Basement Flooring ...

I need to think about laying down a floor in our basement. I was thinking berber carpet but I am getting some hesitant glances. So, my question is this:

What type of flooring do you have in your basement? Is it carpet, tile or linoleum? Which do you think is better and why?

Any help would be great! Thanks!

First question to ask yourself is what will you be doing in the basement. Will you be using it as a family room, a game room, a play room for kids, etc. In our house we have a finished basement and have it set up as a second family room. Actually that's where the big screen T.V. w/the surround sound is as well as the fireplace and the laundry room. Since we use this room for casual entertaining (like NFL Sundays) and for watching movies (and Sopranos ), and we think eventually as a play area for our children, we chose berber carpet. We chose it because it looks nice, it feels good, its great in higher traffic areas, and the pattern we got does not show dirt at all.

Okay, now that I've rambled on forever, let me just say that for us, berber was a great choice for the basement and we have been very happy with it.

We did linoleum for a few reasons.

My uncle is in the carpet biz and he said he does not recommend carpet in any basement. Basements tend to be more humid than the rest of the house and this will damagae a rug. I can just clean the vinyl, no problem. It really depends on the basement I think. Mine is VERY humid

It depends on how moist your basement is, what your elevation above sea level (likeyhood of flood) and what you use your basement for.

When I ever get the $ to redo our basement, we are going to do Pergo. Its not great if you have a moist basement but luckily we live above sea level and have never had a flood (knock on wood).

We have remodeled and decorated four houses over the past 36 years and have had all kinds of floorings. We went with granite square tiles in the basement this time and have vowed never to put down new floors again.

It is a very hard decision, but you need to access your long range needs and consider that saving money initially may not be a bargain if you have to redo the job over and over through the years. You will find nothing is perfect.
Wood scratches and dents, but can be refinished. It can also warp. Carpet looks lovely when new, and berber is durable and very forgiving. However, all carpets do stain and remain odor in damp situations. Leaks can develop suddenly when there have never been any before. Water may come in from the outside or mishaps easily happen with laundry sinks, washing machines and hot water heaters.
Linoleum is a personal decision. Either you like the look or you don't, but it can definitely lift in the corners or at the seams. I've been there too!

Granite lasts forever. It definitely will increase the value of your home and nothing will damage it as long as it is installed correctly. I know it sounds expensive but there are places where you can get large amounts of granite at discount prices.

I have several area rugs on them for warmth and to unify the different areas - entry way with closets, TV area, and offices for myself and my husband.

I hope I offered some ideas you may not have thought of before, and haven't added to your confusion too much.
Good Luck.

Thanks everyone. I'm not sure what we will end up with. I like the feel and the warmth of the berber, but I'm afraid of moisture buildup / humidity in the basement. I appreciate everyone's responses!!

I am hopeing to start our baement soon, but I dont know what is going to be with our water issue

Cira, when we redo the lower level of the house, we plan to lay down pergo floor. Im not a fan of carpeting simply because I LOVE the fresh clean feeling of a hardwood floor. I always feel like IM 'in my pajamas' in carpeted floors. maybe its just me
I have berber in my great room, but that was there when we bought the house, and we dont plan to remove it since its in mint condition.

I would strongly recommend either a nice tile, or pergo floor.

good luck!

limom & cira, great advice, thank you!!

the previous owners of our home had FOUR cats with litter boxes in the basement. so, the basement carpet STINKS!! we can't seem to get rid of the smell. we don't use the basement now for anything but storage, however we'd eventually like to use it for a play room. so we will need to replace the carpet eventually.

despite the fact that we live on a major hill, we haven't had flooding but the basement is very very humid. i empty the dehumidifier twice a day.

i'd really like to carpet the basement, but maybe its not such a good idea....

hmmmmm .....

We just had a flooring person give us estimates on having the oak floors upstair refinished and the basement floors covered with a Pergo type flooring.

He had a nifty little meter (costs about $500 he said, so not something you'd pick up at home depot) and it measured the moisture in the concrete. Ours was about 4.0 and he said it was a fairly dry basement. He also said that 4.5 is the high end of the tolerance range for Pergo - it will release up to that amount of moisture, beyond that and the flooring tends to retain mositure.

He then went on to talk about how the best way to treat the floor was to level it with a compound, then they would put a rubberize flooring down (2 layers) that was heat sealed. He said that would block any moisture - you could have a pool empty into the ground outside and it wouldn't effect the flooring. Unfortunately, that costs about $3.00 a sq. foot Total cost of having the approx. 60 square ft done right would be in the neighborhood of $10 a sq. foot - $6000! I almost had to pick DH off the floor. He said that you could definately have a local handyman guy install it for much less, but this was the best way to do it if you want to guarantee the floor will last 25 years.

Not sure what we're going to do now - I wanted it done by Thanksgiving, but this is definately out of our budget - the $6000 could be much better spend upgrading a number of other things first.