Comparing 5 Different Subfloor Systems and What They Cost

there's no such thing as what's the best subfloor system it's what's best for you we're talking thermal barriers we're talking moisture management we're talking construction technology we're going to handle all the questions that our members have had on our forum for the last few months have both their basement projects we're going to do it all in this video we're going to tackle six different ways to make a subfloor system at home and when to use what and what age of house and what kind of conditions to get what kind of results so without wasting any more time let's just jump right into this first of all the one product everybody should know about right this is dry core there are other companies make the same product I think barricade sells out of Lowe's this sells out at Home Depot basically the premise is this you've got a plastic dimpled system on the back and a tongue Groove OSB on top and you can just buy these in two foot squares come tongue and groove and you can slap them all together and this gives you moisture Management in the video today I'm going to talk about when you should use this if there's better Alternatives and how much it costs per square foot because that's a big issue nowadays right people want to know the cost what am I getting involved with this product here in Canadian dollars comes out to two dollars and ten cents a square foot so if you have a thousand square foot basement you're looking at 2100 to put this product down and it really is just drop it and set it and forget it there are other things you can do with this you can actually screw this right directly to the concrete if you have movement okay so you don't get noise when you walk and that's great but really what it is is it's just a way to separate you from the concrete really handy in older homes if you don't have moisture barriers underneath your concrete they didn't really start doing that until about 1990 95 on a regular basis so if you want want to do a test you just take a garbage bag and you tape it to your concrete the next morning you come down you lift the bag up if there's a wet spot you need moisture management that's a type of moisture management this panel is moisture management again because it has this troughs here so you get a little bit of moisture or you're going to crack on the wall and a little water comes down in a heavy rainstorm gets under your subfloor it's okay that's why we use these systems that's Water Management so we can manage vapor and we can manage a little bit of infiltration of water as well what happens is as it goes in between these cracks it ends up drying out there's air shared space and there's concrete and the moisture will find its way to disappear the way these systems go together is really kind of simple they're tongue and groove and you have to take a block to nail them together and if you're really efficient you can almost eliminate the Gap the reason I'm showing you this is this let's take a look at what is on on the other side that's pretty good eh that gives you actually a thermal break let's do a close-up of how well that's hammered together that's really tightly hammered together in my experience that's not the way most people install this product most people install it with gaps this Gap if you don't hammer it completely tight means now you don't have a thermal break every joint is going to be a place where it's cold coming up through the floor in a basement we have a four foot rule and in Canada it's for frost because in the winter time the ground gets frozen bloody heart beneath that it is 10 degrees 45 for friends in America there where you've got basements but you have a different system and that's really cool that's hypothermic so when you're sitting down and your couch you're below that line it's 10 degrees and if you don't have a thermal break on your floor you got heat coming from the ceiling it's 10 degrees right around here that sucks so by putting in a subfloor system and having a thermal break you can change the temperature at the floor by almost five to seven degrees just by having a thermal break this one is not suitable for planks by itself this one has no underpad okay so you're either going to need an underlayment or buy planks that have an underpad to go directly on OSB this panel goes for two and a half dollars a square foot how convenient it's more expensive to get a thermal brick so let's just go back if you have an older house you're going to have moisture issues you're gonna have Vapor so you need a subfloor system and the best plan is to put it on and then put on all your other walls most people have a basement they've already got walls it's still better it's an improvement but it's not perfect we have another video on why and how to assemble what I'm talking about today is what kind of system should you use in your house here's another option for you now see this this dimpled membrane goes on the bottom this gives you water management the same way that that dry core panel does it's also made of a foam and it has a 0.5 r value or 0.3 or whatever it is it's kind of ridiculous but it does act as a thermal break not a great one but it's a little and you can install your flooring right on top of this product which is really handy too so if you've got a floating floor system like a vinyl or a plank made of laminate or you're doing an engineered hardwood that's just a click lock you can install that right on top of this product as well now this isn't