Best Flooring for Basements

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Table of Contents

• 4 Best Options for Basement Flooring
  • Luxury Vinyl Planks and Tiles
  • Carpet
  • Tile
  • Engineered Hardwood
• Basement Flooring to Avoid
• Get New Basement Floors With 50 Floor

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How to Choose the Best Basement Flooring

Updating your basement is an exciting project. The flooring you choose significantly impacts how the finished space will look and feel. Selecting a basement flooring differs from picking a floor for any other room. You’ll likely find some trade-offs if you want to complete your basement on a budget, but understanding the pros and cons of your flooring options will get you far in choosing the best flooring for your basement.

What Is Below-Grade Flooring?

If you’ve ever shopped at a hardware store or flooring retailer, you’ve most likely noticed the term “below-grade.” Below-grade flooring simply refers to flooring suitable for rooms below the ground floor of a home, namely the basement.

Contractors will use this phrase during the planning and installation process to determine the best type of flooring for basements. They use their judgment to decide which materials are better for upper-level floors due to the heaviness and water absorption of some tiles and panels. During your consultation with a flooring expert, they can give you insight into the types of below-grade floors you can choose from that help keep the room warm and the floors even.

The Basement’s Purpose: Considerations to Keep in Mind

The first thing to solidify is your vision for the basement overall. What will you use it for, and who will spend time there? A playroom for your kids will need different flooring than you would want for a basement living unit you plan to rent. Common uses for basements include family rooms, home gyms, offices or just plain storage and laundry.

Your specific preferences and desired purpose regarding basement flooring options, from comfort to material, can impact which floor type is best for you. Take a look at the following considerations you should keep in mind to determine which floors would work best in your basement.

Comfort

If comfort is at the top of your list of priorities, carpet is the best choice for your basement. It features fluffy microfibers and offers soft padding for anything that comes into contact with the floor. This option is best for homes with small children playing on these floors for multiple hours a day.

Temperature

The temperature in your basement can impact what type of flooring is most comfortable when you relax downstairs. If you notice the temperature drops when you get to the bottom floor, you may enjoy having a carpeted floor that can absorb heat. If your basement tends to be mild or warm, vinyl, tile and engineered hardwood are better choices. These flooring options offer various styles to fit your aesthetic while handling well under different temperature levels.

Moisture Levels

Does your basement feel muggy or humid throughout the day? The moisture in the air can make the atmosphere feel sticky and impacts your floor’s quality. If you notice that your basement has high moisture levels, tile, vinyl flooring and engineered hardwood are your go-to choices — they don’t absorb water molecules as much as carpet does.

Flooding

If your basement is prone to flooding, choosing non-absorbant flooring like tile and vinyl can help keep water out of the subfloor. Both options will save you a significant amount of money each year if storms, broken pipes and other unpredictable circumstances impact your floor’s life span and quality.

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How Do Subfloors Affect Basement Flooring?

Subfloors are the material that separates your home’s floor joists from the floor itself. This layer helps support the floorboards you install in your home and directly impacts the basement floor’s quality.

The flat surface the subfloor provides makes it easier to install floors without having to worry about an uneven lower layer. Further, the floor joists sit directly over the ground where your house is and can sometimes bring colder temperatures to the floor’s surface. Subfloors help keep these temperatures below the joists so you can walk freely throughout your basement without getting cold.

What Is an Underlayment and Why Do You Need It?

Unlike subfloors, underlayments aren’t always necessary when installing floors in your basement. However, there are several benefits of using this extra layer underneath your floor tiles or panels. Underlayment goes on top of the subfloor and underneath the surface floor. This added layer helps regulate the temperature from below the house and absorbs the sounds in the room.

If you enjoy having a warmer basement, adding an underlayment during the floor installation process can help regulate these temperatures for a more comfortable room. Thanks to the extra underlayment layer, you can enjoy a space that doesn’t echo or reverberate sounds.

