How to Choose Your Basement Flooring
One of the hardest basement design tasks is to choose the right type of flooring. Selecting the right basement flooring may begin with you deciding what you are using this space for.
Regardless of the basement’s purpose, there are some major things that can go wrong if you aren’t careful. It’s better to learn from my mistakes, then to try all of this on your own.
For my new game room, I really wanted hardwood. It would look so classy with all of my vintage golfing décor. I wanted a nice pine color.
So I did what I was supposed to as far as planning out materials. I measured the square footage and figured that the price listed at the local hardware store was in my budget for this project.
The salesperson was eager to help me out because it was his family’s store. He told me he knew all about basement flooring and design.
What he didn’t tell me though that hardwood is one of the worst types of flooring to put in a basement, unless you take certain precautions.
Luckily, I did a little bit of research online before installing my hardwood floor. While reading, I found out that basements usually have moisture problems.
Even with a good sealing job, warping can occur. So, I had to make a return at the hardware store. The salesman wasn’t too happy to see me!
After more research, I learned that there aren’t too many basement flooring options. Even real stone, faux stone, indoor/outdoor carpet can be problematic due to the moisture. Unless you get an expensive dehumidifier, you will have issues with all of these types of flooring.
Once I had read article after article on basement flooring, I realized that the best option was to keep my basement floor concrete.
I was worried at first about the appearance and the temperature of the floor, but once again, I figured out that there were some things that I could do to improve both of these problems.
For the color, I found a great stain a similar hue to the pine hardwood flooring that I had initially wanted. I also found out that if my insulation was done well enough, the floor wouldn’t be too cold.
With the awareness that I would have to replace them in a couple of year, I bought some discounted area rugs that added some warmth to the floor and extra color.