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Just bought an old house. One half of the basement has a nice headroom. The floor is painted concrete, and is pretty uneven and ultimately slopes towards a floor drain.

I'd like a nice floor. Can I make a "frame" where I can lay perfectly level plywood on, so I can lay perfectly leveled laminate floors (or large tiles) on top?

What will happen to the concrete below? Will it condense, and if it does, should it matter because my floor is now "raised?"

Is it a practical idea, considering money and effort involved? Or are there better/easier options?

By the way, I live in Canada. We have Winter over here :)

concrete floor graded towards a drain

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  • Everything depends on the how wet or dry your basement is. Perfectly dry basement? Low humidity? You can do pretty much anything.
    – DA01
    Commented Jul 15, 2015 at 16:21

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I have a basement floor that is concrete.

When we finished it off, we used a product called DriCore as the sub floor.

enter image description here

This is a plywood with a plastic bottom. It's specifically designed for basements, and it raises the floor a little bit. The disadvantage is that you essentially do the floor twice. :) Also the cost is higher.

With that said I have had this set up in place for about 4 years now and it works well and looks great!

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  • Thanks. I wonder how would this work on an uneven concrete floor, particularly the dip in the drain area? EDIT: I found "DRIcore Leveling Kits" at the home depot website, I guess that answers my question.
    – Rollo R
    Commented Jul 15, 2015 at 15:12
  • Interesting. do the dri-core modules lock together? If so, that alone mightdo the job for a workshop...
    – keshlam
    Commented Jul 15, 2015 at 17:28
  • Dricore is tongue and groove
    – bib
    Commented Jul 16, 2015 at 0:57
  • Yes, they lock together. I had to buy so many of those leveling kits. The space i did was 1100 sqft. Concrete floors are usually uneven, even if it's just slightly so.
    – Alan Delimon
    Commented Jul 16, 2015 at 13:44

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