Hard floors versus carpets

We have grey tiles in our bathroom, vinyl in the other and the downstairs loo. DH's study is also vinyl. Tiles in the kitchen and utility.

Beige carpet with multi coloured flecks everywhere else!

Although our house is Victorian, it has mostly concrete floors so we have no opportunity to have bare floor boards but, as it is fairly open plan, I imagine it would be quite cold.

In terms of keeping it clean, carpet nowadays is easily spot cleaned. I nearly had a fit when I came home to find my cleaner using the kitchen (non bleach containing) squirty cleaner on the (mostly) wool carpet and wondered how to explain that to the insurance company. It worked a treat.

What useful tips, janerowena. Do you hire yourself out as an interior decorator?

If you just want a colour wash on some pine, 6 parts varnish to 1 part paint is good.

Agus I have been doing it for years, matching up skirting boards to quarry tiles to make the room look bigger, that sort of thing. Just make a not of what ratio you have used, doing a sample. I have an old metal dessertspoon, so start off mixing say, 2 spoons varnish to 1 of paint. Then I paint it on a piece of the nearest fabric I can find of the nearest colour and see how it looks, then adjust until it is right. Then I use an old measuring jug to measure out the larger quantities in the right ratios, and hang on to big old plastic paint pots to do the mixing. For that I use my grandmother's old electric whisk!

You've all been SO helpful, brought up ideas,thoughts, problems and given me lots to think about, rather feel that I'm leaning towards hard floors. Karndean seems good, so I shall investigate that a bit more. We have a wood burning stove and already have a rug in front of that. I was concerned about the swivel chair that we use with the computer in the dining room so would possibly need a rug under that. Thank you all for your help and ideas

Jane I didn't know it was possible to mix paint with varnish! What a fabulous tip. Thank you.

I have ceramic tiles in hall, downstairs loo and bathroom upstairs. Vinyl in the kitchen and laminate downstairs with a large rug in the living room area. Upstairs there is a lighter laminate everywhere with a rug either side of the bed in the main bedroom for warmth under foot. I would never return to carpets- laminate is so much easier to clean and it is easy to see dust whereas on a carpet that would never be seen. I have 3 rugs on the upstairs hallway and Tara my cat loves, in a mad moment, sliding from one end to another and she and a rug end up in the bathroom.

Throughout our apartment is laminate flooring a light pine colour in hall/lounge and bathroom and white laminate in the bedroom and dressing room,I can go through the whole lot in 10mins with my dry mop of a morning after a quick spritz of floor cleaner here & there keeps it good looks always,I'm lucky that we don't have lots of traffic through as we did when we had the big family house when bikes/skate boards and prams pushed or ridden through those where the days .

I have recently decided to replace our fitted hall carpet with parquet herringbone pattern. Not sure if it can be done but I will enquire if it is possible to have underfloor heating with a wooden floor. We have this type of heating in other rooms with tiled floors and it is very cosy especially in the bathroom in winter during the night.

All our downstairs floors are tiled except the living room. We had put a laminate floor down in it but got tired of it last year and laid carpet on top. The cats think the catpet is great!. We.ve got laminate floors in all the bedrooms in the hope of keeping the dust down.

Charcoal Floor tiles in the bathroom and kitchen.
Carpets in two bedrooms and stairs.
Quality laminate in bedroom and lounge, dining, study.

No problem with computer chair wheels and the flooring has been down for 14 years. Only 2 small scratches and it has survived the antics of grandchildren and had no special care taken.
Vacuumed and damp mop every couple of days.
In winter I put down a big rug and in summer the rug is stored in the garage.

We did put felt pads on the bottom of the chairs and table.

No problems whatever.

I would never go for fitted carpets again. I had had several houses where we have exposed lovely wooden floors, sanded them down and polished and stained them. in this one, although the sitting room carpet is fine for now, we had to replace the dining room and hallway carpets so bought some old second-hand small parquet tiles. It took ages to sand down each tile and trim off the old mastic, the tiles had to be laid like doing a jigsaw, then I spent hours sanding every day for a week, then gave them several cots of matt varnish. but I only need to vacuum them, and to mop them once a month perhaps, and give them the odd dot of varnish if they have got scraped. they are brilliant - and would have cost a small fortune to get someone to do for us. I am very proud of it.

