Cali Kid Corals

Floor advice wanted.

S

sfsuphysics

Supporting Member
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Ok, so I'm getting reading to bring a tank online (god help me :D) anyways, I REALLY want to redo the flooring in my tank/laundry room. The problem is I currently have a lot of stuff in there (including a completely full 180 gallon tank) that can't be moved, so I'd going to have to put the new floor down in sections. I noticed the super old vinyl flooring is cracking and damaged where the tank used to be, before moving, etc etc... basically water damage did quite a number. Now under it is what looks like T&G slats that were used in lieu of plywood (plywood was just in the infancy when this house was built), so potentially I can salvage most of that as an under flooring if it's still good. The vinyl unfortunately given the time frame of the house being built most definitely is asbestos backed, so removing it will have to be a careful procedure rather than rip and tear demolition which I'm really good at :D, the down side is given the potential moisture under it as well as condition of the floor, I'm not quite sure it's suitable to simply build right over it.

So some requirements that I need
Durable: It needs to hold the weight of some large fish tanks, which shouldn't be a terrible problem. Some flooring will compress (vinyl laminates in particular)
Water resilient: This is a laundry room... but lets be honest the water will be salt in nature most like :D
Able to do sections at a time: I'm not draining my 180 and moving everything to put a floor down. I'll do what can be done now, then 6 months, 12 months, whatever when I replace the tank I'll redo the area where the old tank was.
Inexpensive: It's a good sized area ~ 375 square feet, plus it's not in a major "it needs to be lived in" area so it doesn't have to be terribly fancy. So cost effectiveness is key! (even if it's fairly ugly)

So some ideas I came up with.
Vinyl flooring
Pros:
Fairly easy to install
You can get big rolls installed for cheap
You can get the individual squares complete with sticky adhesive on the back for a no frills installation

Cons:
Compression due to weight
Water resistance in question, especially where two sections meet up
Lots of "meet up" parts for the individual squares
Needs to be done in sections, with unknown time frame in between, might not be able to do rolls.
Floor needs to be really level, might be hard to do that in sections, plus leveling wood is much more time consuming

Ceramic tiles
Pros:
Can be cheap, 88 cents per sqft
DIY installation, I've done a bathroom where everything had to look pretty.
Tough, won't compress under the weight of a tank
Can easily be done sections at a time
Rather large tiles available 18" x 18" to make grout work that much easier
Laying down a level floor with mortar much easier than doing a level plywood floor

Cons:
Quality of "cheap" tiles in question, might not compress but what about fracture?
How water resilient is grout? What about against salty environments?
My back & knees will hurt afterward... A LOT

Any other options? Laminate wood flooring probably is out, due to building it in sections and reacting against salt water, not to mention anything that might be tough enough to stand up, most likely will not be cheap.

I appreciate any advice you could give.
 
That was one option I was thinking of, I was envisioning it under "ceramic tiles" simply because the methods for both are similar. Gives it a nice rustic look, and due to the nature any imperfections are seeing as normal :D
 
My vote is tile.. I bought some at Lowes last night for only $.79 sq feet.. Not the color we like but it's not an important section so who care..
 
Just went to look at some tiles at HD, not much terracotta at all in fact! Lots of ceramic though at 99cents per sqft, I think I can budge a little for 20 cents per sqft to get a more appealing color... plus it guarantees the woman doesn't make me sleep down with the fish tanks :D
 
Hehehe, nah, no floor drain, the room is too damn large to make a slope towards a drain. I'll just keep a mop and my wet/dry (mostly wet) vac down stairs :D
 
One thing that you have noted and is very important is to make sure the flooring does not show mung, I get tired of wiping down my hardwood (and others) every time I stick my hand in the tank ;)
 
Hell I destroyed my fair share of hardwood floors when my tank was upstairs... funny thing about those older style top nailed hardwood floors when salt water gets on them... *sigh*

So yeah, downstairs, personal space, don't need to worry terribly much about it, but I'd like to have floors that peeling up :D
 
1/4" hardybacker over all old flooring.
secure it with thinset and screws.
Then a ceramic floor tile. Tape the seams of the hardybacker with fiberglass tape and thinset before or during tile install. Bombproof and you can do it in sections. :)
Does your laundry room sit next to the foundation? You have a lot of weight in there.
We don't want your floors to sag. :(
BTW thanks again for the interceptor. Red bugs are long gone.
 
Hardybacker.... man bad memories of lugging around those 50ish pound sheets upstairs one at a time to do my bathroom....

As to the foundation... well yeah it's close to the room, since the room is as wide as the whole house and in the back, basically a 25 x 15 foot room :D
 
I'm not a contractor but done my fair share of swinging a hammer and everything else in a house, IMO hardy backer is good to use, but, not a necessity, I used it in my bathroom just to help with a smooth surface and was perfect spacing to bring the tile to the level of the existing hardwood, I didn't use HB in my kitchen/dinning room with slate and haven't had any problems, I would be more concerned with the supports under the house, I added a 20ft 4x12 in the kitchen and a 10ft 4x10 in the bathroom to prevent the flex in the floor joists, mainly just so the grout wont pop when walking across the floor, I would go with a ceramic tile, but if your floor(structure) under the tile flexes to much it can crack the tile, that's the only reason to go with linoleum, but its a lot more to have installed and like you already said with the stick down squares you have ALOT of joints for the water the get through. the grout is porous but if you keep it sealed(how much that really does I don't know) and don't use it as a bathtub just letting the water puddle up and dry you will be OK, I tiled my whole shower and its all grouted no problems. this is just my opinion,

jeremy
 
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