basementbasement-refinishingslab
This hole in my basement has a roughed-in drain pipe for a bathtub (can't really see it, but I've verified it's there):
As you can see, it's about 12"x16". As I prepare to finish the basement, I'm not really sure how I ought to handle this hole. Should I just run the subfloor up to the edges of the hole and then leave it as-is? or should I do something to seal it once the plumbing is finished to keep critters/moisture/cold from coming out of it?
In the end, I ended up using DRYLOK® LATEX CONCRETE FLOOR PAINT
It's holding up well so far, we'll see how it does over the next few years.
I wouldn't even consider one or the other... both.
An outdoor sump pump in our could climate (I'm in Minnesota) is a real pain in the neck. A good friend of mine has one in his old house and he has to bring it in every winter and put it back out when the snow starts melting, which often means a few hours digging to find the top of the sump pit, then every couple days checking and adjusting the position of the pump as the solid ice on the bottom of the pit melts. Worse was the year it melted, then re-froze with the pump in it... I recall he had a number of very unpleasant things to say about it the next day at work. ;)
Depending on your levels of radon, the mitigation could be pretty simple. Several of my co-workers have a small bathroom exhaust fan in the utility room where there sump is located that ducts out of the house. It's on a timer that runs it for X minutes every Y hours, depending on what the levels were in their house. Most of us agreed that that was better than having to deal with flooded basements every few years.
Best Answer
If you use a tub with an above floor drain, you can finish the floor flush.
If you use a below floor drain, you should at a minimum put down poly, seal the edges with a sealant and cover with several inches of pea gravel.
If you want to insulate a bit, excavate a couple more inches and put down some XPS foam over the poly and then put the gravel over it.