Struggling: Flooring transition from basement to main floor

7 years ago

Hi All,

We would like to replace the carpet in our basement and are really struggling with the transition of flooring. Our basement is large with 2 rooms and large living area that could be used as a play room and/or tv watching. It has crummy carpet that we do not like.

We are still researching floor options but considering LVP pretty hard. We have a 2 year old, hope to have a 2nd, and will be in the house for a while. When kids get older we envision them being down there to play, spill food and make a mess. Which over course they will clean up after themselves.

Here's the dilemma. Our main floor has hard wood and carpet in the living room. We aren't thrilled with the carpet in the living room but will deal with it. We have other remodels projects that take priority. The stairs going to the basement are pretty prominent in the main living area and are a crummy carpet that is different than the living room. So...here are what I think are our options when thinking of transitioning basement floor to the stairs.

Try to match the hardwood on the main floor and continue down the stairwell. I'm not thrilled with this because of expense, matching, and then having to put a runner on the stairs. We don't like the look of a runner on stairs.
Use the same type of carpet in the main living area on the stairs.
Use LVP going up the stairs. I think this will look weird when it gets to the top of the stairs
Use carpet in the entire basement and run it up the stairs. Probably easiest option for transition but not thrilled about carpet and kids.

Here's some pics:

Looking down the stairs from main floor (they are wide stairs)

View of carpet in living area looking towards stairs

Basement at the base of stairs

A pick of laundry room/entrance to garage, which is in basement. We always use this. It's ugly flooring we would like to change. If we do LVP perhaps use that.

Hope this makes sense and really appreciate your thoughts on transitioning floors.

Thanks!

Featured Answer

blaze_1508
Original Author

6 years ago

whoa...a blast from the past thread. We ended up just replacing all the carpet with new carpet and repainting the basement. It did wonders and we love it. We took the new carpet up the stairs. Let me see if I can take some pictures later but they never seem to turn out great in the basement.

Since this thread our family grew bigger with twin 8 month olds (we have a 3 year old). The carpet is great for us now and we do understand it will be changed out eventually. Its loads of fun laying around and watching everyone play and now crawl on the floor.

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Comments (15)

apple_pie_order
7 years ago
Have you obtained quotes for flooring already? Usually the budget constraints narrow choices down considerably.
0
blaze_1508
Original Author
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
We haven't. Just trying to think through the "aesthetics". I have a general idea of cost for LVP per sq. ft and install. We'll have it in our budget for LVP and even hard wood for the stairs if we decide to go that route.

