I am looking for a new floor in my basement. Currently there is carpet, but my wife wants something hard that she can than just put area rugs on. She wants the look of wood, but given the use as a rec room, it doesn’t have to be beautiful, but rather functional. The area is used heavily by my two sons, 5 and 8, so they can be tough on the room. It is also the area that we use for access to the hot-tub. We use the tub mostly in the winter, so we always come in wet to dry. There is a small tiled area in front of the sliding door, but in reality the water ends up past this area. We’re looking at laminates and at engineered flooring. Any recommendations, both brands and materials? I plan on putting it down myself and most would consider me pretty handy.
Dave
Replies
Lowes has something called Dri-core and other places have similar products I think. They are snap-together 2' square panels that consist of wood laminate over a sort of plastic waffle that allows water to drain under it and the plastic protects the wood from moisture. I would think that would be ideal for your situation.
I used it in a basement recently. I had to first level out the cement a bit where the drain is and then further leveled out the dricore panels using tapered 3/4 plywood shims. Aside from the other benefits of using the dricore panels, it was handy being able to even out the floor a bit before the laminate install.Some of the best deals in laminate flooring these days is at Sams or Costcos. Nice stuff for about $1.57 square foot. A lot nicer than the under $2 stuff at Home Depot.JT
After tearing out $1000 of six month old carpet that got soaked after a major downpour and rectifying the drainage/foundation issues I installed ceramic tile wall to wall and we put area rugs where she wanted them. Couldn't be happier. In sloppy weather I come in the back and deboot to save the mess in the kitchen. It's as durable as it comes and anything cleans up with a mop. First I had to level the floor as best as you can in a 65 year old house but it went down pretty easy.
How about high-end vinyl? It will look as much like wood as a pergo floor and it will handle the abuse better (the base won't swell with moisture). With the much lower cost you can replace it if you want when your kids are grown.
How often do you want to do it?
You could apply concrete stain (Benjamin Moore makes some), looks nice at first, but will wear w/ heavy traffic. However, it is easy to apply, and re-apply as needed.
Or.....Ceramic tile it once, and forget about it for 50 years.
Or.....some of the very expensive epoxy finishes avail through HD etc.