Best Basements, Choosing the right flooring.

We recently started a short informational series on the most commonly assessed area of a house. In my recent posts, 'Best Basements- Wall finish', 'Best Basements -Basement heat', and 'Basements-Foundation and below', I briefly discussed the history of basements in the Midwest.

...when a city becomes compact then we have to use the most amount of space possible. In areas such as the American Midwest, basements became an option for convenience to prevent foundation settling. By lowering the structure below the frost line you can stabilize the foundation from shifting during heating and cooling as well as create a stable geothermal insulation on the foundation. Basements were not originally designed to be finished spaces.

Even still, getting the maximum amount of use of all areas of your house while maintaining air quality is what we want to do. So when people want to turn a basement into a finished space, there is a few things we have to consider. In this post of our 'Best basement' series, we are discussing flooring and condensation issues.

Basement flooring options

I want to start with the most common and also problematic flooring finish choice in basements; carpets. This is the most problematic due to its porous nature. As even normal humidity in the basement travels through the porous carpet finish, it will condense under the cooled carpet pad from the foundation flooring. An uninsulated basement foundation can be between 65 to 58 degrees year round. These low temperatures can be enough for even a normal summer humidity to condense and cool under the carpet pad to cause a thin layer of mold and microbial growth that causes the musty odor associated with basements. Additionally, if the basement experiences the common occurrence of a flood, the entire carpeting will have to be removed and the pad replaced in order to properly clean and dry the basement flooring. Every time that the carpet is removed, the tack stripping will work less for reuse. Lastly, carpet is such a difficult surface to completely clean. you have to think of it less as one flat layer like other flooring but instead the individual thousand strands, each side of the strand, and the bottom mesh that binds it together. Each of these end up being about 5 times the surface area of normal flooring. To minimize the risks of carpet and carpet pad flooring, reduce the humidity to below 40% year round and use a heavy HEPA-filtered vacuum to clean frequently.

So what about flooring do we like that provides warmth? Well bamboo is a possible option for basements with a medium amount of normal humidity. The natural porosity of bamboo will absorb normal humidity with less expansion and contraction of normal wood flooring. The natural porosity adds warmth over the cold foundation with medium maintenance required. However, similar to wood flooring, bamboo can still experience mold growth on the surface as well as cupping and buckling. To minimize the risks of wood or bamboo flooring, maintain humidity between 20% to 50% relative humidity and apply wood caring treatment with seasonally.

What about going the other direction for durability? Ceramic tile or stone floorings are durable, resilient, and display an aesthetically pleasing pattern and color. The tile and stone will not be insulative against an uninsulated foundation floor but can with stand water damages, flood, and high humidity with easy cleaning. However, with temperature changes the grout can crack as temperatures of the floor versus the foundation fluctuate. The easy solution during instillation is to lay down an uncoupling underlayment commonly known as 'ditra'. The uncoupling creates an air gap that prevents harsh temperature changes and can be used with a heated flooring system. To minimize the risks of ceramic or stone tile, consider using a heated flooring system under the tile with an uncoupling underlayment.

So what about laminate or vinyl flooring? For a sheet laminate that would cover an entire flooring system, if a water-loss were to occur, the damaged flooring would have to be cut and replaced entirely. Instead consider a vinyl or laminate planking system. The vinyl or laminate planking systems have many options such as click in flooring or tongue and groove that will easily be removed and replaced in small sections. To minimize the risks of laminate and vinyl plank flooring, consider using a water flooding monitor system. If you are not sure what we're talking about, try this helpful article: https://www.safety.com/water-leak-detectors/

Unfortunately the downside of some types of laminate and vinyl planking is the off gassing of formaldehyde. You can read more about this here.

Lets do a quick comparison of the options to review:

If you are still looking for a carpet alternative for the added warmth and flooring protection, consider area rugs. Unlike carpeting and carpet pads, an area rug can be lifted up, hung to dry, or flipped over for cleaning during a flood. If you have one in your basement already, I do recommend cleaning the underside of the area rug after this article.

Every flooring type has its positives and negatives that each person has to consider. Our least recommended flooring type is the carpet and carpet pad and the most recommended is the vinyl or laminate plank flooring. Consider your own design for the basement when making this choice and try to minimize the risk to your air quality.

Thank you for educating yourself on your or your clients basement refinishing needs. If you enjoyed this please like, subscribe, comment, or share with your own followers!