really a subfloor system this is an underlayment but it's kind of a hybrid because it has this moisture management and that's why I always bring this up for a lot of folks if you're not looking to spend a lot of money this is a great option this is from DMX It's called DMX one step I should also mention that this is also rated for sound so if you're in a condominium or a concrete Tower and you want to put in a new floor this has an iic rating for transmission of sound it condo complies which is amazing so now you've got an airspace and a sound barrier and something you can put your flooring directly on top of a lot better than a piece of plastic this product installs just by taping the joints together now you got a moisture lock and you can put your flooring directly on top of this no pad required another product from the folks over at dry core this is called insole armor this again has got pucks which means it's a water management system because there's air underneath the floor and because it's rigid foam it is a thermal brake now these panels you should stagger the joints okay so you get better lock and they just go together like that and you install your flooring right on top of that no other underpads needed it is a very dense rigid foam and you can put your flooring directly on top of this again it has to be a floating floor vinyl laminate or click lock engineered hardwood and here's the problem Jeff what if I want to put in engineered hardwood flooring and I've got to nail it down the folks over here at dry core have told us that in order to put a staple and hold the hardwood flooring down you actually have to add another layer of 5 8 OSB because this isn't thick enough the distance that you're creating from here to the floor is not enough room for that staple to be installed and that's the engineering problem that we have if you want to do real hardwood or if you want to do engineered hardwood in a basement this kind a panel isn't sufficient you've got to add another layer right now when I'm filming this video OSB is 40 bucks a sheet so it's a little over a dollar square foot well you're already at two dollars a square foot now you're three dollars a square foot that just doesn't make any sense so there is another option and there's something that contractors been doing for years years ago I did a video and it was a video and we'll put a link into it you can check it out what it is it's exterior Foundation membrane and it's from DMX and you can roll it out it comes in a six and a half foot wide roll comes 60 feet long and you can do an entire basement with just a couple seams and then tape the seams and get a waterproof Vapor Barrier that does water management and then you can put your own OSB on top that product comes in at around a buck and a half a square foot and that is a really cost effective way to get a really good system one of the benefits is is it doesn't have any gas so you aren't going to have any moisture transferring up into that OSB unfortunately biggest downside of this system is the installer if you don't get that Gap perfect and you can't just do it by working with your hands you got to hammer it in every one of those Gap where the foam isn't touching foam is now where moisture is going to transfer up into the OSB the OSB will swell and you're going to have problems with your floor install as well real big downside to this product if you want to take the time and use your integrity in a hammer get all your lines perfectly straight smash the 11 bajeebers out of it then you have a good system but if you're not that kind of person might I suggest try this instead this is durafoam and this is a three-quarter inch that comes in a one inch option I don't think you need it because this gives you almost R3 which is a perfect thermal break for a floor any thicker than that you're just wasting your money in my opinion it is only 16 in pennies for the entire sheet which means it's 50 cents a square foot and all you got to do is buy your OSB right now it's just about a buck so it's a buck 50 solution so this product compared to the dry core insul armor or the insulated panel it's a lot cheaper the only thing it doesn't do is moisture management so the backside doesn't have any air gaps so you can save money but you don't get as much performance it's not a real big issue this is also three quarters so when I put my 5 8 on top now it's thick enough so I can nail down hardwood floor surfaces so I got options how do you pick the way you pick is you got to pick which solution you're trying to solve first thing what am I got as far as watermelon management issues if you have an old house you've got Vapor Barrier issues this is the vapor barrier problem solved if it's an old house and you've got foundation cracks and you get water in the walls every once in a while you probably want to have a dimpled floor you could go with this and the DMX dimple membrane and then it comes out about the same price as a DMX panel then you can have water management and the thermal brake but now you're starting to get a pretty thick assembly now you're going to have a half inch plus a three-quarter plus a 5 8 you're almost two inches in subfloor you haven't even put the flooring in yet right you're almost coming level with your first step in your basement if you're dealing with water management from Vapor that's one thing if you're dealing with water management coming from a wall it's another thing there is no subfloor out there to protect your basement from flooding so just