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Basement flooring--luxury vinyl tile? Marmoleum? Cork? Other ideas?

needinfo1
8 years ago

We have a 100-year-old house and are remodeling the completely below-ground basement. We live in an upscale neighborhood and plan to do a renovation that is quality materials and workmanship but fairly simple (not over the top or too personalized). We have original hardwood floors in the rest of our house.

We are debating about what to use on the floor. The floor does have a bit of slope to it near the drain (drain has to stay unfortunately), and it isn't absolutely perfectly flat. If there are any imperfections we think they could be ground down. Right now the basement has those 12" square glue down tiles (no asbestos in them). We think the tiles will pop up quite easily so a new floor can be laid. I'd classify it as a dry basement. There will be no heavy traffic in the basement, but we want something that will last and continue to look good without showing signs of wear or scratches etc. Whatever we choose, we will have it installed professionally.

I'm not thinking carpet. Don't want polished or epoxied cement floors. Don't want ceramic tile.

We are thinking luxury vinyl planks in a wood pattern maybe; I want realistic-looking and nothing fakey/plasticky. We saw some Karndean in a glue-down application in their lower-priced Knight Tile line; this seemed nice. When we were at Costco we also saw some luxury vinyl tiles that had a decent appearance https://www.goldenarowanaflooring.com/reclaimed-walnut-luxury-vinyl-plank/. The price of the materials is perhaps 60% of the cost of the Karndean. The product is made by Wellmade and has a uniclic system that floats. However, their wear layer is only about half as thick as the Karndean.

I like the look of Marmoleum (not wood patterns obviously) but don't know if it is the right material for a basement install.

We are also trying to figure out which type of installation would be best for our situation--loose lay, glue down, floating floor.

We have a decent budget, but, especially since this is a basement, we'd probably choose a more inexpensive product if we could find acceptable quality and looks in a decent product.

If any of you have any insights, we'd really appreciate them. Thanks much.


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