Basement, subfloor, Dricore, Drybarrier?

[EllenEL]

I have found wealth of information on this forum and my floor projects are moving along. Am researching best way to put floor for lower floor which is walkout basement.
House built in 1991 with bedroom and full /shower/ bathroom in the lower floor but I have no idea if they put barrier under all that concrete.
I pulled 30 year old carpet and it was ugly but dry with no mold however it does get musty basement smell in summer.
My hope is to provide some thermal break to get it feel warmer and less prone to any possible mold issues.
Hubby refusing just to put 6 mil vapor barrier. I have ordered cork planks from Forna and hoping to use cork underlayment which they allow.
Now am looking at something like Dricore or Drybarrier to use to get thermal break, vapor protection and protect my cork floors. It is a retirement home for us hopefully for long time.
I like Dricore foam for R value but do not like the height it adds although am only in troble with one door, stairs and one closet.
Have seen today Drybarrier at Menards, which looks simpler and has less height. Also good that there is just plastic, no organic material to grow mold on. I have suspicion that they both will sound hollow on concrete though? Seen suggestion on putting landscape fabric under? Creates too many layers?
All in all am looking for something that is not too hairbrained but provides some warmth to lower floor and reduces chance of ruining floors from potential moisture collection. It is still a basrment.

 

[highup]

Even the 6 mil would be a good thing. It's so cheap compared to removing all your furniture and removing all of your baseboards and replacing all of the floor and replacing all of your baseboards and replacing all of your furniture again.
No 1.3 mil polyethylene is not 6 mil.

 

[highup]

I'm not familiar with how they work a walkout type basement. One would think in that sort of situation, some type of the vapor barrier would have been installed, at least on the walls against the soil.
I don't know about back then, but it seems reasonable to put the vapor barrier between the soil and the concrete wall and some sort of a French drain to help direct moisture out away from the foundation and the slab.
A moisture test would help your comfort level.
With carpet and padding installed small amounts of moisture and move right up through the carpet padding and the carpet and constantly evaporate. If it's not a large amount you'd never even know it was going on.
Once you cap the floor with material that would stop the constant evaporation like the carpet did, moisture can build up and start causing issues.
You know enough or you've learned enough to know about this already, otherwise you wouldn't have brought it up.
I haven't used the dry core or the other material you mentioned and tho I do have some street smarts in this area, the other guys here are going to have to finish answering your questions.
If you decide to only use the six mil vapor barrier, one thing to keep in mind.
The concrete floor needs to be vacuumed super clean. After you unroll the first length of Visqueen or vapor barrier, you need to be careful not to poke little holes all over it as you work on it. It's relatively easy to damage the polyethylene while sliding materials around and fitting the pieces in place.

If you see a hole, a cut or a tear in it as you're working, you're supposed to use some 2-in wide cellophane type tape to seal that cut, tear or poke.
They make a special red colored cellophane tape for this application. It's a lot more expensive but what the hell.
You also use this tape to seal the seams where the Visqueen overlaps.

 

[EllenEL]

Thank you, highup!
I got few dri core panels with foam to test and they seems to be comfortable and kinda diy friendly after concrete is level
I did apply plastic taped square to the floor and will wait for few days to see what happens.
Not sure how to figure out R value comparison of 6mil vapor barrier/ cork underlay/ cork floating floor vs landscape fabric/ drybarrier/cork underlayment/ cork floor vs dricore/ cork floor?