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The 4 Best Options for Basement Flooring

You’ve got a lot of options to choose from when it comes to flooring your basement. We’ve narrowed the field down to five of the most suitable choices and broken them down to their most essential pros and cons to help you clarify which basement flooring ideas fit your needs and vision.

 

 

 

1. Luxury Vinyl Planks and Tiles

If you’re after a more high-end look, vinyl can still be the way to go if you choose planks or tiles over the sheet style. This type of flooring is often called engineered vinyl planks. This floor style is similar to laminate floors in terms of installation. Any handy individual should have a reasonably simple time installing it if they have the right subfloor. If your subfloor is a bit of a rough ride, luxury vinyl planks or tiles won’t work too well.

Luxury vinyl planks are a floating floor type, meaning you don’t need to worry about gluing or nailing them down to the subfloor. Instead, luxury vinyl planks or tiles have tongues and grooves, allowing you to snap them together easily, board to board. For DIYers, this is a critical quality.

This type of plank is an excellent choice for basements as it can stand up well to moisture. Be aware that if you install vinyl planks on a concrete subfloor, you’ll need a vapor barrier in between. The planks and tiles are waterproof, but if there’s no barrier, water can fill up and get trapped within the space between the subfloor and the vinyl.

Contractors often install vinyl planks on an attached pad with IXP backing, which is approximately 1 to 1.5 millimeters thick. If your basement has concrete floors, the planks will most likely come with 6 millimeters of poly vapor barrier beneath the vinyl to support the floor and prevent moisture damage.

Luxury vinyl makes excellent basement flooring for nearly any application. It has the appearance of hardwood but has a soft enough touch that works well for home gyms and other room ideas.

These are the benefits of luxury vinyl:

• Mimics hardwood in look and feel
• Waterproof
• Long-lasting

These are the downsides of luxury vinyl:

• • Requires smooth floors
  • More expensive than sheet vinyl
  • Sometimes requires a vapor barrier

 

2. Carpet

Of all the options for your basement, carpeted flooring materials and installation are almost always the least expensive. If you have a lot of ground to cover and budget is your main priority, carpet can be a great option. Subfloors that aren’t entirely smooth or level benefit from carpet, as it can hide unevenness.

Carpeting is suitable for cold basements, as they are significantly warmer than hard options like tile or vinyl planking. In addition to warmth, carpet offers a softness that makes basement bedrooms or family rooms feel luxurious and cozy. If you need flooring for your basement stairs, carpet is the safest option as it offers more traction than hard surfaces.

The biggest downside to living with carpet is that it can get dirty in a hurry. It needs to be replaced more often than other options. If, for example, your basement is accessible from the outside and you expect a fair amount of shoe-clad foot traffic coming in and out, carpet may not be the best choice for your space. If your basement functions as a family room where people will be lounging around with their shoes off, carpet can work well.

Basement carpet is not the best choice if your home’s location makes the basement susceptible to flooding. Additionally, if you live in an area where moisture is common, you may not want to go for carpet. If frequently exposed to moist conditions, carpets can start to harbor mold or mildew. However, if your basement has only minor problems with moisture, carpet cushioning designed with a moisture barrier can be effective.

Here are some of the advantages of basement carpet:

• Most affordable option
• More warmth and comfort
• Works well for uneven subfloors

Here are some of the disadvantages of carpets:

• • Susceptible to soiling
  • Wears out quicker
  • Not suitable for areas with high moisture

3. Tile

When waterproof surfaces are your most desired element, tile flooring can offer these qualities for your basement project. Today’s tile floors come in traditional squares for those who like the classic look, but tile planks are also available. Planks imitate the look of wood while retaining all the benefits of tile. The ease of cleaning and unmatched durability make tile one of the best basement flooring options if you aren’t planning to update your floors any time soon.

Tile may not be a suitable option due to its hardness. If you anticipate kids running around, older relatives visiting or using your basement for high-impact exercise, a softer option may work better for you. If your basement is especially cold, tile will only amplify that effect.