We have decided not do any type of tile in the basement, perhaps in the laundry room if it makes sense.
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Based on the plans, I really do NOT think you have a problem but if you try to put a second door at the top of the stairs, you will be creating one. I understand that the builder wound up having to make an extra step so that the first step down is closer to the door than it was supposed to have been and that this is making you nervous. But, unless the hinges to the door have been reversed from the way they are shown on the plan, the garage door really does NOT swing "toward" the basement opening. The hinges are on the side that is farthest from the stairs. So, the door actually swings AWAY from the stairs as it opens. At at no point would it push any object that it hit DOWN the stairs. Seriously, if you were to place a ball on the floor in the locations shown by the blue dots in the diagram below, and then open the door so that it strikes the ball, the red arrows show the direction that the ball would be pushed. At the worst possible spot, the ball would be pushed parallel to the top of the stairs, NOT DOWN the stairs. Everwhere else the force is AWAY from the staircase. Same thing if a person happened to be standing in one of these spots. They might get a bump but they would NOT be knocked down the stairs. You really should try this for yourself because seeing for yourself the direction that the ball moves may help to relieve your anxiety. Furthermore, a door of any kind across the top of the stairs will CREATE the very problem that you are worried about. The door would have to swing out into the hall because code won't allow you to have a door that swings over steps. So, assume you hinge the door on the right side of the stairs. Suppose it is standing partway open in the way in the way of a "Alex" who is heading toward the garage. Alex pushes the stairway door closed so that he can reach the garage door. But just at that moment, Bobby comes up running up the stairs toward what was an OPEN doorway. He runs smack dab into a door that is closing TOWARD him. That force of that door is directed almost straight down the steps and could literally knock Bobby down the stairs. Try it for yourself. Take a ball and a meter stick or a 3' piece of 2x4 and go out to your house. Place the ball on the floor to represent the spot where Bobby's head might be as he reaches the top of the stairs not expecting that door to suddenly close. Then set the 2x4 on the floor and hold it where on the side where the hinge would be then swing it the way a closing door would move. You can see for yourself that the ball will move in the direction show by the red arrow - i.e., DOWN the stairs. Granted, a stairway door hinged on the other side would be less dangerous because, if it were standing open, a person who is in the garage and wanted to get inside would have a hard time forcing the stairway door to close. In fact, a door standing open like this in front of another door forms a pretty effective barrier to opening the door at all. You CAN do it - but it takes awhile and usually results in scratching the blocking door up pretty badly. Do you want to be standing out in the garage with your arms full of groceries trying to get in when the door is blocked because one of your grandkids left the stairway door standing open? Finally, most people coming up the stairs and intending to go into the main part of the house will tend to stay toward the inner wall as they reach the top of the stairs (shortest path and all that) so 99.9% of the time, they won't arrive at the top step immediately in front of the door anyway. As you can see in the first diagram above, even if side of the step next to the garage is really close to the door's swing path, the other side of the first really isn't that close. Put the handrail on the inside - which is the logical place to put one anyway - and that will reinforce the tendency to stay to the right as you climb the stairs which will further reducing the chance for any possible possible collision with the door to the garage when it opens. Get a half-light door for the garage so that you can see in when opening that door and then stop worrying.
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A little carpet remnant in that section would do really well. You would choose a colour that is in the basement floor (lighter is nicer) and put it down. I would not put a THIRD wood-look product in this area. There's too much of that right now anyway. The other option: Sheet vinyl in a stone or tile appearance. Again you would match the basement flooring (perhaps a colour that looks nice with both the real wood and the faux wood). Again, stay away from the wood look. Having 2-3 'woods' inside of 10ft is not something you want to do. It screams out 'didn't have enough so I patched my way through the job'. If you change visuals (and materials ie. carpet) then you can make it look like it was done on purpose.
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When we lived in Canada our home was what was called a tri-lvel. You could enter from the garage or the front door to a small foyer with closet and then you went either up about 7 steps to the living room/dining room and kitchen or down to the family room 7 steps. Once up the 7 steps to the main floor you could turn to the left and go up another 7 steps to the 3 bedrooms and bath that were built over the garage. This was all on a relatively flat lot. No lot elevation needed to make it work. Right now we live at the beach in the South in what is known as a reverse floor plan. Two single car garages, a family room and two bedrooms are on the ground level. The two single garages open to a center hallway downstairs. Family room behind one garage, and two extra bedrooms and a bathroom behind the other. You go up a full flight to the main level with living/dining/ sunroom and 3 bedrooms. We are hoping to start a new build soon, a block further back than we are now, out of the flood zone, so we can come into our home and yard on the ground level. Well, it will be elevated two feet, but close enough. As a younger person the stairs into the house never bothered me that much although lugging groceries is always a pain, but I mostly miss being able to just walk out into our backyard for a bit and then back inside without having to climb a flight of stairs, or just even viewing our yard from the indoors.
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Hi. Just bring a sample of your stairs wood color when you pick out wood look tile. I had my stairs done and picked out porcelain wood look tile close to the wooden stair stain color. Best of luck❣️
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blaze_1508
Original Author
7 years ago
Don't want to bother too much but the speed at which houzz moves, my thread is long gone. Thought I would do a bump to see if anyone has thoughts.
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emily65
7 years ago
I have wood floor throughout my house and when it came time to redo bathrooms I used Armstrong duality sheet vinyl on the floors. I used the same color as my wood floors and from the bedrooms and halls you can't see the difference. I did have to use small wood thresholds between the wood and vinyl at the doorways. I can splash water in the bathroom, spill things and it is just a mater of wiping up to clean a mess. Plus it feels so much warmer than what we had before. We used it on wood subfloor but I don't know if it can be used directly on concrete.
0
printesa
7 years ago
We used Coretec in the basement. So far, we like it
PRO
Cancork Floor Inc.
7 years ago
I have plenty of clients who use cork flooring in a basement because it acts like a carpet replacement. It's soft, quiet, warm and can take a beating (especially in a natural colour).

