Liquid rubber for fishroom floor

[pdxmonkeyboy]

Planning my fishroom build. It is over a crawl space so wood subflooring. Dont want to do tile because it isnt waterproof and I think salt will ruin the grout. Thought vinyl click.. but again.. not waterproof.. will leak through the seams.

I have been looking at liquid rubber roof coating. The kind they put on top of RVs. I have rubber mats so I will not be walking directly on top of it. Was curious if people have any experience with it
Thanks

 

[Doctorgori]

You thinking about basically “Flex Sealing” the entire floor or just the screen door? (Ha ha)..
Just curious; if its over a crawl space, why the worry over water leaking through?

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

Well, I am not worried so much about leaking but if subflooring gets wet it can and will rot away.

It's a 600 gallon tank so its, umm, pretty heavy

 

[Silent]

Another nice side effect is it will be slip resistant.

 

[Billdogg]

If it's for the fishroom and appearance isn't a big issue, then sure, flexseal or similar will work but I don't think it will be as durable as you might want it to be. I would probably go with a solid piece of linoleum and then caulk around the edges real well with a silicone based caulk.

 

[John08007]

When tile showers are built the tile, grout are not waterproof, because of this a waterproof layer needs to be added. Home depot sells this as redguard-its not cheap at all. A 3 gal bucket is around $160. Not completely sure how this would holdup being walked on. Another possibility is shower pan liner-thick rubber sold by ft at depot for concrete shower pans

 

[Shon]

What about plywood + fiberglass resin? You could literally make the room a shallow, water tight tub.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

I thought about redguard only or red guard and then tile, but the floor isn't sloped and there is no easy way to slope it either because it is a wood subfloor. This is essentially a thick type of redguard, although I think redguard would be lightly more durable...and substantially more expensive. The room is about 130 sq. ft. I think I am going to go the rubber floor route and the commercial rubber base board material glued down with some kind of silicone. Or actually install the rubber trim and then lay down the liquid rubber.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

What about plywood + fiberglass resin? You could literally make the room a shallow, water tight tub.

Yeah.. then my whole house could smell like a fiberglass boat for the next 5 years. LOL

 

[John08007]

I was thinking about this other day while walking into home depot. Instead of coating floor with something waterproof why not roll out a vinyl floor. Its waterproof, designed to be walked on and a little more visually appealing than redguard

 

[Silent]

I disagree about linoleum or vinyl flooring being more attractive.

 

[PeaBrain]

I used gymnasium rubber flooring. It comes in rolls, different colors and finishes. No lingering odor.

Link.

 

[ambientaquatics.adam]

Liquid epoxy your floor garage style

 

[That Crusso Kid]

Planning my fishroom build. It is over a crawl space so wood subflooring. Dont want to do tile because it isnt waterproof and I think salt will ruin the grout. Thought vinyl click.. but again.. not waterproof.. will leak through the seams.

I have been looking at liquid rubber roof coating. The kind they put on top of RVs. I have rubber mats so I will not be walking directly on top of it. Was curious if people have any experience with it
Thanks

There are a number brands of luxury vinyl plank flooring that are waterproof. Just about all of them can be had for less than $3.00 sq ft.

 

[lilgrounchuck]

What about the epoxy stuff folks use for garage floors like this

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Rust-Oleum-Epoxyshield-2-Part-Gray-Gloss-Garage-Floor-Epoxy-Kit-Actual-Net-Contents-240-fl-oz/1000201235?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-pnt-_-google-_-lia-_--_-floorcoatings-_-1000201235-_-0&store_code=1602&placeholder=null&gclid=CjwKCAjwmKLzBRBeEiwACCVihm5DFLs4tZfgMLC4OInGdvzzhSGeF9MyTq0Oi8GxwUhAzkawrG31gxoCKFwQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[reefiniteasy]

What about this? It’s on Amazon and other online retailers.

 

[DeniseAndy]

I used pond liner on my fish room. Just made sure it went up and around the walls about 3". Okay, my husband did it, but it works. :) I also had a drain put into the floor.

 

[John08007]

There are a number brands of luxury vinyl plank flooring that are waterproof. Just about all of them can be had for less than $3.00 sq ft.

Won't work, while the floor is waterproof, it does not seal to each other-water can seep through it.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

This thread is kind of serving to educate others more than me, but it's all good. I am still waiting to hear back from the manufacturer on how durable their coating is. Most roof coatings are asphalt and never really harden but this is not the case with this stuff.

Anyways, in regards to other suggestions here are some of the problems with them. I am not trying to argue, or dismiss your ideas, I have thought about and researched a lot of them. If someone else is looking to do something similar they should know...

1. Waterproof vinyl flooring. The stuff is great, had it in my old fish room. However, the water DOES get through the click joints. With cement underneath, probably not too big a deal, with subflooring, you need to put red guard down. Then you may have mold issues.

2. Epoxy. You can NOT put epoxy down over wood. Epoxy is awesome, have it in my garage, looks great. Wood however shrinks and swell, even in the most stable of climates. The epoxy will start to crack and shatter. Please note.. those sweet wooden bars coated in epoxy.. both sides are completely coated, greatly reducing and even stopping seasonal wood movement. Pond liner referenced above is epoxy.

3. Linoleum.. yeah could work, tough to make the corners work BUT.. the stuff is EXPENSIVE. For something so ugly its staggering. It's more expensive than nice planks.

4. Pond liner. Yes! Would work great. The reinforced stuff, not the hpde shower line stuff is actually light and very strong. I wanted to do it, but the wife is against it :( I am worried about getting all the wrinkles out, but it is a great solution.

5. I thought about self leveling concrete and epoxy. But the self leveling stuff will likely crack. .I have used it before on bathrooms to cover radiant floor heating elements but that was over a solid layer of concrete board.

6. Selling everything and develop a cocaine habit.. thought about it, would probably end up buying a fish tank to help me deal with addiction recovery so...

7. Tile.. tile could work. Red guard the subfloor then add the tile. Tile is fairly brutal to install but it is relatively water proof. The grout though.. the salt water will attack any grout sealer pretty quickly and water will get under their. Do you know why your shower grout gets moldy? It's because the substrate is wet underneath it.

8. And now I am at liquid rubber. If it firm up when it dries it may work very very well. I am thinking --install frp panels, glue that rubber commercial molding down, then coat everything in rubber.

9. Fiberglass.. lol, I am not even going to address that.

Is there some wonder product I am missing? Thanks everyone!!

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

I used gymnasium rubber flooring. It comes in rolls, different colors and finishes. No lingering odor.

Link.

Did you glue them down? Water isnt seeping through the cracks?