The house I grew up in had a brick floor in the kitchen. No issues. We recently stayed in a low country style house on Sea Island that had a brick floor on the ground floor. It was great with all the wet, sandy kds and dogs!

Don't have brick floors, but love the look. I would be tempted to check into radiant heating under the floor-that would be perfect and it isn't as expensive as it was in the past.

Wow! You've touched on my biggest pet peeve in this house!

We have a brick floor in DH's basement 'man cave' which he installed several years ago due to occasional water problems. I can't tell you how much I hate that floor! So hard to clean! Can't mop the darn thing because of its rough texture. The little grooves in the brick and the grout hold dust and dog hair and the only way to clean it is with a scrub brush.

It's not a cold floor, though, which is one of your concerns.

All his friends think a brick floor is "so neat" but they don't have to live with it. Ours was sealed in the beginning but that's long gone, not that it helped much. Can't run a Swiffer or anything similar over it either because the fibers catch, so always have to drag out the big heavy Dyson. I'd love to rip it out and replace with something smoother. They make so many natural looking tiles now.

As a test, just go outside and try to dust off or wash the bricks around your patio using whatever method you'd be using inside That'll give you a good idea.

Did I mention I hate this floor? ;-))

Gosh, fripper, it sounds as though you really, really hate the floors. I was not thinking of sealing them at all, or mopping them, either, just a vac every week. We'd use area rugs in a few strategic places, otherwise they would be bare. So, is the inability to clean them their worst feature?

My basement floor except for one finished room is concrete....I use a shop vac, even in the finished room sometimes.

I am of no practical help, except to say that i love the look!

We have a strange rabbit warren-type situation downstairs, with several rooms tortuously connected by weird vestibules and hallways. We've hired an architect we've used before and with whom I work really well to try to open it up by moving walls and changing doorways, etc. I think the flooring is going to be integral to the look, so I want to get it right. I love brick too... I am also clearly not as clean as fripper!

I tried to find a picture that shows the floor in this room but could only link to the video, below, if anyone is interested. I'm pretty sure the floors in this room were not sealed, but I am calling the contractor to make sure.

One thing that I find very interesting is that the brick on the floor is a red, mixed brick, while the exterior brick of the townhouse is in tones of brown. At the end of the video you can see the small walkout patio outside that has the same red tones brick used inside on the concrete slab, and the brown brick walls coming up from that red floor. It doesn't look bad at all--- in fact, I was wondering how we would prevent the floor from looking too much like the walls of the patio, and I guess that is not really an issue.

In the first room that you enter from the stairs (that also has the door to the patio) I am considering putting horizontal siding on the walls. Right now it is painted green--albeit not the green in this sketch! Also, the color of this brick is not what we would use, this is just the architect's first pass at one possible configuration:

Here is a link that might be useful: Family Room Brick Floor, Albercorn Place, Southern Living

Yes, kswl, to be honest, the inability to clean is the worst feature. Except for being darker than I'd like, it looks very nice. Just a little dark for my taste but after all, it is a man cave.

I'm sure my situation is very different from most. (3 dogs, 2 parrots and a messy DH!)

If you decide on brick, I'd seriously consider some sort of sealant. Brick is very porous, unlike tile or other hard flooring products. When the contractors were tearing out some walls upstairs, they broke through the floor and something like a whitish concrete dust landed on a small portion of brick flooring below. It stuck like glue in the pores of the brick and I've never been able to get it out. (that was 8 years ago!)

Another problem I have, which I'm sure you won't, is DH sometimes takes the big parrot down there and when he misses his tray (the parrot, not DH), it takes a toothbrush, scrub brush, and a lot of elbow grease to clean it out of the pores and grout, not to mention the occasional bit of food or drink that gets spilled and absorbs into the brick like a sponge. Just so much more difficult to clean than the nice smooth porcelain tile in my kitchen

I'd just talk to your contractor about possibly sealing it. It'll make life a lot easier. Best of luck to you in your decision.