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Q.
I want to install a new floor in our upstairs laundry room and need some
advice. The room has a floor drain. The old floor was sheet vinyl and was
completely flat (in other words the floor did not slope down to the drain).
Once the drain plate was put on, the drain was actually the highest spot in the
room. The old vinyl floor and the underlayment had to be removed due to water
damage. So I'm down to the sub floor. When I have a new floor installed I want
to correct the drain problem. A friend suggested ceramic tile for the new floor
that can be graded down to the drain. Our washing machine shakes quite a bit
when spinning -- will that crack the ceramic tile?
A.
You could install a
pan with drain under the washer if the concern is potential leaking from that
source, but if you also have a utility sink in the room, and you are concerned
about spillage from that, you may want to cover the whole room. To accomplish
that, I would keep a drain that serves the whole room and stick with sheet
vinyl. Here is how I would go about it.
First, have a plumber remove the drain and replace it with one that will be
flush with the finish floor. You will have to install a threshold of some sort
at the doorway that will allow the outside perimeter of the room to finish up
say 1-1/2" from the top of the sub-floor. You can nail up a 1" x 2" along the
base of the walls all the way around the room, and create a slope from there
down to the drain. This can be done with a good quality trowel able leveling
compound. Once this has fully cured, the vinyl can be installed. It would be
best to coordinate with the plumber so that the vinyl can be laid over the rim
of the drain and then the drain cover screwed down to lock the vinyl tight. The
drain itself will need to finish just below the finish floor so that the cover
does not wind up too high.
This is the same technique that is normally used with a "mud set" shower pan.
In that type off installation, you build up the floor with mortar or leveling
compound to create the slope as I have explained above. The next layer is a
durable sheet vinyl that is run into a special type of drain, followed by more
mortar. If you did this in the laundry room, you would have to step up into the
room. Because you want to keep the floor level in the laundry roughly the same
as in the hallway, I would not recommend tile for the floor. If you tried to
install tile on a floor prepared as I have described for the vinyl, there is
likely to be too much flex in the floor, and the tile will eventually pop off.
The final part of the installation should be a good sealing bead of silicon
caulk between the floor vinyl and the wall board. I like to run this behind any
base that may be going in the room. The bottom back edge of the base can be
eased off to allow for easier installation without disturbing the caulk line.
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