more decor help needed
A while back, I tried to pull a fast one to see what happened, it kinda busted, but FYI, we will go with the concrete stone Formica countertop in the master bathroom. But now we are in a little deeper. This is a big decision. Big-ass decision.
The basement floor.
We have it narrowed down to carpet or woodlike laminate (floating floor) and use some area rugs.
Carpet - more cozy for basement; I much prefer to vacuum; not so welcome to stains a la paint, playdough, juice, etc.
Laminate - easier to clean stains; easier upon which to play planes, trains and automobiles; can get some fun, funky area rugs; may be very echo-ey (is that a word?); I am the worst floor sweeper, cleaner in the history of housecleaning;
There will be a play area, TV viewing area, and little hallway along stairs. All open area, connected.
What would you do?
Just wait till you get to help me pick paint colours!!
The basement floor.
We have it narrowed down to carpet or woodlike laminate (floating floor) and use some area rugs.
Carpet - more cozy for basement; I much prefer to vacuum; not so welcome to stains a la paint, playdough, juice, etc.
Laminate - easier to clean stains; easier upon which to play planes, trains and automobiles; can get some fun, funky area rugs; may be very echo-ey (is that a word?); I am the worst floor sweeper, cleaner in the history of housecleaning;
There will be a play area, TV viewing area, and little hallway along stairs. All open area, connected.
What would you do?
Just wait till you get to help me pick paint colours!!
posted by nancy at 11:17 PM
12 Comments:
I'm not a fan of carpet but in a basement I would do Laminate and use an area carpet for the sitting area. Then you can designate area for play (Well if that matters to you) Best of both worlds. I have carpet in the playroom and I'm sooo sorry I put it in, grant you it was free. And don't you have a floor head to your vaccum cleaner? I use mine for my floors, much better than sweeping.
Hugs
I'm not a fan of the wall-to-wall carpet... especially in the basement where it stays a bit cooler and more humid than the rest of the house. I vote for the laminate and strategically-placed area rugs. You can get one that's really cosy for the kids to play on. And if you get tired of it, it's relatively easy to swap it for something else.
I agree. Laminate plus area rugs. Because at Home Despot, you can buy decent-sized area rugs for as low as $39 for a 6X9, and then if they get destroyed, it's not heartbreaking.
Plus, if you ever have (knock on wood) problems with flooding, you might not have to replace the whole thing. AND oy, quality underpadding is so expensive even if you get reasonably priced carpet!
Here's my 2 cents worth. We struggled with the same decision about a year ago. In our old house we put laminate in our basement office and carpet elsewhere. In our new place we decided to put carpet in the entire basement because the laminate in the basement was really, really cold. My sister has laminate in her basement but she as infloor heating. I think area rugs might help a little, but the rest of the floor would be cold. Concrete is cold. Anyhow, maybe there are solutions to this, some sort of special underpadding or something but the stuff we put under our laminate did not help. My DH installed it, and I don't remember what was under it. Anyhow, just something to think about. Otherwise, I think laminate would be the way to go.
:-)
Donna
Hmm, interesting to see all the pro-laminate comments. I was going to say carpet, 100%. (Who me, peer pressured? Never!) We have those peel-and-stick linoleum tiles courtesy of the previous owners in our basement, and the floor is cold. We were going to go with a remnant wall-to-wall when we finished it, but a cheap area rug is a good idea, too.
How's that for a definitive answer?
If it was me, I would do the laminate floor with radiant floor heating. You'll enjoy being barefoot and it's a very cost effective way to heat the room overall.
Check out the link below - it turns out you can use radiant floor heat under carpet too. We have a ton of tile in my current house and this is one item I REALLY wish we had.
www.warmlyyours.com/homeowner/floorwarming/carpet.aspx?ev=midtop
hmmm, tough decision, here's my take on it: we have this indoor/outdoor carpet in part of our basement and its done great over the past 15years. It's very low pile, easy to vacuum and survived THREE basement floods and still looks good. The quality of the underpad is key. We do have cushion flooring in the hallway and the bathroom and is definitely better to roll little cars on ;) We are just about to finish the last basemetn room which will be a guest bedroom/storage/craft room and will be putting laminate flooring there. Pretty much all of our friends with new basements have laminate floorings. Most with radiant floor heating. Guess its the trendy thing to do. Don't know how well it would do in a flooding situation. It definitely is more "echoey" and colder to teh feet so if you go that way, would really need an area rug. Plus with a laminate floor you could use your swiffer to your heart's content.
Don't know if all that babbling helped you any. Let us know what you end up doing ;)
I'm on the carpet side of the spectrum. Only because of the work that hubby does. Laminate is great stuff, but is still made with wood so the humidity in the basement can cause damage to it. Hubby doesn't beleive in sub floors either...but that's a whole other topic. Call me/him if you want the lowdown
Barb
I say half and half. I have seen this in a few places recently and it makes so much sense. Have a carpet area for tv watching and coziness and have a bare floor area for messy play and play with planes, trains and automobiles.
Wow thank you SO much everyone, excellent suggestions, ideas. Hubby & I were discussing last night.
Anna - we were all set to do it the half/half way, and we would still really like to, but due to the layout, there is one corner that would be such a high traffic area, we are concerned it would get so very worn out ahead of the rest. Also not sure about the separation between the two, would kids be tripping? adults? We have seen others like that and like it though.
Heated floors sound decadent, but just not a (cost) option for us at this time. Lotsa a rugs and maybe a space heater somewhere.
We have to decide by Saturday to place the order - ACK!!
Thanx again SO much everyone!!
Don't get me started on underpadding! When we redid our basement I said over and over "All I care about is that we get a good underpadding" I went away for the weekend and when I came back my hubby had GLUED the carpet to the plywood! About 6 months later when the carpet was already looking worn he said "We should have put down underpadding" Like.it.was.his.idea! I love the man but, sometimes... So now, we have stacks of laminate in my laundry room ready to replace the carpet that looks like crap.
If you can't guess my opinion. Laminate with area rugs and buy some fuzzy bunny slippers if you're feet are cold.
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