Floating Vinyl Tile Floor? Paging SVreX...

We are looking at finishing our basement on a budget. The floor is currently concrete and without leaks, but has cracks. We tossed the idea of polishing & sealing it, and proper tile is out as well. I joked about putting down floating laminate flooring like I had done for our church parsonage, when I stumbled across floating vinyl tile flooring.

http://www.lumberliquidators.com/ll/c/Black-Mountain-Maple-Click-Resilient-Vinyl-Tranquility-4MM/10023436#pr-header-4MM

I have also seen individual locking tiles, but can't seem to find them online right now. I have installed both floating and staple down wood flooring, but I know that I don't want either in the basement just in case there is ever a water problem. I was thinking of using a foam underlay with built-in moisture barrier (like so http://www.amazon.com/Roberts-70-025-Underlayment-Laminate-Moisture/dp/B001CXYYVA/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1368714099&sr=1-1&keywords=underlayment+for+concrete)

I've got roughly 1,000 square feet to cover, so it won't be cheap, but the money I save on installation will pay for having a real contractor finish the concrete block walls properly (I hate, hate, HATE, hate sheetrock work, hate it, haaaaate it). That is unless anyone has a better idea for dealing with concrete block walls.

We had to ditch the finished ceiling idea, so we'll just paint it again (a previous owner spray painted the open basement ceiling white). We'll leave the ducts exposed and get nice lights installed (contractor again, I don't do sparky work).

The idea currently is to move the living room to the basement, move the dining area into the old living room, and expand the kitchen into the old dining room area. We would convert the basement water closet into a half-bath with stand up shower (contracted so it looks nice), and convert my basement office into a bedroom so the kids can have their own rooms upstairs (small house, 2 bedroom, one bath).

Why bother with all this work to make a tiny house work for a family of four? Because it has a detached three car garage tall enough for a four-post lift. Priorities man, priorities...

Over 1000 sq feet? Thats larger than my house and shed alone!

N Sperlo wrote: Over 1000 sq feet? Thats larger than my house and shed alone!

Maybe I'm wrong about the square feet number. It is listed as 1,200 square feet total on Zillow, but if that includes the full basement then I need to cut that number in half. I'll measure the rooms before I buy materials just in case.

It makes sense. My house is just tiny.

I had an expansion seam in an office I rented and when I went to put a tile floor down I simply lightly glued a roll vinyl sheet down over the seam and then tiled over it normally. I never had a crack. I did have a varying size space between the last tile and the wall tho.

This was only about 4' from the wall, I don't know what would have happened had it been dead center in the room.

I did something like this in my new home. I have wet textured & stained concrete for about 3000 sq. feet and the rest is just plain concrete. I did the wet textured part in 2 pours. I dropped the floor level down a little over 2" on the first pour, smoothed it out and then later poured the wet texture top coat. This was to minimize any cracking since that's what concrete tends to do. I also added fiber to the top pour.

This gave me a seam again so I overlapped the seam with tile to hide it. But before I did I glued down roll vinyl over this seam to allow it to move.

Who is this Rex guy of whom you speak?

I don't actually see a question in your post... Sounds like you've got the bases covered, AND your priorities!

Good luck!!

Having just done this...

Prefinished hardwood is easier to install, especially if you have lots of angle/tighter spaces. The problem inherent with the tile is:

1) Getting it to lock together is a pain in the ASS
2) because it is all the same length (whereas prefinished hardwood comes in varying lengths), it starts to become VERY difficult to cut the last piece so all the seams line up, since everything is the same length you don't want seams not lining up or it looks like crap.

Would we do it again? Doubtful now. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Of course, we were also in a hurry so YMMV.

the click together floating vinyl wood planks are a great option for you.

i've done them in several basements, and it's the perfect product for that. i hate people who decide that gluing down hardwood to their basement floor, or using any laminate product is a good idea below grade. i have torn out many a destroyed wood and laminate basement floor from "unexpected" flood or sump pump failure where water got into one edge and wicked through things like a straw and took out lots of flooring that otherwise would have stayed dry.

if you get water under the click vinyl you can unclick and label them. clean them and the concrete below, and lay them back down.