wrote in message
...
Finishing my basement. Regardless of whether I put carpet or
engineered hardwood, I don't want the flooring to be ruined (or be a
bed for mold growth) if the water heater decides to go, which will
eventually happen (10 years old now). I've heard horror stories of
several inches of water flooding the basement when these systems

My gas fired tank is 30 years old & working fine.

Put a pan under the tank. There are special pans just for this at hardware
stores. They have a drain outlet in them; hopefully your tank is close to a
floor drain so you can hook up some PVC pipe from the pan to the drain.
Mine happens to be right over the drain so I don't bother with the pan. :-)