Garage Conversion to Playroom – What to use for Flooring?

Q: We have two questions about a job we are about to start:
1) We are in the process of converting our garage into a recreational room and connect it to our existing basement. We redid our basement recently and put very nice tile on it with heating element under the tile. It works well, but the tile is very hard on the knees when the kids are playing. We are thinking of either using the same tile in the garage conversion and then put rugs on top of the tile. Or we were told that we could consider a bamboo floor, but we understand that bamboo flooring has a mixed reputation, and especially placing it on the concrete slab in the garage is risky. What surface would you suggest that is durable (children, dogs) and attractive. Since the ceiling clearance is only about 7’5″, we do not want to use an application that takes up a lot of space. We plan on putting a heating element under whatever surface we have.
2) Transition to new converted garage. The level of the floor in the garage will be about 3-4″ lower than the current basement. We currently have a small concrete stair. We are trying to figure out the best transition from one room to the other. The entrance will be about five feet across.
Thank you for your suggestions.
Lev
Here you can see a couple of pictures Lev sent in of his basement to garage transition

A: Concrete is a major factor in determining what floors you can not use. Normally for a comfortable floor over concrete I would suggest cork, but when you factor in an underfloor heating system it throws the proverbial monkey wrench into the thought. Cork, being a natural insulator, hampers how well heat transfers from radiant heat systems. This is based on the R rating of the heating system you are using, as thinner cork (like using 3mm cork underlayment vs 6mm cork underlayment for floating floors) will insulate less heat than thicker cork.
On concrete with a radiant heat style system, I would look into using a floating floor. For bamboo you could look into Springwood, which makes an excellent engineered floating bamboo. Laminate is king when it comes to durability, so this can be another great choice. Engineered hardwood can also work in this application.
If a major concern is comfort for your kids, you may want to look into carpet. Although I personally like to avoid carpet, it is undeniable comfortable under foot and warmer than hard surfaces like tile and linoleum. We carry carpet tile made by Milliken which comes with preattached padding, making it easy to install. Also, the tile format of this carpet allows you to buy multiple colors to create patterns and interesting visually looks to your floor beyond the simple look of a single color of standard carpet by the roll.
In the end, my suggestion would be to decided if you want a wood floor or a comfortable floor. Here’s the steps I would take to decide what floor choice is going to work out best. First check the R value maximum for the underfloor heating you intend to use. This will help to narrow down your field. Afterward decide what floor choices will be both comfortable and durable. Cork is great, but if its R value is too high you will need to look into carpet or a floating wood floor. Laminate will give you the best durability along with the look of wood, but it is a harder surface than cork or carpet.
Now to address your transition, I would treat this just like a normal stair. Floor it to match the garage (if possible) and then use a t-mold or similar transition to cover the change from tile to the flooring in the garage.