What kind of floor? PIP

kelly422

We have this weird room in our downstairs that DH and I are going to split. He will do bullet reloading and I will do scrapbooking in there. Right now there is berber carpet in there and I want to tear it out and use something else non-carpet. Ideas?

ETA: Can't get the pics turned...Darn!

Ideas?

numbersgirl08

In our downstairs/basement area in our house, we put in tile that looks like wood planks.  It's dark brown and actually looks really nice.  We've had some water issues so we wanted to do something that was safe in that respect.  Before we had the tile we had laminate wood-looking floor.  I love the tile so much more though - it looks very nice and high end, and we cover it in area rugs to make it cozy.

riansmommie

I just saw something at lowes the other day, it's a linoleum tile that looks just like tile, you can even use grout in between to make it look even more like real tile. But being a linoleum it's much softer so if something delicate drops on it, it won't break as easily like it would if it was real tile. Also would make the area still baby friendly.

ETA I think it would look great with that wood wall also!

ColieAnn31

Another vote for a dark wood or something that looks like dark wood

cafecreme

If you want to go with something cheap, trendy and eco-friendly, try cork flooring. It has a cushiony, bouncy feeling, and looks good. 

I can't tell, but does that room have natural lighting? I only ask because something lighter would probably look better. If you go with dark, it might look like a cave. If you go with a hardwood, I would buy a rug, something with color to make the room pop. 

picture:

kelly422

@Beary+Ghastly No natural lighting (which drives me crazy!).  

Great ideas, ladies!

tttwalters

we just put cork in the new house and it is not cheap, at least in Canada. It is about $2 more per square foot then hardwood. It is really nice though and has the same benefits of carpet; warm, insulating, and softer.

kelly422

@kari5186 said:

What if you acid stained and then sealed the concrete underneath? I'm dying to do this when we buy a house.

I love that look, too! We'll have to see what's under the carpet when we tear it out.

kelly422

@tttwalters said:

we just put cork in the new house and it is not cheap, at least in Canada. It is about $2 more per square foot then hardwood. It is really nice though and has the same benefits of carpet; warm, insulating, and softer.

With cork, do you have to seal it or anything?

tttwalters

kelly422 said:

we just put cork in the new house and it is not cheap, at least in Canada. It is about $2 more per square foot then hardwood. It is really nice though and has the same benefits of carpet; warm, insulating, and softer.

With cork, do you have to seal it or anything?

it comes with 2 options for finishes, either a porcelain finish or another type that I forget at the moment. The type we got is the porcelain finish, it is very durable and still much softer then hardwood. 

cafecreme

34blondie said:

I just saw something at lowes the other day, it's a linoleum tile that looks just like tile, you can even use grout in between to make it look even more like real tile. But being a linoleum it's much softer so if something delicate drops on it, it won't break as easily like it would if it was real tile. Also would make the area still baby friendly. ETA I think it would look great with that wood wall also!

We did this in our old house in the kitchen, foyer, hallway and bathrooms and it not only looked perfect after 7 years, we got so many compliments on it. I turned my nose up at it when H first suggested it, but it was amazing. The grout does not work like it should, but we never had trouble with water or tiles peeling.

We have linoleum that looks like tile, and we really like it. 

musicalsilver

I'd go for laminate flooring.  We put a bunch in all over our condo when we moved in, and I love it!  It's very durable for things like scratches and the like, and it's easy to maintain.  

numbersgirl08

Oh, and here's a pic of the floor I was talking about.  Pardon the sparseness of the room - it was after we'd moved most things out.  

Note to internet crazies out there: We do not still own that TV, it is not there, we don't live there, yada yada.  This is an old pic

numbersgirl08

Steamboat1679 said:

We have tile that looks like hardwood to and while I love it, it was a BITCH to install. And your subfloor has to be very flat, which can be tricky in a basement. I would strongly the vinyl plank that looks like wood it is softer than tile and should be easy to replace if you have water damage.

Yeah, I can't speak for installation, we didn't install it ourselves (although we have installed tile before).  We did have the vinyl plank that looks like wood (which I liked) but then we did have water damage and we just didn't want to risk having to replace the floors again if it happened again.  It just depends on what you want/need! Both can look good!

numbersgirl08

@Steamboat1679 your dog is so precious there.  Poor pup!