Flooring Ideas For Basements

When you are finishing a basement and trying to create some additional space to relieve the "cramped house" syndrome, there's a lot of things to consider. One things for sure though, it really is cost effective over time to just finish the space and gain the needed square footage than simply moving to a more costly but more spacious house. But no matter how you actually finish the basement, there really are different flooring options that will work better dependent on the type of room. So, let's go over what I think are appropriate flooring ideas for basements.

If you are truly heading down the option of remodeling the basement for "liveable" space then you are likely going to want to install either engineered hardwood flooring, laminate flooring or carpeting. There's only one thing to really note with this type of basement flooring though, your basement has to be dry. If it has any kind of moisture issues you are going to want to perform the appropriate waterproofing and repairs before ever attempting to install flooring material of this type. If you put this type of flooring in a basement that has water issues, if they get wet it can lead to all kinds of problems like mold, mildew and rot. All of which can be dangerous scenario's not only to the house but those who live there as well.

Most all engineered hardwood flooring can take a little bit of dampness (but not much over and over) and are mostly all rated to where they can be installed in a basement. Laminates fair a little worse and are known to buckle and warp with water damage. Carpet, well let's just say it's not fun removing wet carpet from a flooded basement.

Not being all doom-and-gloom here, it's just the facts and I just want you to be aware of that first before proceeding further. These are not waterproof basement flooring materials.

However, if your basement is dry and not prone to flooding, these make excellent flooring ideas for liveable basements. They'll provide the warmth and beauty that you'd expect in your home and will quite possibly match the rest of the flooring throughout it.

Tiling a basement floor can be an excellent option for remodeling both liveable and entertaining basement spaces. First off, tile is versatile and is virtually waterproof. If it floods, it should not destroy or harm it much at all. Now, if you've got a kids playroom in mind, I don't think I would go about and install ceramic tile flooring. It's not the best on the body or the feet, or maybe even if one of them falls. But if it's going to be more of an entertaining party room, then there's not another flooring material out there that's as virtually indestructible in a basement as tile.

Tile comes in all shapes and sizes as well as colors and can be installed by a do-it-yourselfer, given the right amount of time and tools to get the job done.

If however, you are simply going to use your basement as an added storage area or laundry room, you might not want to go through all the hassle of installation that come with the other flooring options listed. Instead, you could simply opt to either stain or paint the floors of your basement. It's a simple idea and is fairly inexpensive versus the others and you could likely do it all in a day. Just be sure not to paint yourself in a corner!

Do use a good epoxy paint though and make sure you clean and mop the floor real good so the paint "sticks". Otherwise, you'll likely end up with quite a lot of peeling.