Tile is also one of the more expensive options because it requires subfloor prep and more intensive labor than other flooring choices. Tile should be installed right onto a concrete subfloor, as wood will crack the tiles in regular expansion and contraction. An uneven subfloor may also result in cracked tile and prevent the tiles from lining up correctly.

Here are some of the benefits of tile flooring:

• Waterproof
• Extremely durable
• Improves the value of your home

Here are some of the downsides of tile flooring:

• Fairly expensive installation costs
• Hard and cold underfoot without a climate-controlled area
• Requires significant subfloor prep

 

4. Engineered Hardwood

Engineered hardwood contains several layers of wood compacted tightly together. This type of flooring has layers perpendicular to each other, which minimizes the expansion and contraction the wood undergoes.

You can easily install engineered hardwood flooring on a concrete subfloor with glue, or you can float them. This basement flooring needs a smooth subfloor to work. If the subfloor is uneven, the hardwood planks will start to pull away, and the adhesive will lose effectiveness. If you’re floating the floor rather than gluing it down, an uneven subfloor can cause unpleasant bouncing as you walk on it.

Another element to consider is wear. While engineered hardwood is long-lasting, you generally won’t have the option to sand and refinish it due to its composite construction.

This basement flooring option is one of the most attractive, but it can’t withstand much moisture. If you’re considering going with this attractive flooring option, you should invest in a moisture meter and make sure levels are low enough to make it work. If you’re concerned about the moisture element, a dehumidifier can work wonders in preserving your engineered hardwood floor.

These are some of the pros of engineered hardwood:

• Looks extremely high-end
• Boosts your home’s value

These are some of the cons to engineered hardwood:

• Requires floor prep
• Not completely waterproof

Basement Flooring to Avoid

Although the best flooring for basements is all listed above, your eye may wander to other options that aren’t suitable for this area of your home. If you find yourself considering the following floor types, you should know why they aren’t the best choice for your basement.

1. Cork Flooring

While the soft feel and eco-friendly qualities of cork floors work well in many areas of a home, the basement is not one of those areas. The edges of a cork floor are difficult to seal, so even though the floor is resistant to moisture overall, issues can easily crop up around the rim of the basement. It’s not a terrible option, but it does pose a risk you may not want to take on.

2. Bamboo Flooring

Bamboo is often mistaken for hardwood, but it isn’t. As one of the cheapest options around, you get what you pay for with bamboo floors. Bamboo is susceptible to scratches and dents, a quality that makes it unsuitable for any area you plan to use regularly. Above all, it doesn’t stand up to moisture at all.

3. Solid Hardwood Flooring

While solid hardwoods are among the most beautiful flooring options available, you shouldn’t consider them for your basement. The moisture element is crucial here, as are the temperature fluctuations that come with the changing seasons and can buckle a hardwood basement floor. Even more importantly, installing a solid hardwood floor below grade will almost always void the warranty, making this flooring more of a risk than most people want to take.

Basement Flooring Inspiration

For basement flooring options that add as much style as they do durability, you can use several inspiration ideas with carpet, sheet vinyl, luxury vinyl planks and tiles, engineered hardwood and tile floors. Take a look at the following tips for colors and styles to add your aesthetic to your basement.

Colors

The hues you choose for your basement flooring can make a huge difference in the room’s appearance. Light colors are perfect for basements because they create the illusion of a larger, more open area for you, your family and your guests to enjoy.

Shades of beige, yellow, light brown, white and light gray can offer a beautiful base for the rest of your furniture and wall colors to stand out. These colors look great with any of the flooring options mentioned above, so you have lots of creative freedom to work with when you start planning.

Styles

Make your basement come to life with various design options, from carpets to tile floors. The options above can resemble real marble, stone, wood and geometric shapes for added flair. Even carpets can come in different textures for a minimalistic pattern. Since basements tend to be larger spaces in the home, you can choose subtle designs that make the room feel more open or create consistent styles of planks, squares, hexagons and other unique shapes.