We're finishing our basement in a quasi-industrial loft look. A mix of our homes simple 70 year old architecture along with the exposed rafters and steel beams.

We went for a stained concrete floor that...well...didn't turn out quite as planned. It's splotchy mainly due to the roughness of the floor in spots. It's OK in bits and pieces but as one big expanse, it didn't turn out that nice.

So, short of putting in a subfloor and all that, we thought a few area rugs might be the key. There's plenty of outdoor rugs available nearly everywhere, but NONE of them that we can find are 'breathable'. They all have a impervious rubber backing. Since this is an old house, we still have a bit of moisture migration at times. In addition, July and August can be really humid, so there'll now doubt be a bit of condensation.

We were thinking that the best bet would be to get a synthetic rug with an open weave to it so that it would easily breath. We've had no luck in finding one. The best we can do is a loose weave sisal rug. That might work, but given the natural fibers, we worry about it being a haven for mold in a short time come those humid months.

Any suggestions/ideas?

Barring that, we were thinking of maybe going with a bamboo rug...the ones made of slats. Not ideal, but might be our only option at this point.

how about Bolon? http://www.curranfloor.com/bolon.php

Charlene:

Thanks for the reply! I thought this thread would never get a response. ;0)

Bolon looks great! Alas: "And as an added bonus, it's impervious to moisture". So, no, that won't work.

I guess in hindsight, one wouldn't WANT a permeable vinyl rug as it'd likely just trap dirt underneath when used outdoors.

Unfortunately, as much as I love stained concrete, we might end up having to go with cheap basement carpeting. *sigh* ;0)

Darrel,

Carpeting will probably be a bigger issue than an area rug. My parents basement has some moisture issues as well and they are tearing out their carpeting because it always smells musty. The bad thing about concrete in old homes is that it rests against the ground which means once it gets wet it will never ever truly dry out. With that said you may actually want to look at something as an alternative like rubberized coin flooring in sheet form, especially if you have an industrial look. It's inexpensive resists water and you can lay it down your self and roll it up if needed and take it with you if you move. There is also some great looking material from lonseal they have some incredible options in substrate but this stuff is expensive.

Jason

I love rubber, but that would be part of the problem...just trapping moisture underneath.

We did fine a carpet at Dayton's...er...Macys...from europe that has an open weave. It has a bit of a rather traditional pattern, but it's fairly neutral. We might get that priced out as a rug, roll it out and see how it lasts.