Recent storms plus the flooding rains of Hurricane Ida have been a wake-up call for thousands of New Jersey homeowners not used to basement flooding.
With more than a half-foot of rain falling throughout the area of Bergen, Essex, Passaic, Morris and Hudson counties, Ida left many homeowners to contend with a rare flooding event that swamped many previously dry basements. Furniture, toys and games, office equipment and, in particular, floor coverings had to be dragged to the curb and left for trash. Carpeting and hardwood floors were ruined, and laminates and vinyl tiles claiming to be water proof proved to be anything but.
Concrete basement floors shine where other surfaces suffer.
While nearly everything in many finished basements had to be tossed, and several feet of wet sheetrock walls also had to be ripped out, the only surfaces that survived to see another day were concrete floors. But concrete floors are not what an interior designer would choose for a finished basement. They are typically drab, uninteresting, often rough, and not something kids want to play on. There is one process, however, that stands out for making basement concrete floors something more aesthetically pleasing to look at and easy to clean in the event of a flood – from rain, burst pipes, leaking water heaters and spills.
Engineered Concrete Flooring (ECF) transforms concrete floors into something unique.
Ripping up a floor covering is a dirty business which you hope to never have to do…ever. But sometimes that can’t be avoided when flooding rains are accompanied by power outages. Even with French drains and a sump pump, a homeowner is at the mercy of the water if the outages persist longer than a battery backup can provide power.
Engineered Concrete Flooring can’t stop the flood but it endures long after the water is gone. ECF is a patented concrete renewal process that transforms drab, existing concrete basement floors into surfaces that are anything but mundane. For the homeowner who has endured basement flooding, perhaps the best part about ECF is that it is easily cleaned after a flood with a wet vacuum and a mop. But more than that, ECF adds a designer quality to concrete floors that was never before achievable.
ECF gives the northern New Jersey homeowner a basement flooring option that has all the durability of concrete with the beautiful likeness of slate flagstone, hardwood planks, or reclaimed barn-style planks. A sealed ECF concrete floor will not only stand up to flooding and around-the-clock use, but it is architecturally and aesthetically pleasing; so much so that it will become the only basement flooring surface your home (and any future owners of your home) will ever need.
ECF is easy to clean and disinfect with many floor cleaning products, and it will never lift and peel like vinyl tile and laminates when wet. And because it’s crafted from the existing concrete slab, an ECF floor is durable and shatter or crack like ceramic or porcelain tiles if a tool or some other heavy object is dropped on it. In addition, like any sealed concrete surface, it resist stains and spills with ease.
No matter the condition of your basement floor, ECF can beautify it.
Once the flood is in your rearview mirror, if your bare concrete basement floor is unsightly with cracks and other imperfections, our experienced craftsman can correct gouges and blemishes and sculpt the surface into a designer quality floor that’s pleasing to the eye and easy on the budget.
Rather than dealing with subfloors and costly floor coverings, ECF can transform the concrete surface underneath into the main surface, saving property owners significant money when compared to the cost of a new floor covering.
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