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The carpet in our basement was getting really gross. We keep the litter box down there and so litter was always getting into it, plus that’s where one of our cats likes to run to throw up. And his food is really good at staining. (He doesn’t throw up as often anymore now that we’ve got him on a special diet and hairball meds, but that’s a whole nother post.) So I decided that the carpet just had to go.

I wanted to install wood look tile, but when I found out how much it costs to install, I backed off that plan. I was a little too intimidated to try installing myself, so I changed my plan to refinishing the cement flooring.

I figured if it looked bad, we could try something else at a later date, but this could get us by for awhile.

So I ripped out the carpet and the carpet padding, and worked up all the carpet tack and nails. It took some muscle, but if I do it, it’s free. ? And a free workout for me, ha ha.

This project required the following supplies:

Carpet cutter

Crow bar

Mop and bucket

Cement mix

Floor/cement paint

Paint brushes

Quarter round

Loctite powergrab adhesive

Transition flooring pieces

Rugs

Once the carpet was removed, I mopped the floor and filled in the cracks and holes with cement filler. When that was dry, I scraped the spots smooth.

Then it was ready for painting. I found a bunch of cans of gray and brown paint on the clearance rack specifically for patio/porch/poolside cement. I mixed it all together into one large bucket to get one color. Then I used a paint roller to put down about three coats of paint.

Then my husband helped me cut the quarter round and I installed it with the adhesive.

Last but not least, we finished off the new look of the floor with a large area rug that we found for half price.

We transformed our entire basement floor for less than $500! That’s about what I’d have been charged just to have the carpet and padding picked up to haul away to the junk yard. And I have plans on reusing that for other projects as well.