Latest Discussions : Flooring & Stairs

01:36PM | 10/27/04

Member Since: 07/30/04
11 lifetime posts

Is this a floor water barrier?

We just bought a house (built in the 50s) and want to redo part of the basement rec room which was built in 1970. After pulling off the old wall-to-wall carpeting and padding, we noticed some kind of black covering that was glued to the foundation. Someone at a hardware store said it was a vapor barrier.

The same black covering is also underneath the carpeting on the basement stairs. It's turning into a black powder and has fallen through the cracks underneath the stairs into little piles.

It is pretty easy to scrape this stuff off the floor and my husband wants to go ahead and do this.

Anyone have any idea what this might be?

Thanks!

MarthaB

Lefloorman

04:34PM | 10/28/04

Member Since: 09/01/04
4 lifetime posts

Hi Martha

What you see could be one of three things I can think of. It may be old roofing felt like that used under shingles. If very thin it may be that there was an old asbestos tile removed leaving the cutback glue but sounds more like there was once an old rubberback carpet glued down that when removed peeled away from its backing.It is often left down when adding new carpet. Since it was on steps and is powdering this would be most likely. As for leaving it or not depends on type of new flooring being installed.

Hope this helps,Lefloorman