"mr jones" wrote in message
. ..


poured concrete basement (walls & floor).

saw other thread here w/gentleman asking questions
about subfloors. out of courtesy, did not want to
"hijack" the thread.

question, instead of laying down a subfloor of wood,
tile, carpet, etc.

has anyone ever considered using a "raised" floor
system ? of the sort that consists of square tiles,
supported at each corner by a series of legs that
stand on the concrete below the tiles.

i tried to google this, and have found no residential
applications of that type of raised flooring systems.

it would seem to be a great idea (airflow underneath
to dissipate any moisture concerns, as well as it's
intended commercial use of having a space to lay all
kinds of cabling underneath).

not sure what the cost would be, imagine it could
get expensive. but, is the idea something that's
appropriate for a home basement ? (presuming the ceiling
height is present to accomodate the fundamental raised
design of it).

it would seem to me, it's a suspended ceiling in reverse.

These are very expensive. I don't know how much though because my job
started after the floor was installed by another contractor. But, I have
heard of some rooms the size of a bedroom costing many thousands of dollars.
I seem to remember one installer telling me that a job we were working, for
a room about 20 x 30, was around $12,000 but he could have been blowing
smoke up my perfume hole.
I've worked many years in computer rooms, NOC's, switchrooms, etc. and can
tell you that if you don't get a good install then you are going to have
problems, even a sheet of paper is often thicker than the distance between
the tiles.
I have seen many rooms that had areas that the tiles didn't fit well and
were raised a 1/4 inch on one side. We usually just jumped up and down on
them until they seated but this didn't always work and sometimes if the tile
did seat it would simply pop up again.
Even a quality installation doesn't guarantee that the slab won't shift just
a hair and pop up some tiles. Keep in mind though that my experience is from
Arizona where a lot of the hard physical work is done by day-labor that was
picked up on a street corner that very morning so results my vary.
Also, you do get squeaks when walking on them sometimes because of tile
edges rubbing against each other.

All that aside, they do, as you say, have the advantage of air circulation
and hidden utility paths.