Indoor/outdoor carpet would take the punishment your sweaty husband will give it. I would also suggest a floating floor but I hate the crap. If you could devise a gutter system that would strap to his ankles you would have more options.

:)

OK, let's say we have a gutter system. What else might you recommend?

I'm working with someone who has a similar basement asbestos tile situation. When installing the indoor/outdoor carpet, do you need to install tack strips? If so, won't you disturb the asbestos tiles? Or do you just glue the carpet down. If it's glued, would you ever get it back up?

Would epoxy be a solution?

I was under the impression that you had to scratch/sand/rough up the surface to apply epoxy, a no-no with asbestos. Am I wrong? Also, these tiles are pretty glossy, so if it is tricky to apply epoxy to concrete I'd think it would be trickier with this. Otherwise I'd be very imterested in epoxy.

A conundrum. (sigh)

I thought they made a carpet that is glued only around the perimeter. Those old tiles will sometimes pop up fairly easily. If the floor could be cleaned up reasonably well a glue down engineered floor would give you the best floor for resale and would take a lot of abuse.

engineered hardwood? Do you have any examples?

I thought I read here that hardwood was no good in basements, but oh, would I love to be wrong!

Also, if the suggestion is carpet--I have a cat with claws so anything looped is out.

One more thing as well: I have some closet doors (totally thrown together by leftover paneling when the place was built, but they do work) that barely swing open as it is due to house settling. So, the new floor needs to be pretty low. As it is I am pretty sure we'll have to plane off the bottoms of those doors (or whatever you call it :) )

Thanks again for the help! We are planning to do this in about a month, and it's time to figure out a plan for sure.

If its a dry basement engineered hardwood will work fine. I have installed it in several basements. The varithane glue is very tenacious and is waterproof. Lowe's, HD and all flooring centers will have it. Usually about 5/16 - 3/8" thick. As for the doors, I would not base the flooring choice on whether my closet doors would work. Just cut them off. No sweat!

OK then! :)

My stupid floors are kind of uneven, though. Does that make a difference for the engineered hardwood?

I should add that although we've never had any problems, the previous HO (original HO) did install a basement waterproofing system. It could certainly have been paranoia on her part, and I've never known our sump pump to run in almost three years, but I thought I'd put that out there. Many basements in my area DO have flooding issues, which is why I am somewhat paranoid.

The rest of my house is hardwood though, and I vastly prefer that. I have always hated carpet.

If you know of any good deals on EH, I'd be very interested in at least pricing it out. Is it something I can install myself?

There seems to be a paranoia that inhabits the owners of your house. Was it built on a sweaty paranoid indian burial ground?If there is the slightest thought of flooding I would not go with EH. You DO need a very even floor and with spending min. 3-5 dollars a sf, one small water problem would ruin it. I'd go with in/out carpeting or ceramic tile. Don't think a cat (Claude) would hurt the carpet. A ceramic tile and some throw rugs to warm it up would be nice but the existing tile would need to come up. There are some good tile deals @ Lowe's and HD going for 70 cents sf.

"I was under the impression that you had to scratch/sand/rough up the surface to apply epoxy, a no-no with asbestos. "

Just nail the tack strips down using short concrete nails (1/2 inch is usually more than adequate).