Originally Posted by Cookn
Have you thought about putting down rubber "jig saw" tiles that interlock ? supposedly they are good under a longarm and frame. They keep down noise and vibration. They are super easy to keep clean, you can damp mop if you want. They're comfortable to walk on, and they also insulate a little. If you do have a water leak, they are easy to take up and dry out. They don't absorb much water. If one gets damaged you can just replace it. They are 2'x2' squares and they cover a large area quickly. The Depot stocks them usually, depending on the size of the store, but if they don't stock them they can special order them. They also stock or can order different colors and designs, you can make a really neat floor. They also have another product designed for garage floors that works on the same principle, that is a harder composition, that is nice. If we didn't already have carpet in the room our longarm and frame is going in, it's the way I would go.
We have these in our exercise room. They were a lot less expensive purchased from an exercise store (I think it was 2nd Wind) than from our local big box home improvement store. They are really easy on the feet/back/legs yet seem able to handle the heavy equipment just fine. They did outgas heavily the first couple of weeks they were in; had to keep the room aired. The only thing that might not work for a sewing area is that the only color (for ours, anyway) was black with speckles in it. This could be dark in a basement. Works for us because we have a lot of South light coming into our exercise room.
My brother has laminate flooring. It's older, so maybe they have improved on it, but the one thing I don't like about it is that it is so noisy when you walk on it with shoes.