Help me spend money on flooring?

[♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪]

Mr. Broccoli and I are in the beginning stages of planning a flooring renovation for our basement.

-We will be ripping up carpet.
-Kind of "meh" on tile. Would like to not have sore feets walking around.
-Our house was built in 2009 and has shown no moisture issues in the basement, but we know putting hardwood floor in is probably not the best idea.
-Bamboo is in the lead so far.
-I don't know anything about underlayment.

Any advice, opinions, etc? Sharing is caring.

[♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪]

This is how I know it's an off-day on GKU. I thought everyone LOVED talking about stuff like this!

[LadyNymeria]

Our basement project is just starting up this winter so I don't really have advice right now. We're leaning towards carpet in our basement since it will be a theater room/future play room.

[pismoduo]

It's an off-week, honestly. Veeeeery quiet around here.

I think you could get away with a laminate in any style, if you really wanted to. What I like about laminates is that you can get them with the pad attached.

When we did ours, they recommend putting down a vapor barrier or an extra underlayment if you're installing it directly over concrete, which you probably would be in a basement.

I'm trying to remember what brand we got for ours. We originally had some from Costco that we bought ourselves. It was super cheap but looked really good and was definitely scratch resistant - we spent like 15 minutes one day torturing the stuff with dropped knives and keys.

Eventually we replaced it because we ended up not liking the color with the new carpet we put in.

[♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪]

Our animals are ruining the carpet. No more carpet for us!

Good luck with your project, LadyNymeria!

[pismoduo]

Sept 30, 2015 15:12:49 GMT -5 ♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪ said:

Our animals are ruining the carpet. No more carpet for us!

Good luck with your project, LadyNymeria!

H wants to completely get rid of carpet except in the bedrooms and the stereo room (something about the acoustics in that room *eye roll*). I love carpet, and I particularly dislike having no carpet on stairs. But it would look super weird to have no carpet at the bottom of the stairs (entryway has vinyl) and then carpet on the stairs and then no carpet at the top, so bleh.

We waited until our JRT was well past the potty training phase before replacing the carpet... and then 3 months later got the Shih Tzu and had to start all over.

[LadyNymeria]

Sept 30, 2015 15:17:49 GMT -5 pismoduo said:

Sept 30, 2015 15:12:49 GMT -5 ♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪ said:

Our animals are ruining the carpet. No more carpet for us!

Good luck with your project, LadyNymeria!

H wants to completely get rid of carpet except in the bedrooms and the stereo room (something about the acoustics in that room *eye roll*). I love carpet, and I particularly dislike having no carpet on stairs. But it would look super weird to have no carpet at the bottom of the stairs (entryway has vinyl) and then carpet on the stairs and then no carpet at the top, so bleh.

We waited until our JRT was well past the potty training phase before replacing the carpet... and then 3 months later got the Shih Tzu and had to start all over.

Exactly why carpet will be used in our theater room!

[pismoduo]

Sept 30, 2015 15:26:07 GMT -5 LadyNymeria said:

Sept 30, 2015 15:17:49 GMT -5 pismoduo said:

H wants to completely get rid of carpet except in the bedrooms and the stereo room (something about the acoustics in that room *eye roll*). I love carpet, and I particularly dislike having no carpet on stairs. But it would look super weird to have no carpet at the bottom of the stairs (entryway has vinyl) and then carpet on the stairs and then no carpet at the top, so bleh.

We waited until our JRT was well past the potty training phase before replacing the carpet... and then 3 months later got the Shih Tzu and had to start all over.

Exactly why carpet will be used in our theater room!

Ha. Is your H an audiophile too?

[sleepymonkey]

Like hardwood, bamboo and laminate flooring can be damaged by moisture. But since that doesn't seem to be a problem in your basement, you could go with any of those. I have seen a lot of wood laminate floors that look great and are durable but I absolutely hated mine in our old house. I think it was an issue with that particular floor and the installation job but it still left a bad taste in my mouth and I would not get it again. Bamboo floors are very pretty and durable so of the two, I would go with that. I am also not a fan of cold tile, but for durability and ease of cleaning, we will probably eventually replace the carpeting in our living areas with the wood-look tile. I like carpet but our cats are destroying it because it looks like one big scratching area to them.

[LadyNymeria]

Sept 30, 2015 15:29:51 GMT -5 pismoduo said:

Sept 30, 2015 15:26:07 GMT -5 LadyNymeria said:

Exactly why carpet will be used in our theater room!

Ha. Is your H an audiophile too?

We both are a bit! We watch a lot of movies and love nice, loud, clear sounds for them. We actually took all the covers off our stereo speakers because it's just that much clearer without the covers. 

[kaliRN]

We did laminate in our half basement. We put down a vapor barrier and underlayment pad and it worked nicely. If I had extra money to spend I would have put a heated mat underneath. OMG so nice! And not crazy expensive - just out of our broke ass budget when we did it a couple years ago.

