Carpet for basement-plush or friesse

[mrspaha]

I've been trying to decide what kind of carpet to get for the basement. I had berber before and don't want it again. I'm been checking around; I plan to get it from a small local flooring place, and I've pretty much decided on the Mohawk Smart Strand line.

My decision now is whether I should get a plush or that friesse type carpet. My husband will not give an opinion, because he wants vinyl floors throughout, which we have been debating since our basement got flooded at the end of July. Finally, he told me just do whatever I want, but get it done --soon!

So, anyone here have any input? (I want the same throughout - there's a fairly large family room, a bedroom that my son uses when he's home from college --and probably will live in when he graduates, and a "workout" room with exercise equipment).

 

[elgerber]

We have put friese in the last two times we have carpeted. I LOVE that style of carpeting. It holds up well, doesn't mush down, and it's nice to walk on.

 

[disneyfan2kids]

....and would NEVER get it again. Get's filthy, dusty, vacuum doesn't pick up as much, and holds stains worse then any other carpet I've had. My carpet guy tried to talk me out of it...for ALL those reasons. I wish I had listened.

 

[cvjw]

We just put friese on 2 floors of our house. We love it. It feels so good when you walk on it, and it cleans up great (our dog just had 2 very bad accidents, and you can't even tell where). Ours is called "Snuggles". I will say that there are varying degrees of frieses. You want to get one with lots of twists on the carpet strands. They hold up better, but they also cost more. We got close to the top of the line with the friese that we had put in. Our contractor told us that if you buy a cheaper line of friese, it won't hold up very well - it will look matted down where you walk the most, and be harder to clean. We love our new carpet, and wish we had bit the bullet and done it sooner!

 

[prncess674]

I suggest investing in ceramic tile and a few good throw rugs. It isn't a matter of "if" a basement will flood, but when...

 

[Anne34]

I suggest investing in ceramic tile and a few good throw rugs. It isn't a matter of "if" a basement will flood, but when...

When our basement flooded two years ago we had the same dilemna. We had berber and didn't want it again. Kept debating carpet or linoleum (sp). We finally decided to put down the vinyl planks from home depot that look like hardwood. They are soft under our feet and it is a floating floor, so it can be lifted up if we flood again.

Good luck picking a style

 

[mrspaha]

Thanks to all for the feedback. I really did try to convince myself to go along with my husband on not getting carpeting again. Ceramic tile is way too expensive for us. I did look at those vinyl wood looking planks, which would have been affordable, and really aren't too bad looking. But, I just so loved having carpet in the basement, it made it so nice and cozy - was also great in the bedroom down there.

I do have a few sample boards from the flooring store with 2 different friezes and 1 plush. I like the friezes because they are more speckly looking, and I thought wouldn't show the dirt and traffic patterns as much. I can't tell the difference qualitywise on the 2 friezes, but noticed that the more expensive one has longer warranties.

I'm still undecided, but am leaning towards the frieze, probably the better quality one. I have to get moving on this, so I think I'll sleep on it, and decide once and for all tomorrow morning.

Thanks for the input.

 

[walkdmc]

Whatever you choose, make sure they use a good pad underneath. We used 1/4 pound rubber padding that is absolutely amazing. We have berber, but it wouldn't matter what you pick, the padding makes the floor feel great or too hard/cold.

We also used the 1/4 pound rubber padding under Bruce laminate in our basement gym. It has enough give that you can easily do high impact exercises w/o shin splints and foot pain.

Don't let them use foam padding.

 

[mamaLori05]

We just put friese on 2 floors of our house. We love it. It feels so good when you walk on it, and it cleans up great (our dog just had 2 very bad accidents, and you can't even tell where). Ours is called "Snuggles". I will say that there are varying degrees of frieses. You want to get one with lots of twists on the carpet strands. They hold up better, but they also cost more. We got close to the top of the line with the friese that we had put in. Our contractor told us that if you buy a cheaper line of friese, it won't hold up very well - it will look matted down where you walk the most, and be harder to clean. We love our new carpet, and wish we had bit the bullet and done it sooner!

I agree, we LOVE our friese carpet! In our last house we bought a higher end friese carpet and it still looked BRAND NEW when we sold our house 6 years later. The people who bought it thought we put in new carpet. They were shocked to learn it was 6 yrs old. We also have two young kids, so it went through a lot. In our last house it was a very light tan (almost an off white), and I never had any trouble getting any stains out, and it never looked dirty at all.

We loved our friese so much that when we built this house a year ago we put it in here as well. This time we have a darker tan color, and again a higher end one with more carpet fibers per square inch. Still don't have any problems with stains, and looks and feels great!

With all of that said, when we were looking at samples we looked at all levels of friese's. The cheaper ones were obviously just that, cheap. Even the samples looked matted down just by touching them, so I knew they wouldn't last in our house. The higher end ones didn't look matted down at all, they looked nice and plush, which is how the carpet in our house looks. I've never had a problem with it looking matted down.

I agree with pp in that an upgraded pad makes a huge difference as well. You don't have to get the most expensive pad, but get one of the middle of the road ones and it will help your carpet last longer and feel even more plush.

 

[mrspaha]

Thanks for the comments about the padding. The guy did say he would use a 8 lb padding. But, I'll ask him about the rubber padding vs foam. I also was reading on some home improvement forum about getting padding with a moisture barrier - going to ask about that too.

Now I'm also thinking about the last post - maybe I should get laminate in the "workout room". Maybe that will appease my husband somewhat. Also, we have one of those L-shaped home gym contraptions, which is going to be difficult to maneuver to lay carpet. I know laminate will be cheaper than the ceramic, which we can't afford to get, but don't know what kind of cost is involved in prepping the floor for it. Now, I'm starting to complicate things again.

 

[walkdmc]

I used a wood composite laminate but there are other options, like vinyl. I noticed most of the Walmart optical centers use some sort of wood-appearing vinyl laminate that looks amazingly real. I would go that route, rather than the wood laminate. Basement floors tend to be uneven and if you don't have it leveled (which can be a nuisance, requires pouring and leveling of solid/liquid compound) it voids the warranty. The wood laminate will also be more likely to chip at the edges during install, if the floor is not level. If I had it to do over again, I'd use the wood-appearing vinyl. It's really nice, just check out the Walmart optical place!

 

[elgerber]

Thanks for the comments about the padding. The guy did say he would use a 8 lb padding. But, I'll ask him about the rubber padding vs foam. I also was reading on some home improvement forum about getting padding with a moisture barrier - going to ask about that too.

Now I'm also thinking about the last post - maybe I should get laminate in the "workout room". Maybe that will appease my husband somewhat. Also, we have one of those L-shaped home gym contraptions, which is going to be difficult to maneuver to lay carpet. I know laminate will be cheaper than the ceramic, which we can't afford to get, but don't know what kind of cost is involved in prepping the floor for it. Now, I'm starting to complicate things again.

Me again. We have friese in our basement which I LOVE, but in part of it, we have a wood composite laminate, where the bar and workout equipment is. We didn't really have any cost to prepping our floor, just the moisture barrier pad that went under it.