Sealing fishroom bottom

[miracles]

Hi,

I am in the process of building a fishroom (FR) in my unfinished basement. All is on concrete at this time. I do not really know what to do for the floor in the FR, but I do know that I am not planning to put a drain. The drain hole for the basement is 10 feet away from the FR and I do not want to drill the conrete floor. Outside the FR, the floor will be constructed with DRIcore tiles and probably a kind of wood laminate.

So, I would like the FR to contain an eventual water spill. The room will be 4.5 x 11' and for an inch of water on the entire surface of the FR, 30 gallons would be contained in case of a spill.

Do you have any suggestion on how to buit a "partially water proof" floor for my FR? I am going to cut the drywall an inch above the concrete. What about sealing the concrete floor, putting polythene sheet around the 2x4 wall rails, adding polyurethane expanding foam at the junction of the rails and concrete, followed by a baseboard (plastic?) also sealed with something....

What are your thoughts?

Thank you!

 

[anothermineral]

I would not spend a lot of money/time prepping/sealing the floor. One coat of epoxy paint should suffice. I would however recommend using pressure treated sill plates and seal them to the concrete floor. The water would have to rise 1.5 inches to breach the finished part of the basement. One possible negative to sealing the floor, is that the water is going to sit there or flow to the lowest point if your floor is not level. This could possibly breach your finished basement with much less of a spill than planned for.

What worked well for me was sealing the sill plates as mentioned above, I also used a marble saddle sealed to the concrete floor at the doorway and I use those foam play mats you can get from eBay, Walmart, etc... on top of the concrete which was painted with two coats of epoxy paint.

If/When you have some excess water in FR, the mats come up easy and you can wet/vac the water away.

 

[billsreef]

Having done the basement fish room thing, the one thing I regret is not having a floor drain. I'd seriously recommend reconsidering that, even with all that entails retrofitting a drain...even if it's a simple drywell. As for sealing, epoxy paint will seal the concrete well. It's the standard in wet labs, if a thick enough coating is applied it will handle a fair degree of abuse.

 

[doctorgori]

Having done the basement fish room thing, the one thing I regret is not having a floor drain. I'd seriously recommend reconsidering that, even with all that entails retrofitting a drain...even if it's a simple drywell. As for sealing, epoxy paint will seal the concrete well. It's the standard in wet labs, if a thick enough coating is applied it will handle a fair degree of abuse.

....I just tore down a 150 tank FR...YUP to the epoxy coating (avoid gloss!), but yeah, good concrete paint last a VERY long time and yup to the drain....

Ditto: I used pt wood (as per code) for my "plates" ...I also built on a 4" drain that went around the room ... it made H20 changes easier ...

there is a lot of material on FR design, some good, some bad but while we are at it, and if you are starting from scratch, a few tips helped me...

I used High qual semi gloss paint, practiced almost extreme electrical saftey and added ceiling outlets (this was a big plus).... also, you can't have enough electrical outlets

 

[anothermineral]

Another recommendation regarding electric... Assuming you're going with dedicated circuits to the FR, install GFI breakers in your panel rather than GFI outlets in your FR. GFI outlets will go bad and typically at the worst possible time (first day of a 7 day trip in my case). The breakers can be expensive (~$30 each) but well worth the investment.

 

[JerseyClowns]

Agree, GFI breakers are the way to go!

 

[miracles]

Great advices everyone!

I have yet to decide if a floor drain is a possibility... The thing is I may have to move elsewhere someday and there will be a drain in the middle of nowhere in the basement...

 

[billsreef]

Could always cover the drain over if needed when it comes time to sell the house and move.

 

[Eric the half-bee]

I had mine tiled(10x3) and had 2 floor drains installed.

 

[Gbear]

My tank room was completed about 8 years ago now.
Started with Cichlids. Lots of tanks and lots of spills but nothing major.
4 years later. Salt. RODI and a couple major flood events later I am satisfied with my design.
The perimeter of the room is surrounded by a PT 2 x 4 rail. I forget how many tubes of silicone were used but lets just say it holds water. I have had an inch of RO on the floor. LOL, buy an ATO for the water barrel.
The floor was painted with garage floor paint without the grit. Epoxy would have been nicer but the cost was too much for me at the time.
The walls are 3/8 ply painted with exterior paint and I have 5, 15 amp breakers for the room. I have never had an issue with the GFI outlets but the breakers are the better option. All electical is run on the outside of the walls in conduit. Great for making changes later.
But you were asking about the floor. OK, yes dri-core everywhere but the tank room for me too. And no to the floor drain. I still don't think I need it but my actual drain was more like 25 feet away. At 10 feet I suggest you go for it.
By the way make it bigger than you expect to need. You will want the space. Mine is 11 x 14. Oh and I did eaves trough around the room for water changes too but I don't use it with the salt system much and would skip that part.

Best of luck.
Stu

 

[miracles]

My tank room was completed about 8 years ago now.
Started with Cichlids. Lots of tanks and lots of spills but nothing major.
4 years later. Salt. RODI and a couple major flood events later I am satisfied with my design.
The perimeter of the room is surrounded by a PT 2 x 4 rail. I forget how many tubes of silicone were used but lets just say it holds water. I have had an inch of RO on the floor. LOL, buy an ATO for the water barrel.
The floor was painted with garage floor paint without the grit. Epoxy would have been nicer but the cost was too much for me at the time.
The walls are 3/8 ply painted with exterior paint and I have 5, 15 amp breakers for the room. I have never had an issue with the GFI outlets but the breakers are the better option. All electical is run on the outside of the walls in conduit. Great for making changes later.
But you were asking about the floor. OK, yes dri-core everywhere but the tank room for me too. And no to the floor drain. I still don't think I need it but my actual drain was more like 25 feet away. At 10 feet I suggest you go for it.
By the way make it bigger than you expect to need. You will want the space. Mine is 11 x 14. Oh and I did eaves trough around the room for water changes too but I don't use it with the salt system much and would skip that part.

Best of luck.
Stu

Thanks a lot Gbear, great info! I am wondering if I could use cider for sill plates on my walls instead of PT wood... I know it would be more expensive, but my concern is will it resist the growth of mold as well as PT wood?...

 

[Gbear]

Cedar or PT should be fine. In the end it will be sealed up and not really matter.

Some advice.

Do not paint the bottom plate or floor prior to installation. Ensure that both are clean and free of any oils.
Tape your floor about 1/2" outside of where you plan for the wall to be.
Do this on both sides.
Test fit all the wood. Leave a small gap at the end which can be filled with silicone.
Apply lots of silicone to the floor.
I think I did two straight lines the full length and a zig zag between them.
There must not be any gaps.
Carefully place and push the wood down into the silicone.
It's going to squeeze out everywhere. That is why you added all the tape.
Add some weights to keep it in place.
Make a nice clean outer bead on each side of the bottom plate and fill in the gaps at the ends of the boards.
Remove all the tape NOW.
Allow time for the silicone to harden.
Drill for Tapcons or other concrete anchors.
Paint before building the rest of the wall.

Lots of steps but this worked perfect for me.
Please give us some updates on your progress.

Regards
Stu

 

[Flazky]

I definately agree with the floor drain. My RO water bucket flipped over, and thank god I had my drain suck up most of the water. (50 gals on the floor derppp)