Advice on pouring concrete basement floor & installing drain?

I have an old broken concrete/dirt/tile basement floor in a brownstone and we had a bad flood from this latest hurricane. A while ago I had a sump pump and french drain installed, but the floor is uneven and doesn’t slope into the drain, and the contractor who put in the pump unfortunately blocked up the old drain, so we ended up with pools of water around the basement that we just spent hours sweeping into the sump pump. I think I need to have a concrete slab poured to even out the floor and have it pitched toward the sump pump, and maybe have another drain installed.  Has anyone done this and can you offer any advice?  Can we pour the concrete over the old broken tiles? Anyone in particular you’d recommend to do the job who’s reliable, reasonably priced and really good?  I was not impressed w/the guy who installed the french drain and sump pump.   Would really appreciate any helpful advice.

deviatar

in Flooring 13 years and 8 months ago

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victorpachade | 13 years and 8 months ago

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Here is a good article on options for basement flooring – http://www.duraamen.com/blog/2011/08/03/fix-floors-moisture-problems/

brucef | 13 years and 8 months ago

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I recommend break up what’s there, and start over. By the time you try to “fix” the existing floor, you could have already prepped and poured a new, correctly sloped floor. I like the concept of a floor drain, but how high is the wasteline going out? If it is buried below grade, well then maybe you are OK. Pouring a new floor gives you a chance to design a french drain sytem with sump and pump just the way you like it. We usually put corrugated plastic against the foundation to allow seepage coming down a wall to go underneath the floor into the gravel/sump set-up. I would try to avoid making all seepage cross the floor to the central drain.

greenmountain | 13 years and 8 months ago

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I would take the tile off before poring the concrete over the floor to let the moisture breath.  Concrete is porous, the tile is not as much so, or only the grout lines are porous.  I am guessing you will have unforseen consequences if you leave it.  Is there an engineer following this with drainage expertise?  Are you too busy to self promote?  I know it is against the rules, but maybe we can make an “Irene” exception.