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Basement floor covering that passes water vapor – GreenBuildingAdvisor
- August 16, 2025
- Posted by: wendy
- Category: Uncategorized
Greetings, I am finishing a basement and have a question about how risky my subfloor assembly is depending on the type of flooring used.
My basement has a curtain drain and I think it has plastic under the concrete slab. The subfloor assembly I used is 6 mil plastic over the slab, with pressure treated 2×4 sleepers spaced at 24″ OC with 1.5″ XPS insulation between the sleepers, which was spray foamed in place. Over that, is 3/4″ advantech.
I have some Lifeproof (TM) flooring, which is PVC with a nice top layer – but the thought occurred to me that using this would not allow the subfloor to dry out at all if water does make its way down to the concrete. I’m concerned that if my basement ever floods, that I would not be able to keep the advantech from getting moldy unless I pull up the subfloor, and maybe I should use a different flooring product that isn’t made of plastic and has some drying potential for the subfloor.
Am I right to be worried about this or is it a waste of time? What would be good alternatives for a more vapor permeable floor for the basement.