Marble, granite, plain tile or rug.

[Bill]

DW and I cant make up our mind. Im going to pull up the rug in the basement. This is our hang out room. Concrete floor. Should we do Marble, granite, plain tile or rug?
I know it will be cold for stone but we would put throw rugs of some sort. We will go with 24"X24" tile. If we do go tile, Marble or granite I have a 150 gallon fish tank that I will do a border of river stone about a foot to a foot and a half wide.
Any comments welcome.

[Andrea J.]

ceramic tile
use a grout with color not white or light gray too hard to keep it looking spotless in our house we have ceramic tile throughout and the grout is mauve looks awesome

[Arubalisa]

Ditto to ceramic tile! VERY easy to clean.

[Sunny Beaches]

Traver tine tile, and may I say think instead of river rock, a variety of slate, granite, marble, and just broken pieces of other tiles, not strictly as a border but more of a design in the whole room. For example we have Mexican Saltillo throughout the first floor, with a a river atmosphere meandering through it from the front door all the way through the patio sliders to the pool.

[Terry Joz]

Go with ceramic tile and put a area rug in.
Terry Joz

[SanNic44]

Laminate flooring. Absolutely bullet proof, easy to clean.

44

[Sgroi135]

Laminate flooring is a good way to go, but you have to make sure that you dont have ANY moisture down there or the floor will fail. I do not even mean physical water. All concrete will give off some sort of moisture. So in the long run laminates "may" fail.

I love the look of ceramic but it is going to be cold. I have a family room on my house when we did an addition and it is on a slab. I have ceramic tile in there 22X22 tiles. They get COLD. Even with a throw, they are COLD!!! If I had to do it again in that room, it would be a subfloor of wood then tile, or radiant heat.

Granite IMO is just too expensive for a basement, but is the same as ceramic.

I have a full finished basement, which became my daughter's play room, since the addition. I have carpet and padding down there. Make for more comfort to be on the floor, and the warmth factor is huge!!!

I would go with carpet (berber) and padding.

You could always put down some ceramic with a border of river rock for just under the fish tank, which would give a nice look to it.

But for a family type room and comfort I think that carpet and pad would be the way to go, my basement is the only room in the house to have carpet in it (other than area rug in family room).

On another note, what kind of fish tank do you have. I used to have a 170 in my family room (salt).

[Bill]

Originally Posted by Sgroi135

On another note, what kind of fish tank do you have. I used to have a 170 in my family room (salt).

Great advise everybody! Still not sure, love the river thought but not the cold tile. I will let you know.

I have a 150 gallon, full of African Cichlid. Did a slight recreation of Lake malawi in Africa. Lots and lots of rock

[Sgroi135]

Originally Posted by Bill

Great advise everybody! Still not sure, love the river thought but not the cold tile. I will let you know.

I have a 150 gallon, full of African Cichlid. Did a slight recreation of Lake malawi in Africa. Lots and lots of rock

Nice!

This was my tank. I miss it alot. But just got too expensive, the lighting was the worst!

[lizzardo]

We are actually researching Bamboo - lots of types and very pretty!