Sound room flooring advice needed

Thank you all very much for your suggestions. I'm coming to the conclusion that glue-down is the way to go. My own concerns about resonance from floating have been confirmed by several of you.

My wife is not a fan of wall-to-wall carpeting, so that's out, even though I know it would be good for sound. So I'll use a huge, thick area carpet on a jute pad to soak up some reflections. I considered cork flooring and even brought in samples, but I think it'll be too soft for the long haul. Looks cool, though, and I'm sure it would be an excellent choice for sonics.

Thanks again,
Bill

Gluing to a concrete basement floor is a mistake due to wicking moisture.

Zenblaster, solid hardwood floors, of course, cannot be glued down below grade. But in talking to contractors and doing research (okay, on the web), I've learned that engineered hardwood flooring is designed for this application, provided a proper moisture barrier (4-6 mil of plastic) is under-laid. Are you saying it's still a bad idea?

I'd certainly rather do a float if only because I could leave the old linoleum squares in place. My gear and Adona racks are pretty heavy; my 90 lb Sound Anchor speaker stands don't pass much resonance that I can sense; one of my turntables has a 100-pound plinth and the other is on a Minus-K isolation platform, so I doubt they'd be much affected by footfalls or vibration. I'm not certain that resonance would be a problem with a floating floor, especially using a dense foam underlayment. But my system has evolved and been tuned while being spiked to the slab, so I don't want some big sonic curveball. Obviously, I want to get the flooring right the first time.

Hi Zenblaster,

Thanks a lot for the helpful response. I'm in the SF bay area (near the bay), so it's typically dry for eight months and rainy for four. The heavily-sloped property has no apparent drainage issues. The space itself is more on-grade than below, with no seepage issues; but some of the original linoleum tiles, installed in the mid-1950s, have popped from efflorescence, so moisture has obviously come through the slab at some point.

The Dricore looks like an excellent product, if a little pricey. Do you need to install a separate vapor barrier, like 6 mil plastic, too? Does the engineered hardwood flooring go right on top of it, or is another float layer needed?

Bill

Great info, Zenblaster. After the Dricore is down, you're talking about floating the floor on top of it, right, not gluing? If floating, what kind of underlayment do you recommend between it and the flooring? I've considered cork, PE foam, and a product called Quiet Walk. What do you think?

Pops, I looked at your system page. Your floor is gorgeous. Looks to be birch, which is what I'm planning to use. Did you float it on top of the Dricore?

Cork is something I've considered but I'm concerned it would be too soft. I brought in some samples; I can dent them with my thumbnail. I'm also wary of it fading in sunlight, of which my room gets a ton.

Acoustically, I doubt cork flooring would damp more than wall-to-wall carpeting atop a pad, which people seem to like in sound rooms.