ᐅ Basement without additional floor covering / cleaning of the concrete slab

Dear Forum,

After two years of planning, the construction of our house has finally begun.
Our basement will be used exclusively for the laundry room, storage, pantry, and utility room. Mainly for cost reasons, we have decided to forgo heating, insulation, and plastering or painting in this area.
However, we are now wondering if it was a mistake to skip the screed and an additional floor covering. Does anyone have experience with a basement where the bare concrete slab forms the floor? Is it practical to clean this concrete surface regularly by damp wiping and removing coarse dirt?

Pure screed on the base plate alone wouldn’t make you (or your wife) happy without sealing or tiles. I have that in part of my very old house. It’s quite annoying and never really easy to keep clean because concrete or screed tends to release sand. If you have the option, I would at least have the base plate smoothed with a power trowel. Then you could reasonably lay tiles yourself (directly on the base plate, or is there bitumen there?). It doesn’t have to be perfect, but with a leveling system, even beginners with patience can manage quite well. Screed itself isn’t that expensive either; you could do that unless your budget is completely drained.

P.S. 70m² (750 sq ft) of cement screed cost me just under 1000€ net about a year ago.

Thank you for the quick response! That was exactly my wife's concern—that the floor would gradually become sandy over time, and we would always track dirt upstairs. The base slab was definitely leveled with a concrete screed (see photo).

Is it possible to lay tiles directly on the base slab? How thick is a screed layer without insulation? I'm just wondering if there might be issues with the height (for example, at the stairs).

Bare concrete slab without screed and no plaster on the (interior) walls?

That will be… rustic.

Have you ever seen raw concrete slabs? Quite uneven and irregular. Ours was very wavy, with inclusions, air bubbles, and so on. In addition, the sand-lime brick walls were resting on some kind of mat. You’ll see all of that, and it will stay visible permanently. Also, you won’t have the insulation that is usually laid under the screed.

... the staircase is somehow calculated based on the reference heights set by the clients. On the ground floor, this will probably be the finished floor level, and in the basement the top of the raw base floor? If so, the staircase will likely need to be adjusted (at least it should) if you decide to go with screed plus tiles after all. Otherwise, you accept varying riser heights (warning: tripping hazard).

Tiles can be laid in the pantry (I’ve done that before ;-) or glued. I’m not sure if they can be placed directly on the base floor, but what would happen? This will determine your build-up height (and also your costs). My recommendation: have the screed done, then handle the rest yourself gradually...

The flooring expert of the forum @KlaRa is, I believe, enjoying a well-earned retirement (abroad on the beach? 😉). But maybe he’ll get bored sometime and want to chime in? Fortunately, I’ve been out of the construction business for over 30 years and never really knew everything anyway 😕

OWLer schrieb:

Plain concrete slab without screed and no plaster on the (interior) walls?

That will be... rustic.

Have you ever seen raw concrete slabs? Quite uneven and crooked. Ours was very wavy with inclusions, air bubbles, etc. In addition, the sand-lime brick walls stood on some kind of mat. You’ll see all of that forever. Plus, you don’t have the insulation that the screed is usually poured over.

That doesn’t really bother us. We actually find the raw concrete visually interesting. Our slab is quite smooth and we also don’t have mats under our walls. Our main concern is really about the medium- to long-term cleaning.