[daisy818]

We got some nice looking laminate for our entryway from Home Depot or Lowe's (I spend too much time at both to remember which). It was Pergo I think, some kind of hickory looking stuff, and it had a pad already attached on the underside. We also had a treated wood subfloor underneath. It has held up pretty well for a high traffic area. Super easy installation.

I look forward to the day we can update the rest of the flooring in the house!

[pinkcat]

We got rid of all carpeting in our house because of animals too. I feel like I can get the floors truly "clean" now where before it was just lots of vacuuming but knowing I wasn't getting everything.

We went with laminate because we were told it's much more durable when you have pets. We've had it 2 years now and so far have been very happy with it! We went through Lumber Liquidators and had them install it. I do know water is bad for laminate though so the suggestions about the vapor barriers sound like a good idea!

[jubilantsquirrel]

We were looking into putting laminate flooring in our downstairs area a couple months ago (decided to wait until next year since we're also looking to buy a new car). We were looking at Pergo from Lowe's. I also really liked the Ethan + Allen line from Lowes.

At the time Lowes had a deal going on with the Pergo. It was $.89 installation (normally $1.99). So with the installation discount it was going to cost us about $3,700 to have about 650 sqft installed. This included the underlayment (recommended by Lowes, not sure if really needed) the removal and replacement of the baseboards and the moving of the fridge and stove. It would have been more if we wanted them to tear up and haul away the old carpet.

[samanthasays]

Sept 30, 2015 15:12:49 GMT -5 ♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪ said:

Our animals are ruining the carpet. No more carpet for us!

Good luck with your project, LadyNymeria!

I am in the same boat. Our kitten is not consistent with the litter box *grrrrr*. We JUST moved in a month ago, so I cant believe I am already thinking about replacing flooring. But that is life with animals! She only goes outside of her box in the basement, so we are thinking about doing bamboo down there too. I will be following this thread for advice  

Good luck!

[kayladawn91]

We just laid laminate in about 3/4 of our home and I love it. However, if it gets wet, it warps really fast. My dog peed when I was gone one day and where he did it is completely warped and needs to be replaced already. But our laminate was cheap so maybe a different brand would hold up better?

[pismoduo]

Sept 30, 2015 16:45:23 GMT -5 kayladawn91 said:

We just laid laminate in about 3/4 of our home and I love it. However, if it gets wet, it warps really fast. My dog peed when I was gone one day and where he did it is completely warped and needs to be replaced already. But our laminate was cheap so maybe a different brand would hold up better?

Something similar to this happened to our cheaper laminate in our dining room - we had the house pressure washed and for some reason a ton of water got in around one of the windows and left a big puddle on our dining room floor. By the time I found it a few hours later the boards were already warping.

Luckily we were planning to replace it shortly after anyway.

But the new laminate we got seems to hold up a little better. I've spilled water on it a few times, and it seems to resist absorbing the liquid better than the cheaper laminate did. But who knows - maybe I'm just more observant now than I was before.

[ellabee]

Sept 30, 2015 15:42:05 GMT -5 starbuck27 said:

I have a friend who rents a house with bamboo flooring and she has commented that she can't wear heels in the house because heels will damage the floor, which makes me wonder what else could damage the floors? I'd be careful when thinking about bamboo.

I don't know if that's a common issue with bamboo or if it is a specific (shitty) brand or type. Anyways, just something to look into.

Agree - I think you should be careful about wearing heels in general on any wood floor, but bamboo is one of the softer woods that will show it more.

Also be very carful about who you buy your bamboo from. I know lumber liquidators was getting their stock from China and it has super high levels of formaldehyde in it.

[♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪]

Sept 30, 2015 17:07:15 GMT -5 ellabee said:

Sept 30, 2015 15:42:05 GMT -5 starbuck27 said:

I have a friend who rents a house with bamboo flooring and she has commented that she can't wear heels in the house because heels will damage the floor, which makes me wonder what else could damage the floors? I'd be careful when thinking about bamboo.

I don't know if that's a common issue with bamboo or if it is a specific (shitty) brand or type. Anyways, just something to look into.

Agree - I think you should be careful about wearing heels in general on any wood floor, but bamboo is one of the softer woods that will show it more.

Also be very carful about who you buy your bamboo from. I know lumber liquidators was getting their stock from China and it has super high levels of formaldehyde in it.

Bamboo isn't a wood, but I can see the concern with heels with either floor. Good thing I don't wear them. LOL. But even if I did, they probably wouldn't be worn downstairs.

I like reading this, though. It gives me things to think about.

[Rama]

Sept 30, 2015 17:11:58 GMT -5 ♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪ said:

Sept 30, 2015 17:07:15 GMT -5 ellabee said:

Agree - I think you should be careful about wearing heels in general on any wood floor, but bamboo is one of the softer woods that will show it more.

Also be very carful about who you buy your bamboo from. I know lumber liquidators was getting their stock from China and it has super high levels of formaldehyde in it.

Bamboo isn't a wood, but I can see the concern with heels with either floor. Good thing I don't wear them. LOL. But even if I did, they probably wouldn't be worn downstairs.

I like reading this, though. It gives me things to think about.

But Bamboo is a wood?

