Basment Hallway Flooring Update - Two Years Later

Hello everyone, and Happy Valentine's day. We didn't really do anything special as far as treats go for the kids this year. Braxton doesn't like anything sweet and we are trying to give Kaley a minimum amount because of that. So we kinda skipped the goodies part this year, and I;m sure their teeth will thank us. But remember, tomorrow all the candy will be half off! Best part in my books.

I decided to write about how well the flooring that we put down in the basement hallway has held up over the last two years. Two of the top posts on this blog are how we spray painted our counter tops and how well our spray painted counter tops have held up. Since this is a very similar situation, I thought it would be worth sharing.

In case you can't check out the original post about the hallway, here's a reminder of the hallway when we finished our basement renovation in 2014.

We used peel and stick vinyl flooring hoping that this would be a better solution to carpet and tile. We did not want carpet because our Bernese mountain dog (Motley) likes to lay at the bottom of the stairs and we knew that it would be a gathering spot for hair. As well as the cats spend time in the laundry room and tend to leave us hairballs in this area too. So carpet was out, and we didn't want tile because we thought it would be too cold on our feet. This is similar to what we purchased.

Well after just over two years, I have to say we are very sad that the floor did not last at all. The flooring has been destroyed between the largeness of Motley and it being a very high traffic area. The kids and I spend about half of our day downstairs, and when they go to bed Luis and I hang out in the rec room.

As you can see there are sections all over the flooring where the facing of the flooring has peeled right off. There are quite a few spots in this one area at the bottom of the stairs, which is Motley's favourite place to sleep when we are in the basement. His nails just rip the facing right off the base and then the traffic rips it further.

When this happens we usually just cut the raised portion off the floor, if it doesn't fall right off itself, and hope that it doesn't rip any further. Usually it does stop ripping any further, but we have put a remnant carpet (from the rec room) where Motley lays hoping to stop anything further.

And this is just a portion of the missing flooring. There is some in the bathroom and a large portion in the doorway to the laundry room. We figure the traffic of us going in and out started a rip and the cats finished it off one night when they were bored. 

After all of this my opinion is that this flooring is either not meant to withstand a 120 pound dog continuously walking on it or not great for areas with high traffic. I would definitely opt for tile if you have the option, it is not that much more expensive and will probably last you a much longer time.

We will be ripping this out and replacing it with tile when we can because the tile flooring will be an improvement as far as we are concerned. This flooring is cold on the feet as well, so that's not an issue anymore. And it looks terrible now with all these rips, so anything would be an improvement. 

Hopefully I was able to help you guys make a more informed decision regarding peel and stick vinyl flooring. If someone has had a great experience I would love to know, maybe we chose wrong or installed it wrong (though we followed the instructions perfectly).

Kerby   

Linking to:
eighteen25 - Show and Tell #14 
Ginger Snap Crafts - Wow Me Wednesday #286 
Two Chicks and a Mom - Funtastic Friday #114 
Tatertots and Jello - BFF Link Party 2/17/17 
Naptime Creations - Create, Link, Inspire 2/27/17