forget that out of your mind we're dealing with managing potential risk not flooding so we can get a thermal brake which makes it comfortable to sit in your basement we can have water management if we have an older house but what if you have a new house like where I am this is brand new they've already got a vapor barrier underneath the concrete they're going to have this whole sitting area we've got insulation we've got sound proofing going on we're looking for the best quality subfloor that's on the market for this environment and I'm just curious which system do you think you would use in this house this house is elevated he's got Creeks around here but are down way below the ditches this has all put on Sand he has no water table anywhere near the house he's about 20 feet above the water table all of his grading around the outside of the building has been done to perfection and so all of the East troughs and drainage is put in place he's not going to have any water come through a foundation wall which is actually got a house wrap on it so he's got all the modern advancements the only thing we're worried about is a flood but we don't consider that with subflooring because he wants to go with engineered hardwood we're going to go with the three-quarter get our thermal brick I'm not worried about moisture management and we're going to go with a 4x8 sheet of true floor 5 8 tongue and groove tapcon screw right into the concrete that gives us the ability to install the flooring right on top now the system here you need tuck tape to glue all of your insulated panels together and you need to tapcon screws I recommend two and three quarter long the 316 width is just fine and it has like a pan head screw so it should sink right flush with your OSP when you drive it in if you're having problem is making that connection just get a piece of copper wire and shove it in the hole remember when you're doing this don't clean out the dust that's part of what you need to make the screw get good Bond okay this panel here runs in at about an inch and three eighths so consider that as well height is an issue with your total floor you want to make sure that your first step is kind of normal coming off the planet now when it comes to you and answering your questions there's a couple other things here when you're dealing with four by eight sheets it's nice to have a big window to bring it all through we were able to have the truck drive right over with the skid drop it off by the window just slide it all in and carry it through the basement as needed if you don't have a window to carry it all through all of a sudden those other panels start to look pretty darn attractive don't they because to be honest with you this is a pretty big sheet try carrying these bad boys down your staircase without destroying your stairs or your walls while you're at it it's dangerous to be honest with you I wouldn't want to do it that is why these products are made because a lot of houses don't have a big window to bring materials in if you want an OSB and you want to have a thermal brake and Water Management this is great one panel at a time if you can carry four or five that's great too if you're looking for just a little bit of water management and not too worried about a thermal brake this is a great cheap option This Thread here is the newest impeachment for a reason because it gives you a thermal break it gives you water management and it's lightweight this is why these products are made now this is why the the celebrities are endorsing all these products because it's a product that can be endorsed it's got a trademark they can put their picture on the box in the store systems like this nobody endorses this they don't show you this in HGTV because no one's getting paid to show the product but the truth is as a contractor I'll take this over one of these products any day of the week when I install this I know I'm getting a perfect moisture lock and I know I'm getting value I'm getting more performance I got more insulation more capability and a better quality floor work with building materials than I do with products which is why I don't have a sponsor for this video because I'm just telling you what I actually think now if I need to I'll go with a dimpled membrane but if I want a thermal break I'll go with a board like this I actually spend a lot of time in the comments section Feel Free Jump in there right now and ask your questions about your house tell me where you live how old the house is whether it's moisture or thermal problems that you're dealing with through the wall through the floor and I can help suggest a product for you if you don't have the right window it's okay we can have discussions down below so I'm not going to tell you what to buy it's going to tell you that there's a lot of different options out there and it's a very specific situation based on your home and what you're trying to achieve for performance hopefully that helped clear it up more muddy the water enough but at least we have a conversation in the comments section we'll see you there cheers to the next time

Channel: Home RenoVision DIY

Views: 298,959

Keywords: homerenovision, renovision, jeff thorman, homerenovisiondiy, subfloor installation, subfloor system, dricore, subfloor, subfloor repair, subfloor insulation, subfloor squeak repair, subfloor patch, basement renovation, basement makeover, basement renovation ideas

Id: 3-RGHwlBwIA

Length: 12min 15sec (735 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 10 2023