Laminate or tile...what to replace carpet over a slab with?

[Reader]

We live near the water and it's fairly humid here. We want to replace the carpet in the kids' bedrooms with something more allergy friendly. Laminate or wood tile, probably. Anyone have suggestions? This is for a bedroom on a concrete slab. The rest of our house is hardwood floors, but the rest of the house is not on a slab. I have been told that laminate may not work depending on the condition of the concrete slab. The slab is 60 years old and we haven't ripped up the carpet yet, so we're not sure what we're going to be dealing with.

[KLD313]

Can they do a skim coat over the slab first? I used Congoleum over slab and we did a skim coat, it worked out nicely. We did roll linoleum over it first and that was fine without the skim coat.

[malphy]

I did vinyl tile planks over concrete and loved it. I liked it better than my laminate floors. I used armstrong and it looked like a nice real wood floor and was great because there tended to be light flooding at the door jamb. no mold, no mildew no problems.

[Snow mom]

We've just finished shopping for flooring with a similar situation (currently carpet over slab). We are going with plank vinyl. Laminate would be easier as far as not knowing the condition of slab--it's typically installed floating whereas vinyl and most linoleum gets glued down. We decided against laminate because we were concerned about potential water issues.

[malphy]

as far as the condition of the floor, as long as there is nothing major it should not be a problem. they can apply a leveller to even out the floor.

[amldaley]

Whatever you chose, in addition to the vapor barrier you must lay, I strongly suggest you spring for the better underlayment(s) that provide a thermal layer and some cushion.

We have an engineered hardwood over slab here in our rental and it is AWEFUL. So very hard with no give at all and so very cold.

[queenmama]

I vote cork. Second to that, linoleum (not a fan of vinyl).

Lara