Fishroom in finished basement

[foristcr]

So I've had a couple long nights of cleaning up water from issues that were clearly my fault. The basement is carpeted and it's a pain to rent the carpet cleaner and suck all the water out of the basement. Anyway it lead me to decide it was time to create a waterproof barrier. I essentially built a very shallow but large plywood tank for the floor and then built walls to close off the room. This won't completely eliminate the risk but it currently will hold roughly 51 gallons of water and I plan on drilling an overflow that will go direct to the floor drain in my laundryroom.

 

[Grinch]

Pretty cool! Are you having accidental spills during wc?

 

[foristcr]

There where two accidents one I got distracted during a large water change and overflowed the tank and the second time I had a plumbing problem with a hatchery I had purchased. I've fixed the plumbing issue but two times in a relatively short period of time was enough of a motivator. I've been keeping fish for 15 years and that was the first major spill I've had. Needless to say it was rather embarrassing for me but it allowed me to build the room witch has other benefits like being able to heat the room instead of individual tanks or having one light source for multiple tanks. The build was fun, I still need to paint and finish the trim and fill it up with more tanks.

 

[Grinch]

Looking forward to seeing it come together!

 

[Drstrangelove]

That's pretty impressive. I had a finished basement where I kept my tanks, but I was lucky with spills. It would have been a disaster without luck since I hadn't don't anything to compensate for a major spill.

Your pictures remind of what I did, but your work looks far more professional. Great job.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; let me apologize first for being a wet blanket. I admire the effort but do not see it working so well. I guess the carpet is still under the new structure from the pictures. If so that is where I see potential problems.
Is the basement floor a slab? If so and the carpet is on top of that the slab likely will draw moisture and that will get trapped in the carpet under the new structure you just built. Your idea is sound but I would have taken up the carpet under that portion.
In some newer houses insulating foam boards and a water barrier is placed under before the slab is poured. Most older basements are slabs poured over aggregate or sometimes just soil.
Concrete is porous and will hold dampness. My guess is if the carpet was not taken up after the two spills you had already, that there is going to be moisture remaining. You may be trapping that moisture under the new structure.

The issue with damp carpet is mold. I use to do carpet work and have seen mold under carpet. My guess is that the part of carpet under the new structure will be ruined anyway in time so may as well be removed.
Would it not have been so much simpler to just remove the carpet from the area where the tanks go? That is what I did. I wanted my tanks in a room which was carpeted. I took up the carpet and put down the 12 inch by 12 inch commercial tiles. Now I spill water and mop it up with a towel or mop.

Sorry to be a wet blanket but in my experience tanks and carpet do not mix well.
I

 

[Drstrangelove]

Hello; let me apologize first for being a wet blanket. I admire the effort but do not see it working so well. I guess the carpet is still under the new structure from the pictures. If so that is where I see potential problems.
Is the basement floor a slab?

Wow. Nice point. It was so long ago, I forgot that in my basement, I had first put in a floor over the slab (2x4s with 4mm film, glued and screwed to a 1/2" plywood sheet), before I had contractors install carpet. It was Illinois and I did it more for the cold, than anything. The film was really insulation against heat, with moisture not my first concern.

They could have put film down or coated the slab under the padding, although I would not have thought of doing that.

 

[foristcr]

I agree it is likely the carpet will need to be replaced once I am ready to sell the house. I am concerned about the possibility of mold and truthfully didn't think about it coming up through the slab. I did a quick reading on some other sites about concrete and will do some testing to see if water is coming up through the slab. The good news for me on that has been that it appears that the house has great drainage and I am at the top of a hill and haven't had the hint of water in my basement, that I hadn't put there. The original design of this house was that this room was the main living room and it has a walk out. This will still do what I need it to do and keep cleaning up anything major spill much easier. Though, now I'm peranoid about any time water is turned on in the house so the likelihood of a large spill has been greatly reduced.

Great insight and it's always the more you know the better you can prevent making a mistake.... also maybe this means I'll get the green light from my to just finish off my insulated pole barn with heat and water and move it all out there.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; If you have a bare area of the concrete pad you can test this way. Get a sheet of plastic and tape a square of it down directly on the slab. Tape all around the edges of the plastic square to make a sort of seal. Check back in a few days. If there is moisture coming up thru the slab it will have collected under the plastic.