"Luxury" vinyl plank on concrete basement floor

[Parnassia]

Originally Posted by GearHeadDave

This is a large basement with a walk-out. There are rooms with drains for water heater and for washer, and those won't be getting finished, they will remain concrete. About 1000 sq ft will be finished, and about 900 sq ft will be storage/utility/unfinished areas.

Have been in the house for 10+ years and basement is stable and dry, so I am comfortable with finishing this space. Sure there is always the chance of a leak/flood but we could have the same problem on the upper floor.

Something to consider. The basement you're considering installing flooring in has, according to you, remained dry. But, that was with the concrete exposed to circulating air of the room...that might change if it is covered up by something else. Carpet could end up being musty. I'd probably go with low gloss sheet vinyl, maybe something representing stone tile. A more rustic irregular pattern could make imperfections in a subfloor less obvious.

[GearHeadDave]

Originally Posted by Parnassia

Something to consider. The basement you're considering installing flooring in has, according to you, remained dry. But, that was with the concrete exposed to circulating air of the room...that might change if it is covered up by something else. Carpet could end up being musty. I'd probably go with low gloss sheet vinyl, maybe something representing stone tile. A more rustic irregular pattern could make imperfections in a subfloor less obvious.

I think we are settling in on free-floating LVP, after doing some reasonable effort at floor leveling.

Carpet is not ideal that is for sure. And sheet vinyl as I mentioned before would require glue-down to secure the seams.

No issue with ripping up the floating LVP at some point if we hate it. Plus, I can install this myself and save a lot of money. My neighbor stopped over last night and we tested out a few strips as a sanity check. He recently helped his son complete an LVP installation so he will be a good advisor.

I will let you know how it turns out. After all it's only $$$.