Basement workshop floor choices

[Chris McLeester]

I am planning on refinishing my basement and looking for advice on the best flooring for a basement shop. The floor now is concrete.

I am dividing the basement into two rooms -- one a woodshop and the other a rec room. I would like to use the same floor in both -- in case we have to sell the house, it will be more appealing to a new owner (who likely won't want a large basement shop.

Some stuff I have seen recommends cork and luxury vinyl for basements. Both seem like they would be nice and soft underfoot -- a plus. I am worried that cork will be too soft or damage easy and that LVP will be too slippery. I have also seen a lot of recommendations for just a T&G plywood floor for shops, but that isn't going to look too good.

What does everyone have in their shops -- or what do you wish you had done differently?

[Jim Andrew]

My big concern about putting a wood floor in a basement would be the possibility of getting some water down there.

[Michael Heffernan]

I'd go with a Dri-Core floating floor and cover it with and engineered wood floating floor. This is what I did in my basement. Easy to install and it allows moisture from the slab to circulate underneath.

[Jeff Erbele]

I am planning on refinishing my basement and looking for advice on the best flooring for a basement shop. The floor now is concrete.

I am dividing the basement into two rooms -- one a woodshop and the other a rec room. I would like to use the same floor in both -- in case we have to sell the house, it will be more appealing to a new owner (who likely won't want a large basement shop.

Some stuff I have seen recommends cork and luxury vinyl for basements. Both seem like they would be nice and soft underfoot -- a plus. I am worried that cork will be too soft or damage easy and that LVP will be too slippery. I have also seen a lot of recommendations for just a T&G plywood floor for shops, but that isn't going to look too good.

What does everyone have in their shops -- or what do you wish you had done differently?

You may want to rethink a few things.

Why constrain yourself needlessly.There is no rule that flooring must be the same room to room. Often it is not and with good reason. The best shop floor, if there is such a thing, may be a terrible Rec room floor and vice versa.

Making improvements for resale, especially if the sale may be 3-5 years in the future or unknown, is a bad idea. Real estate pros tend to have a fairly uniform view: Home improvements are rarely worth the money and effort. For most, the value added is a mere fraction of the cost. Your ROI - Return on investment probably will be negative or a net loss.

Guessing what a future owner may like is a long shot; a futile effort. Your chances of being right, guessing what they want, are very slim.
What's popular now changes about every five years—contractors call this "stylistic depreciation"—so consider how much longer you plan to stay in the home before you do any major renovations or upgrades. The best advice is build it to fit your needs, as you like it, within your budget or when you can afford it.

There could be many reasons why anybody would be concerned about having to sell their house, including a job, job transfer or change, or unknown circumstances that may arise. If the concern was financial; not being able to afford the house in the future, personally my focus would be on preventing a forced sale situation and flooring would fall off my radar.

Those are just things to think about. Use or discount them as applicable; as you wish.

Now on flooring, I don't have first hand experience with cork or luxury vinyl. My concern would be durability. Can either stand up to sliding or rolling machines around, heavy things sitting on it on small legs or pressure points.

Concrete is very durable. Most basements, garages, and industrial floors use it for that reason.
On the negative side it is uncomfortable to stand on. Standing on floor mats or duck boards helps a lot.
Concrete attracts moisture. If you have high humidity or a damp basement that probably will determine the type of flooring or flooring system.

I would either leave the workshop floor as is, or consider Dri-Core floating flooring.

[Michael N Taylor]

To me the best floor for a shop in a basement is sealed concrete. Clean the concrete by sweeping then mopping and let dry before applying a good penetrating sealer, this will soak into the concrete and not leave a slick surface, seal out all concrete dust, and will seal moisture out and keep materials from soaking into the slab. You can get the sealer from a commercial supplier of construction materials. I like the silicon base sealers they absorb into the slab very well and do an excellent job and they are easy to keep clean. I like to put down an oil base sweeping compound and let it sit overnight then sweep the next day to really get the slab clean, I do this every 3-4 months.

[Bill ThompsonNM]

In our last house I ripped out the old flooring in the basement and replaced it with commercial vinyl flooring. Its not self stick so you have to spread mastic but its vinyl all the through so its much more durable than the stuff with just a layer on top if a backer. As a bonus it was 1/2 the price per square foot as the fancy self stick tiles. It was extremely durable. It doesn't come in tons of patterns but it was easy to find something that looked nice. Easy to install, use a heat gun to warm it slightly then cut with scissors or a utility knife.
One day its going down in my current workshop but lots of projects ahead of that!

[Chris McLeester]

Thanks for the advice. With all the advocates of concrete, I'm thinking that I'll just leave the concrete in the shop half of the basement. Easy and cheap! And it will only be a small step down from the other room. Thanks for the help!

[Chris McLeester]

Michael -- Did you use any OSB on top of the dri-core? I've seen some people suggest that with Platon. Any recommendation on engineered wood?

[Ole Anderson]

I finished off my basement floor with inexpensive Pergo ($2/sf) over the roll foam directly over the concrete. I extended it into my shop and couldn't be happier. Sweeps up very easy, even with a layer of sawdust, is not too slippery and I just need felt furniture pads on anything that is not too heavy that I want to slide around including my DP.

[Kevin Gagne]

I used Dri-Core and really like it. Easy to put down and makes it much warmer because of the air gap. Looks fine and cleans easy. I would definitely do it again for another shop.

[Brian LaShomb]

I used Dri-Core and really like it. Easy to put down and makes it much warmer because of the air gap. Looks fine and cleans easy. I would definitely do it again for another shop.

Was looking at this today considering the sane thing for my basement shop. Have seen some finished OSB floors that looked good.

[Chris McLeester]

I finished off my basement floor with inexpensive Pergo ($2/sf) over the roll foam directly over the concrete. I extended it into my shop and couldn't be happier. Sweeps up very easy, even with a layer of sawdust, is not too slippery and I just need felt furniture pads on anything that is not too heavy that I want to slide around including my DP.

Ole -- that looks amazing! Hard to believe that's laminate. Nice work.

[Ole Anderson]

Ole -- that looks amazing! Hard to believe that's laminate. Nice work.

Thanks Chris. Yea, I really like the look of the narrow Oak flooring, even though it is fake. Finishing my basement floor after 37 years took retiring to get it done. Now I can enjoy it each time I head downstairs to work in the shop, help with the laundry, shoot a rack of pool balls or wrap presents.

[Chris McLeester]

That's too funny, Ole. I'm putting a pool table on the other side of the wall. Hopefully I can get it done before I retire!

[Larry Edgerton]

I have not got around to putting a heating system in my new shop, so I used my new house under construction as a shop. It has a TJI floor.

It made me realize that I definitely want a wood floor in my shop. My legs feel so much better after a day on my feet. Concrete sucks!

Larry