Why we love Vinyl Plank Flooring in the basement remodel

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The split level remodel has been completed and today I am sharing why we love vinyl plank flooring in the basement remodel. Not only did we use this same vinyl plank flooring in our own basement remodel, we also used it in our pool house remodel this past summer (that post is coming soon). We partnered with Select Surfaces for this basement remodel and we couldn’t be happier with how the basement floor came out. 

Best Vinyl Plank Flooring 

If you google basement flooring ideas, you will find that several topics cover why vinyl plank flooring is the best option for concrete basement floors. 

We personally love the Morning Fog Rigid Core Vinyl Plank Flooring by Select Surfaces. The flooring can be easily purchased online and shipped directly to your home, it’s waterproof and it’s tongue and groove snap together feature makes the installation process simple. 

For this basement, we installed the color Morning Fog and it looks amazing!

Select Surfaces™ Morning Fog Rigid Core Vinyl Plank flooring offers the beauty of hardwood with the simplicity of click installation. 

Vinyl Plank Flooring Review

Features that I love about this flooring (we have installed it 3 times now in 3 different spaces over the last 2 years) are:

Ok so are you ready for a pretty crazy before and after basement remodel?

Here is the basement before the remodel.

As you can see, the basement was indicative of a typical 1960’s split level house with a somewhat low ceiling.

The basement before was dark, dreary and in need of major TLC. 

We decided to remove all the partitioning walls to create an open concept basement and add a full bathroom and laundry room. 

We replaced all of the existing windows in the entire house including the 6 large windows in the basement with black windows (be sure to read, “how to modernize a split level home with black windows”)a couple months ago, added new insulation to the V

Vinyl Plank Flooring Installation

The installation of the vinyl planks was very simple and took 2 days to install. 

The first step of the installation process is to snap a chalk line along the wall to get a straight line/starting point as Jim is demonstrating below. 

Start by clicking the vinyl planks together and tapping into place with a hammer.

You can use a scrap piece of flooring as a buffer to tap the planks into place. This will avoid any hammer marks on the vinyl plank flooring. 

Work your way around the room until you have completed the flooring installation. It’s somewhat time consuming but a very simple process. 

Here is a closeup of the morning fog color. It’s perfect for a modern farmhouse look.

We used a small pry bar lifting tool to pull the vinyl floor out from the baseboard and hammer to tap in place. The baseboard will cover any gaps.

You can also see our other basement remodel floor installation for more tips and flooring ideas. We used the color Harvest Oak in our own basement a couple years ago and the floor is still as perfect as it was the day we installed it. 

As you can see, the process moves right along! The vinyl flooring can be cut with a stanley knife or with a saw.

The smaller cuts you can just use a square tool to mark your line and score the flooring with your knife and it breaks off very easily.

We used a table saw to cut longer pieces of flooring. 

The flooring is very easy to work with and has a rubber like backing which provides a cushion between the concrete and floor.

How much does vinyl plank flooring cost?

This particular Morning Fog Rigid Core Vinyl Plank Flooring costs 2.49 square foot. I ordered 900 square feet from Sam’s Club and it took approximately 1.5 days and two men installing it (about 11 hours total). So for roughly $2500 with tax, you can cover roughly 900 square feet of floor. You can also save money by installing it yourself. If you have time, I highly recommend it. It’s so simple! 

As you can see, the flow of the flooring looks great and provides a fresh modern look in the basement. 

The most time consuming part of the flooring installation was cutting around the lally columns and bulkhead area. Getting the cuts to line up and run straight takes a little extra time but all in all, the installation process is very simple. 

Here is the basement floor after we installed the Rigid Core Vinyl Floor Planking.

As you can see, it lends a sleek modern look offering a neutral backdrop for the basement.

Pretty fabulous right?

Vinyl Plank Flooring Cleaning

The buyers who purchased this house have two little boys and this basement will serve as their playroom and I cannot think of a better flooring system for kids as it’s so easy to keep clean! I have had this same floor (in a different color) installed in our basement for almost 2 years now and we always clean it with either water and Mr. Clean or a Bona mop with Bona floor cleaner. The floor cleans so easily and drys fast. Also perfect for pets.

The lally columns are wrapped with column wood wraps that we painted white and square trim pieces were added to the top and bottom to create a custom look. 

Want to see all the split level house projects in this house? Click the links below.

You can see them all here by clicking each link –> (1) Split Level House Tour (before), (2) opening a load bearing wall between kitchen and living room , (3) Adding a beam to a load bearing wall , (4) Installing shiplap on vaulted ceiling , (5) Quality Wolf kitchen cabinet review and installation, (6) Why we love the vinyl plank flooring basement makeover, (7) why we picked prehung solid core interior doors by Masonite, (8) Split level exterior remodel before and after , (9) Split Level Kitchen Remodel before and after

The existing basement had a walk out bulkhead that was brick so we ended up tiling over the brick with gray veneer stone to freshen up the area. I will be sharing more the basement after the holidays featuring the Masonite 2 panel doors from Horner Millwork and bathroom area.

Stay tuned as I will be sharing the entire before and after of the split level renovation/remodel after the holidays. This basement remodel is nothing short of amazing in my book as it’s a drastic before and after.  Want to catch up on the other renovation projects in this house? Click our Split Level Renovation page to see more! 

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Select Surfaces. All opinions and words are 100% my own.