I am the PP that suggested the stained concrete. We opted out of it this week as our general contractor said that although it's beautiful, it has an institutional look about it that is not so warm and cozy. We're going with hardwood...not traditional hardwood, but one that is engineered for basements. It was probably already described on this thread already. I don't remember the name, but the wood is much thinner on top than you would find on the standard 3/4 in. hardwoods, but the base is more engineered and water resistent. They also said that they were refinishable, which is a plus in my book.....that makes it much better on my list than Pergo.

Stained concrete is fine if you own a post-industrial loft. For the average DC area colonial it might look a little out of place. Also -- and admittedly I know nothing about the process -- I would wonder what they are staining it with.

wow, hardwood floor in a basement. Like...real hardwood? wow.

Anyway, we had carpet, then had a flood, we put in duraceramic tiles. Although, if we had to choose again, I might go for the stained concrete someone posted above, holy crap that looks amazing!

Anonymous wrote:If you don't want to do tile, laminate wood floor (aka plastic) could be a good way to go. Some of it really isn't half bad looking, & it's just a basement.

Water ruins laminate. My neighbors had a pipe burst overnight right after they finished putting in their laminate floor. The whole floor was ruined.

Travertine doesn't do well with water and moisture. It's also pretty expensive for a basement. But to each his own.

We recently put in travertine and some nice oriental rugs. The basement no longer has that "basement" look and is as nice as the rest of the house.

There are products that allow any type of flooring to "float" over concrete...Carpet isn't a bad choice, it can be taken up and dried if it floods, although if flooding is a regular event you might consider fixing the underlying problem.

Cork is also a good, green, alternative and is good for a basement play area.

Anonymous wrote:We recently considered stained concrete for our basement as we are currently finishing it.

http://www.google.com/search?q=stained+concrete+flooring&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

The stained concrete looks beatiful!

We recently considered stained concrete for our basement as we are currently finishing it.

http://www.google.com/search?q=stained+concrete+flooring&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

we have carpet over a floating floor in the finished part of the basement.

If you don't want to do tile, laminate wood floor (aka plastic) could be a good way to go. Some of it really isn't half bad looking, & it's just a basement.

We have ceramic tile in our basement and it is SO cold. I'm thinking about carpeting over it, but I'm also looking at these carpet tiles: www.flor.com They look a little nicer than most. I've ordered some samples, but they're not here yet. You can do them wall to wall, or make a "rug" out of them.

I'd love to hear if anyone has tried these.

Agree with the previous poster. I've always preferred nice ceramic or porcelain tile (which I have in my current house) for spaces that might get wet. (i.e. kitchens, baths, basements.) then you can put down large, cheap area rugs that you can pull up before big storms.

Get a good waterproof ceramic tile and then put down area rugs that you'd be willing to toss out if they got soaked. A less visually appealing alternative is carpet tile; you can replace any squares that get inundated. If you go this route, get a patterned tile -- the seams are less noticeable that way.

what basement floor do you have? we recently took on water which ruined our hardwood floor. We are thinking of replacing it with some form of tile that is less likely to damage if we ever flood again. The problem is we want to use the finished basement for kids playroom and office so we would like it to be welcoming/comfortable.