Nice Cookies

Right now we have high pile carpet in the basement and its starting to look like shit. Plus any moisture in the basement is instantly absorbed by the carpet and it begins to smell musty. We’re planning on tearing the old stuff out and laying some new flooring, but have no idea what would be best for the basement.

Couple main points

1. Hardwood is not an option
2. Nothing over the top expensive
3. Relatively easy to lay

Any Opinions?
ceramic tile. lots of times HD and lowes run specials on 12×12 tiles for under $1 each. buy the thinset and grout, tools, etc. buy a cheap tilesaw that can handle 12×12 tiles

We just redid our kitchen floor with really nice porcelain tile from Lowes. It was 98.00 each, 12 in a box. Well worth it.
Though, porcelain is a BITCH to cut, but still totally worthwhile!
I want to redo the floor of our lower level, but it is ALWAYS cold down there. Any tile or wood would be freezing. But I would love to redo the floor with inexpensive laminate wood flooring…

I love the feeling of carpet down here but its just not practical

Is it possible to do stairs in a wood laminate

Absolutely.
I’m in the process of doing it now.
put delta-fl or something isimular down
I been doing research about it…looks like it’s a win/win

there’s a video on there that talks about it too, worth checking out…looks very easy to lay down, not sure of costs as it varies
What about cork flooring? Its something I was thinking of doing in the pantry room of my basement. I have read that it is easy to install (comes in tiles) and it is easy to take care of.

concur

tile doesn’t help my cold issue. and I cannot afford radiant floor heating down there…

I don’t know of anything that’s water resistant and cozy.
Do you have a dehumidifier down there?

no, but it doesn’t get musty. just cold. living in N. MI can be a bitch…
Lowes/HD carries a vinyl flooring that looks like hardwood. It’s not really gonna fool anyone, but it didn’t look bad.

Whos thread is this anyway!
I would tile and than use nice area rugs where you will be sitting for the cozy feel. Get a dehumidifier and maybe alter the duct work in your heating system to add a little more heat to your downstairs living area.

Good call. I was thinking about that as well.
Kerosene heaters will throw out a shitload of heat on demand. I keep one in my basement to take the chill off – also good aux. heat if power goes out.
I would not use a kerosene heater in your basement, they are fine for the garage or a construction site, But there fumes will give you a nice headache after a bit. Really the only way to take the chill off the floor other then carpet would have to be some kind of floor heat

cork is pretty cool looking, we are putting it in a project we are designing now… just gotta be a floating floor
if its cold down there just get a radiant space heater

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