Ryan Tsang

what kind of flooring for a dedicated basement HT?

I plan to have a concrete floor in my basement. I've heard that it is better to have the HT room on a "raised" floor? My questions are: Is this better for sound? How high does it need to be minimally, couple inches? Any links to a project with photos?

I'm envisioning a 17 x 23 x 8 area, all carpet, with a second row seating on a riser.

Andrew Stoakley

Hey Ryan,

There's a great product on the market that you can get at The Home Depot called 'Dri-Core.' It's a quarter inch OSB board with a quarter inch polyurethane nippling system glued together. It locks together by a tongue and groove system and is really easy to install. The nippling system allows any moisture or water run off to evaporate without soaking into your carpets underpad. It also increases the floor temperature by a couple of degrees and knowing what Winnipeg winters are like ANY increase in temperature is a good thing.

Once you've installed the Dri-Core you can laydown whatever you want overtop ie: laminate, carpet etc. Not too sure about real hardwood, but I wouldn't suggest that for your basement anyway!!

It's a great product that I installed in my theatre and it's much comfortable downstairs than it was when there was just carpet pad and carpet ontop of concrete. Price is about $6.50 Cdn a sheet, which is 2'x2'x1/2" thick.

Hope that helps.
Cheers,

Andrew

"Remember kids - no one cares about audio until they can't hear it."

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