Hi there,

I hope your arm is alright!

Here are my thoughts:

Cork for the basement because the kids will be playing directly on it and cork's thermal properties make it warm, it's naturally hypo-allergenic, anti-microbial and anti-fungal, comes with a low VOC finish, easy to clean-- etc.

I've seen a few homes finished with cork floors and they look really nice, feel good on your back, etc. You're in the perfect position to try them out because it doesn't matter if they are accepted by the "resale" community.

For the man cave, I lean toward wood for men (well, I lean toward anything but carpet for health reasons), so I like the oak idea with orientals or even just oak. The room sounds wonderful, love the ink blue color!

Here is a link that might be useful: cork

For your floor in your house I would do wood with underfloor heating to take the edge off the chill in the winter. Then throw rugs as you feel like, or not, but not for warmth issues.

For the rental I'd do engineered wood over the slab.

no engineered wood :oP I'm prejudice against it...call me awful, but i just don't like it...and it would be a boo boo with all the other wood in the house (that's a resale issue as well since we could sell the rental someday)

cork...how's cork with cats? i don't like carpet because of the hair sticking...i may have to rub some cork samples on them LOL i'll have to give that a look see

If your 'basement' is truly for your kids to play, I really think you need carpet. I know that hardwood is the most popular choice, but unless you have allergy issues, etc. in your family, I really think your kids would enjoy playing on carpet and not being restricted to the boundaries of area rugs.

This has been an issue in our own family and we've decided to cover our beautiful new hardwood floors with carpeting, at least until my kids are no longer of the age to play on their bedroom floors.

Stacey

In our basement, which sounds similar to yours in its set-up (although not its construction as we're on solid ground!), we have a really nice wool berber. It's terrific for the children (mine are nearly four and nearly two years-old, and, like you, more on the way!) to crawl / dance / go plop!, but it's also a smooth enough surface for the cars and trains and clickety-clacks.

We have a slide, albeit a small slide, a ball tent, a tunnel, etc. and if just for those the carpet is great! But because I'm usually on the floor with them and my youngest is not yet walking, and accidents happen where someone falls over, I really like the carpet.

We have three indoor cats and a puppy, and with none have we had any issues with the carpet (clawing at it). But every cat is different ....

You could absolutely do a hard surface of your choice, but then you might want to get those interlocking foam mats -- they're softer on bodies / bottoms and a smooth surface to boot. In our penultimate house which was hardwood throughout we used these in the playroom (no basement -- San Francisco is not big on basements!) and loved them. Loved them! Even though we had a train table / road rugs, the squares proved to be great highways, etc. for creative minds.

igloochic - you can't tell a difference between engineered wood and solid wood once installed, looks and sounds the same if on the same substrate (I've had both next to each other visually separated by steps only) and it really is the better choice for a basement slab floor over solid. Were you thinking of laminate and not engineered wood? Engineered wood is a strip of wood ranging in thickness of very thin to 1/4" (thicker can be sanded a few times) glued on a wood substrate similar to plywood that makes it more stable with moisture changes as it doesn't expand and contract as much as a solid wood strip and thus less chance of gaps between boards etc. with climate changes or substrate moisture changes.

That said I would prefer wood in the rental (dark stain) and cork sounds like a good option in your own.

I agree with kgwlisa. I would not recommend carpeting--unless you install organic/toxin-free carpeting--since most residential carpeting is absolutely FULL of toxins that outgas for a VERY long time, and since kids are so close to the floor, especially the baby, it's a potentially unhealthy choice.

think abour large tile laid diagonally with heating undermeath. I am renting a house with all tile floors which makes cleanup a snap. Then I would lay a large carpet (woven flat) remnant in a play area for small children. With the tile you would have no woory about spills or cat scratches or mold.

great options to think about! thank you! lisa and lyfia...i didn't know engineered wood could be refinished! thats why i don't like it (or didn't lol) because i thought it was a one shot wonder.

i'm looking into the pros and cons of cork :)

i used to have berber but dh hates it (goofball prejudice like mine for engineered wood) but that explaination actually kind of shows that aside from orientals...it;s about the only reasonable option for play.

foam squares lol....we always put about 200 of them out on the cement out front for ds and the neighbor girl. i'm not sure i can face more inside lol!

os...i'm in complete understanding on that carpet issue. i always have significant issues with new carpet myself. i'm going to have to research that option, because frankly, i've never seen anything like that in a carpet store.

one reason i like the wood, verses carpet is frankly the cats. the little furballs are so much easier to deal with on wood than carpet!

if we do carpets over a wood floor, they'll be high quality natural fiber carpets. the way the room is shaper, we could do a rectangle and a square and leave just a foot or so on the perimiter.

oh and tile....lovely idea, but not so much used in alaska because of the earthquakes. we have more annually here than the balance of the US combined. we often have 5+ and at least one 6 per year as well as a 7 here or there. no one here uses tile in large expances because it crack so badly during the shaking. our place is worse because of the pilings (which are a good thing because they take most of the shock). :( which is too bad because i could have some fun doing wonderful tile down there.

i'm off to research! i have to let the gc know we're making a change! i just don't know what to lol!!!

i love this forum! i have lots of new ideas now :) its great to put millions of creative minds to work! i can't wait to start the remodel mockups for the rental and have ya'll vote on which walls to move lol

We used suspended wood floors because of potential back and joint issues. It feels like an aerobics floor or a basketball court. The wood is reclaimed, but that's not relevant. What is is that the suspended wood cushions movement, gives with settling/earthquakes (within reason LOL), and is easy to clean with just dilute vinegar and water.

igloo - the cheaper engineered can generally not be sanded because the wear layer is too thin. But a 3/8"-1/4" thickness is generally good for 2 sandings. I had mine in the old house for 7 years and even hallway that didn't have a rug didn't even need to be re-screened (when they just re-do the finish and not sand down to the wood.) so long way from needing to sand even.