We have laminate and it holds up really well for everything.  I can't count how many times I've dropped shit on it and it shows no damage.  We even had a guy over recently to look at replacing one of our windows that complimented our flooring (he'd been a floor guy before he did windows).  Get the good stuff!

[♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪]

Sept 30, 2015 17:25:27 GMT -5 Rama said:

Sept 30, 2015 17:11:58 GMT -5 ♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪ said:

Bamboo isn't a wood, but I can see the concern with heels with either floor. Good thing I don't wear them. LOL. But even if I did, they probably wouldn't be worn downstairs.

I like reading this, though. It gives me things to think about.

But Bamboo is a wood?

We have laminate and it holds up really well for everything.  I can't count how many times I've dropped shit on it and it shows no damage.  We even had a guy over recently to look at replacing one of our windows that complimented our flooring (he'd been a floor guy before he did windows).  Get the good stuff!

Lotsa laminate love in this thread! I might be swayed...

Bamboo is a grass.

[Rama]

Sept 30, 2015 17:27:47 GMT -5 ♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪ said:

Sept 30, 2015 17:25:27 GMT -5 Rama said:

But Bamboo is a wood?

We have laminate and it holds up really well for everything.  I can't count how many times I've dropped shit on it and it shows no damage.  We even had a guy over recently to look at replacing one of our windows that complimented our flooring (he'd been a floor guy before he did windows).  Get the good stuff!

Lotsa laminate love in this thread! I might be swayed...

Bamboo is a grass.

My life is a lie.

[♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪]

Sept 30, 2015 17:31:34 GMT -5 Rama said:

Sept 30, 2015 17:27:47 GMT -5 ♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪ said:

Lotsa laminate love in this thread! I might be swayed...

Bamboo is a grass.

My life is a lie.

Girl, I thought the same thing until I started looking.

[Rama]

Sept 30, 2015 17:32:22 GMT -5 ♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪ said:

Sept 30, 2015 17:31:34 GMT -5 Rama said:

My life is a lie.

Girl, I thought the same thing until I started looking.

It's because it's been called a wood foreverrrrrr.  You can google "bamboo wood" and EVERYTHING comes up.  Brb, having an existential crisis.

[BurritosAtEveryMeal]

We have an expensive laminate that looks like wood, I swear. I love it! That's about all I got.

[rablissful]

Sept 30, 2015 16:40:16 GMT -5 samanthasays said:

Sept 30, 2015 15:12:49 GMT -5 ♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪ said:

Our animals are ruining the carpet. No more carpet for us!

Good luck with your project, LadyNymeria!

I am in the same boat. Our kitten is not consistent with the litter box *grrrrr*. We JUST moved in a month ago, so I cant believe I am already thinking about replacing flooring. But that is life with animals! She only goes outside of her box in the basement, so we are thinking about doing bamboo down there too. I will be following this thread for advice  

Good luck!

BAD CB!

I have to clean out Ned's box pretty much every day or else he starts peeing elsewhere. He's a high maintenance brat.

[doodler]

We just finished renovating our basement after we flooded out. We originally had carpet. We were planning on putting down pergo and I had it all picked out when we realized that our floor was totally not level. Like ridiculously not level. Since we were doing it ourselves and only plan on being in this house a few more years, we took the path of least resistance and just put down more carpet.

[butlerfan]

We have wood in our basement and havent had any issues.

[thechickencoop]

We have a wide plank laminate in our basement, I fucking love it. We chose laminate over wood because it's below grade, it was concrete and I'm not quite sure since it's been several years but I think we just had like a foam under-layer. H and my dad did it and the whole installation went pretty quickly and easily.

We have light use down there but again, it's been about 6 years and held up extraordinarily well. We just had our first damage issue when H dropped a fucking lift bar with weights a couple weeks ago. Yea...now we have a dent; ALTHOUGH, the finish didn't actually dent so unless you happen to run your foot over it then you would never know.

I think it Bruce brand laminate.

[thechickencoop]

Sept 30, 2015 16:51:31 GMT -5 pismoduo said:

Sept 30, 2015 16:45:23 GMT -5 kayladawn91 said:

We just laid laminate in about 3/4 of our home and I love it. However, if it gets wet, it warps really fast. My dog peed when I was gone one day and where he did it is completely warped and needs to be replaced already. But our laminate was cheap so maybe a different brand would hold up better?

Something similar to this happened to our cheaper laminate in our dining room - we had the house pressure washed and for some reason a ton of water got in around one of the windows and left a big puddle on our dining room floor. By the time I found it a few hours later the boards were already warping.

Luckily we were planning to replace it shortly after anyway.

But the new laminate we got seems to hold up a little better. I've spilled water on it a few times, and it seems to resist absorbing the liquid better than the cheaper laminate did. But who knows - maybe I'm just more observant now than I was before.

Ditto this, we don't have moisture issues but I've definitely spilt liquids before and it just kind of beads up. BUT it'd never sat like dog pee or anything would...

Ours wasn't cheap but certainly not the most expensive. I think it makes a HUGE difference in something like flooring.