Recommendation to improve Concrete basement floor for game room, water proofing field stone.

[Nate Goulet]

After waiting many years, contractors have finally started the process
of water proofing my 100 year old field stone basement for use as a
game room. The house was built on ledge, my property is on a slope
and I have water run off from other houses. Chances are it will never
be 100% dry though I'm likely to get the water away from the arcade
area in all but the biggest rain storms. With no efforts made, I
presently get puddles at most 1 inch in the area some of my machines
will be. Hopefully that won't happen any more once the work is done,
but my contractor does not recommend putting a rug down. The
dehumidifier will probably take care of most of the water if it runs
into this area, but we'll see. Obviously won't be playing machines
during or right after a huge storm, unless I'm certain all issues have
been solved. I don't have any museum pieces, but don't want to ruin my
games either.

What is recommended to put under the machines to lift them off the
floor an inch or two? I was thinking of cutting up some old rugs.

I'd like feedback on how to improve my cement floor. Could be worse,
but marks from chopping wood long before I was here didn't help make
it attractive. The ceiling is typically between 6' 3" to 6' 7", so I
can't afford to loose much height. I plan on putting up a ceiling too,
a fraction of an inch hopefully.

I've seen people using epoxy with paint chips for game room floors.
That might be my best bet, but knowing concrete is a conductor, I'd
like to ensure safety for those playing the games.

How do I ground my machines to Earth?

Maybe use some type of rubber floor, or mats in front of the games? I
love the idea of the florescent carpets and I plan on going to town
with black lights, but they might get ruined in this basement unless
there is some way I could lay them down in sections that are removable
and washable somehow? It's not a huge area for the arcade. I'm hoping
I can fit the 20 machines I already have, but we'll see.

Presently my walls are being stripped of the decayed cement, and being
re-cemented. 2-3 workers have spent almost 2 weeks every day working
on this, and they're only down stripping the 2 bad walls by hand &
with a compressor on a relatively small basement. A lot of work.
When they're done, a French drain (or something else) and sump pump
will be installed too. They might not even be able to dig through the
ledge enough to install a pump but will try. The plan is to divert the
water on the outside around the foundation too. I hired my neighbor
to do this job as his house is even older, and he was able to solve
his water problems even with the ledge. A lot of man hours for this
job, though he's being reasonable about the charges.