research for solutions.
Ive attached a drawing of the length of the walls and the heights of the corners (in relation to the floor/ceiling joists above.)
I don't yet have a laser level to see what the actual difference is from corner to corner - but the floor/ceiling joists were level, so these measurements seem fairly accurate.

So it looks like the I'm dealing with a 96" wall to a 99" wall at worst and a 96" wall to a 97.5" wall at best.

Would self leveling concrete work in this situation? and if so - can anybody reccomend a brand? and possibly prices/place to buy?

Also - does anyone have any experience with 'DriCore' subfloors from Home Depot? The have a raised polyethylene underside and they clip together. Seems interesting.

Thanks,
Todd