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Flooring Design Dilemma Basements

i have wood flooring on the main floor in the house can i put laminate

4 years ago

I have wood flooring in my colonial home and i want to do the basement over (currently there is a rug) and can I put vinyl flooring

how would that transition? There is a door to my basement with stairs and the living space. Please help

Featured Answer

Design Girl

4 years ago

You could use laminate because it's the basement, but I wouldn't. It would be cold. Of course, I hate laminate because it's basically just plastic. I have a colonial home with real hardwood floors. I put a nice commercial carpeting in the basement and running up the stairs where it meets with the hardwood. I have 2 kids and 2 dogs, and the kids are always in the basement. No problems so far (it's been years), and its nice and warm.

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Comments (7)

PRO
JAN MOYER
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
LVP or LVT ? It's the basement! If it's cool down there you will want a big area rug. You will want a carpet of some sort on the descending stairs. You need not match your first floor with any decision
Noelle Palombo thanked JAN MOYER
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I'm glad you like it. It's a laminate, so from what I understand it does not hold up to moisture the way vinyl would... But I am not an expert - I'm sure google and the Pros on here could help you better than I could. And judging from a quick google, it seems to be priced anywhere from $1.99-$2.99 a square foot. Good luck!
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Do I need to remove this Bull Nose to put one in for Laminate Floors?
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Hi - thank you - this is the transition to the stairs. I adjusted the pics to zoom in what Im talking about, I hope this helps. Every instructional video I see, shows simply nailing the bullnose to the top of the stairs and butting the laminate up to it or overlapping them. I can't do that because the top of my stairs has somewhat of a bullnose under the carpet - same thickness as the subfloor. My guess is that I need to remove this piece and replace it with a squared piece. But Im hoping my guess is wrong and there is another way...
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PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
We put vinyl plank in our walk out basement and did Dri-core under the plank to keep the floors a bit warmer Coretec plank has a base that acts in the same way. I would do the stairs with the same material as the basement and yes area rugs will help with warmth. We don’t have them because we have 3 huge dogs that run in and out of a dog run in all kinds of weather
Noelle Palombo thanked Patricia Colwell Consulting
chocolatebunny123
4 years ago
We have hardwood on a lot of our main floor and put LVP in the basement when it was finished last year. We had carpeting put on the stairs. We have a door to the basement that remains closed so you don't see the basement floor, nor the stairs from our main floor. We have a large area rug where the tv area is.

This picture was to show the pantry we had built but you can see the carpeted stairs a little bit on the right.
Noelle Palombo thanked chocolatebunny123
PRO
Sina Sadeddin Architectural Design
4 years ago
Look at LVP or LVP over laminate. But it should be fine to mix since it's on another level and there is a door between the transition. Carpet would be nice for the stairs.
Noelle Palombo thanked Sina Sadeddin Architectural Design
SJ McCarthy
4 years ago
OK...so the question is: Can I do it? Yes of course you can. I think the FULL question is: Can I do it without looking BAD? Yes. You can.

It is fully acceptable to have different flooring options/colours/presentations on different levels. A basement floor is often quite different to the upper/living/public levels. There is no problem with a wood-look product (faux) in the basement (regardless whether it be laminate or vinyl planks) when real wood is in the living areas.

The separation of the stairs is what allows you to do this. The DOOR allows even greater freedom. So long as the PUBLIC space is continuous (visually) then you can do whatever you want in the basement.
Noelle Palombo thanked SJ McCarthy
seosmp
4 years ago
We also have hardwood on first 2 levels and put LVP in our finished basement as it is a basement after all. We did hardwood stairs to the basement though.... matches our main stairs. Ours looks similar to above pic.
Noelle Palombo thanked seosmp

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