We had some moisture problems so researched this extensively and ended up installing vinyl planks in our new basement playroom - they are easy to install, look just like wood, and are super easy to replace if you do end up having water issues (you can just pull up a section instead of the whole floor). Even cheaper than laminate and a little softer for falls. Highly recommend so far. We plan to add area rugs.

We got wall-to-wall carpet from home depot, knowing we may need to replace it any time due to water issues and being a walk-out basement, but it is cold down there and I vastly prefer it to the linoleum we had before. I love it. 7 years later and we've had one coffee spill in the corner but it's not that noticeable. I just hate sitting on tile floors, but we play board games on ours all the time.

If your planning on using it for lots of kids' painting or artwork though, maybe not

Get carpet and replace every 7 years or so, unless you are filthy and wear shoes in the house.

We have Berber over a good pad. It's been great for crawlers/early walkers, as well as for truck driving, block building, dancing, wrestling.

We have not had milk/juice or puke/poop issues. Food gets consumed in the kitchen, poop has managed to be contained in diapers or toilets, and if a kid of mine pukes, they tend to wait until I'm holding them so they can puke directly down my shirt.

PP here. I wanted to add that when we our basement water proofed, we were told to never have wall to wall carpet in a basement by a reputable plumbing company. All basements have moisture and dampness, but not necessarily a leak, and that over time, there may mold issues. We have a dehumidifier in our basement, and it gets full.

We have cork in our basement - it's dry - and it's soft and warm to walk at all times. Love it! We have area rugs in the family room, and interlocking mats in the playroom over the cork. We spend a lot of time down in the basement, so we wanted something inviting and warm.

I'll go against the grain here -- we went with carpet over our interior decorator's suggestion for wood with rugs like the rest of our house. And I'm so glad we did. I have boys and they are always wrestling, running and falling, etc. We have someone come once a year for a deep cleaning and it's stayed looking good. If they were older, I might have gone with wood and rugs. But right now, this works great for us.

Marmoleum or cork

Whatever you want with Softtile over it.

What is the name of the Home Depot version of Flor tiles called? A major appeal of Flor is no need for adhesive (just those adhesive dots with the adhesive face up) and HD seems to need adhesive that you spread all over the floor.

Anonymous wrote:What's the benefit of using Flor tiles as opposed to an area rug? Flor tiles look expensive.

And this is why I'm probably going to use the Home Depot version of FLOR tiles, it's much more affordable. The advantage to me is that you can configure it the way that you want, so if your basement is an unusual shape, you don't have to worry about getting standard rug sizes to fit. In addition, if there's a spill or water damage, then just those few pieces are damaged as opposed to an entire rug or carpet and can be easily replaced.

Anonymous wrote:What's the benefit of using Flor tiles as opposed to an area rug? Flor tiles look expensive.

It's easy to take the messy tile up to clean as apposed to the entire area rug. They last forever. We have them in the kitchen and basement and they look great after all these years. For us it came down to convenience and durability.

Anonymous wrote:Flor tiles

We did this. There are thin enough ones that they can ride bikes and you clean each individual squate or the actual messy spot. Love my flor tiles

What's the benefit of using Flor tiles as opposed to an area rug? Flor tiles look expensive.

Anonymous wrote:If there is even the slightest chance of water, tile. Throw rugs or flor on top. We have radiant heat under our basement tile floor, so it stays toasty in the winter.

NP. I love the idea of heated tiles. How much did this cost?