Your hardwood is very pale and is installed on an angle. These two presentations are going to make adding more hardwood VERY hard to do. If you can find more of it, you can look at putting on the stairs.

Have a look at this cork floor. I'm wondering if the pale (almost pink) hardwood in your home would match up well with this pattern:

https://www.icorkfloor.com/store/floating-cork-floors-12mm-leather/

You can toughen up a cork floor and make it impervious to surface spills (including large adult "fun" spills) by applying more finish to it. That's how you can get a very durable floor out of a click-together floor.

Just a thought. Oh yah. Cork is "grippy" enough that it doesn't need a runner when installed on stairs. It is a low-slip finish.
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lulu
7 years ago
I think a cork floor sounds great. With young kids, I would want something soft in their playrooms. I suggest looking into carpet tiles. They come in any style, design, color you can think of. And if you get a stain, you just replace the one tile. You can also run the same type of carpet tiles up the stairs, as I believe they have stair treads also. I can't remember the company name, but I'll try to find it tomorrow.
0
calidesign
7 years ago
You have another option, also. You can use LVP or cork or some sort of surface like that in the basement, and then use a berber type carpet just on the stairs. It is soft and safe for kids. Before you decide, just keep what you have on the stairs when you tear out and replace the main floors, so you can see if you like having carpet there.
blaze_1508
Original Author
7 years ago
Hi Everyone,

Thanks so much for responding to the thread and giving some ideas.

Calidesign: You make a really good point about choosing a floor in the basement and keeping the carpet on the stairs. My wife hates a bunch of different flooring but this may be a good option (I do like the berber idea). We were just worried about the transition of hardwood, to carpet stairs, to possible LVP in the basement.

I've seen tile carpet; my sister has it in a spare bedroom and it's cool stuff. We have about 1800 sq ft. in the basement.

We don't have any of the hardwood from the original floors. It really doesn't have a pink undertone; probably how it shows on the monitor. We just moved into the house about 6 months ago and it was built in the mid 90's. I like the idea of cork but not sure I like the look. BUT...we haven't looked at it in person so will check it out in person.

Cancork: Thanks for providing the link; that is a nice floor.

I really appreciate everyone's ideas and taking the time to respond. Decorating is hard!
Nancy
6 years ago
Blaze do you have any pictures of your final design?
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Lee Baer
6 years ago
Use cork or laminate planks in whole basement and carpet stairs to match LR.
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blaze_1508
Original Author
6 years ago
project has been completed 6 months ago...all carpet
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J. McKnight
5 years ago
Hello! Reviving an old post here. To the OP, you mentioned your basement leads out into the garage. How do you manage foot traffic over the carpet and up the stairs? Dirty shoes, pets?, etc. Do you use any plastic runners or anything? Our finished basement leads to the garage too...
0
blaze_1508
Original Author
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Hi J. McKnight

We have a laundry room between the garage and long hallway basement ( last pic in my original

post). We don't wear shoes in the house, those get taken off in the laundry room. In the long hallway from the laundry room I put a carpet runner (non plastic). It's brightly colored, so adds some interest to the dark hallway. It's probably about 7-8ft long.

We don't have pets but 3 kids ( 4 year old and 1 year old twins)....they are probably dirtier than pets :) Our 4 year old is always in the habit to take shoes off, so it really hasn't been a problem. Plus having the laundry room helps keep dirt/dust out.
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Struggling: Flooring transition from basement to main floor

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Struggling: Flooring transition from basement to main floor

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