Okay, so I’ve been wanting to redo my basement floor for, like, forever. It was just plain concrete, and cold as heck in the winter. I finally decided to tackle it, and I thought, “Why not try that laminate basketball court look?” I’m no professional, but I figured, how hard could it be?

First thing I did was measure the whole basement. I mean, really measured it. Twice. You don’t want to be halfway through and realize you’re short on materials. That would be a disaster, and I heard too many stories like that!

Getting Started

Then came the fun part – picking out the flooring! I went with this laminate stuff that looked like wooden parquet, you know, the kind you see on basketball courts. It came in these big planks, and I was a little intimidated at first, to be honest.

• Cleaned the concrete. This was a pain. I swept, vacuumed, scrubbed – the whole nine yards. You gotta get all the dust and gunk off, or the flooring won’t stick right.
• Laid down a vapor barrier. Because, you know, moisture. Basements are notorious for that. This was basically just a big roll of plastic sheeting. I taped the seams to make sure it was sealed up tight.

The Actual Laying

Next up, the underlayment. This is like a thin foam padding that goes under the laminate. It helps with sound and makes the floor a little softer. I rolled that out and taped the seams, just like the vapor barrier.

Now for the main event! I started in one corner, like the instructions said. Clicking those planks together was actually kind of satisfying. Click, click, click. It felt like I was making real progress. The feeling was so good!

The edges were tricky, though. I had to use a saw to cut the planks to fit around the walls and some pipes. Let’s just say I’m glad I had a friend help with that part. My hands are not so stable.

It took a couple of days, working on and off, but I finally got the whole floor down! It looked…amazing. Seriously, I was so proud of myself. It completely changed the look of the *’s no longer dark!

Finishing Touches

The last step was adding some trim around the edges to cover the gaps between the flooring and the walls. I just used some basic quarter-round molding. I nailed that in place, and boom! Done.

It’s been a few months now, and I’m still loving it. It’s so much warmer and nicer down there. The kids love playing on it, and it’s even inspired me to shoot some hoops (I’m terrible, but it’s fun!). Definitely a project I’m glad I took on.