If you want an engineered hardwood in the basement, I would recommend floating it. That has the least amount of issues with moisture coming up from the slab.

Remember: engineered hardwood is considered a formal or higher end finish. If your basement will be used by +++guests/company and it will be a place where entertaining is frequent, then engineered hardwood is well worth the extra investment.

If your basement will be a play area/family area where watching movies/gaming is going to be the MAIN application, then a high-end, tough wearing laminate might be more appropriate.

As someone who loves cork AND lives in a cold climate, I would put in a lovely cork floor. Cork floating flooring (click together) is the same price as a high-end laminate or a regular priced engineered hardwood. Cork is an EXCELLENT carpet replacement. It is soft under foot and is quiet. It reduces noise transfer (up to down and down to up....and down hallways, through walls, etc).

The value of the home AND the use of the space should be taken into consideration when choosing a floor in a basement.

I think if it gets moisture down there the corners will peel up. no?

"I think if it gets moisture down there the corners will peel up. no?"

Oh, if it gets moisture sown there the corners will do more than peel up.......................

The best investment you can make for your habitable basement is to keep water out.

Depending on where you live, the annual rain and snow fall, the existing water table and the type of soil you have, that may mean continuous exterior waterproofing (not the typical damp proofing), continuous perimeter drain tiles and porous backfill, and final grading away from all perimeter areas. A sump pump should be investigated.

After that, you can start thinking about interior floor finishes. If it was my basement, I'd probably be looking at vinyl planks, rather than wood products.

If, you have enough head room. Install a high performance subfloor system with moisture barrier on sleepers, then install your engineered floors, using layers of moisture barriers/retarders - roll-ons and glue. Only water from above will destroy it.

Well don't go with NAF or naturally aged flooring out of Calif. They get the floors from China and they are garbage.:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/3901809/problems-with-engineered-flooring-splintering-and-more#n=29

Care to start your own discussion Rick? You're littering discussions with your bad experiences and one product. Hopefully an administrator will remove all your repeated comments.

I agree that carpet is not the best choice for flooring in a basement.

There are two concerns with hardwood--engineered or otherwise in a basement: moisture and moisture. Specifically, moisture on the underside of the flooring and the relative humidity of the environment above the flooring.

Basement waterproofing and drainage--to include gutters and downspouts to manage storm water-- are critical for minimizing moisture on the underside of the flooring.

Basements typically have small heating and cooling loads so you'll likely need a dehumidifier to control the relative humidity of the space.

We've had good success with glued-down engineered hardwood flooring in basements where the particular adhesive used also functions as waterproofing.

Uptown floors-

You don't seem to like my posts about the product Naturally Aged Flooring. Strange? When quite a few people have the same experience with their floors, it says more about the product than the installation. Yes, I have posted on Houzz to let people know my experience. Yes, it was a bad experience. Good or Bad I can share. So, no reason to get rude and hope an administrator will remove my comments. Is this not a forum for sharing information-good or bad

From my personal experience....we have a walkout basement and had planned to finish/stain the concrete for the flooring. Long story short, due to some major issues with the builder, this became an impossibility. My kids rooms were in the basement and we needed to come to a resolve very last minute. We ended up going with a high quality sheet vinyl with a woodgrain pattern (and even texture) thinking it would be an acceptable stop-gap and we'd go room by room to change out when we figured out what we wanted to do. It was the BEST accident in the entire build. I love the flooring...it holds up great, actually insulates well...we aren't dealing with kids complaining about cold feet, and I have had more compliments on it! It's gorgeous!

@pwanna1 do you have pictures or a brand name for your sheet vinyl? I would love to do something similar!

okay...here's a picture. I thought I had the flooring invoices digitally on my computer, but I guess not. I'll have to dig through the house box tonight. It's got a lot of grey and brown in it so it could be pulled warmer or cooler...it also has a bit of texture. I have had people not believe me that it's sheet vinyl and have to get down on the floor and look/touch it.

@pwanna1 that does look amazing! I would love this in my basement to as we also looked into polishing the concrete but I want it to be warmer without shoes on down there!