There was also a carpet in the upstairs bathroom. (In the downstairs too, but we tiled in there) I ripped it out, it was elderly and revolting, and found nice wide floorboards underneath, so I mixed some very pale grey paint in with some varnish and gave them a few coats. I did sand them first - and people think I have laid laminate in there! Apart from washing it, I haven't had to touch it in the six years since I did it.

Whereas the downstairs sitting room carpet has GC-induced stains on it, despite using a steamer and a vax. I would love to have wooden floors in there as well, but it's a big room and where to put all the furniture while it's done?

We have a Victorian terrace and I pulled up all the downstairs carpets and sanded and varnished the floorboards myself a few years back. It was a hot Summer and I spent most of it trying to master a roaring monster of a hired sander that kept running away with me. Every so often the sandpaper would suddenly catch on something and fly off with an explosion that scared the bejaysus out of me. Dressed in bra and pants (curtains shut) because of the heat, and sporting sunglasses as goggles and a scarf round my mouth to keep the dust out (safety first). One day I tripped over some of the rolled up carpet, couldn't save myself from falling flat because my hands were full of the radio I landed on, and lay on the floor giggling helplessly as I imagined what the emergency services would have thought if they'd had to break in and rescue me.

It was well worth all the effort - they look good and are easy to clean. And our hot water pipes are underneath so they keep our feet warm too. But now I have toddling and crawling grandnippers we've had to put a carpet back down in the front room for the sake of their little knees. I went for beige, unfortunately, so it never looks clean.

Laminate in the hall and study (with two rubber backed mats in the study where the chairs with wheels are, more for safety and not skidding around than marks). Carpet in the lounge and dining room which needs replacing badly so I was wondering about laminate and rugs. However, matching it to the hall could be a problem now so will probably go for carpet that is not a pale beige like the present one.
Wood floor in the conservatory with underfloor heating; however, I have noticed that the wooden floor has dents from some of the furniture.

We've got real wood in our conservatory (he wanted real). Looked great to start with but the colour mellowed so don't get too hung up on a particular shade. We often have visiting dogs and DGC and that's when hard floors come into their own as it's so much easier to keep clean - but the dogs claws have scratched the wood. Given a choice now, I'd go for Karndean and rugs.

Carpet just makes things quieter and cosier, just go for a sensible colour!

I am with the carpet brigade , at least for lounge, dining rooms/area and bedrooms and study.We have Karndean flooring in the kitchen , which cleans well and is warm enough underfoot.Porcelain tiles in the bathroom [which I hate, freezing cold in Winter, and which will be changed in the next couple of years.]Terracotta tiles in the new conservatory. We also have carpet all down the hallway [it's new] but next time this may be replaced by some kind of hard flooring.

Laminate in the kitchen and dining room, but I kept the previous owners' carpet elsewhere because the colours were agreeable and the condition still very good. The bathroom has non-slip vinyl in a tile design.

Carpets every time for me. Quieter, warmer, cosier...
Each to his own.

We have laminate right through down stairs, with large rugs in the sitting room. However due to circumstances, we did go for cheap laminate, which does tend to chip.

My son has recently moved into a brand new house and has gone for wood/laminate effect vinyl throughout the ground floor. It looks lovely, is soft (and quiet!) underfoot, warmer than laminate but just as easy to clean, and you do get a second chance if you drop something breakable.

Given the choice and the money again, that's what I would go for.

I really do prefer carpets in living rooms it just seems more cosy and quieter.

We did consider having wood laminate when we decorated a couple of months ago, but after visiting our son`s house after they had it put down, I found that getting up off the settee very difficult, as my feet kept sliding from under me. So we decided to have carpet again.

Carpet in the lounge and bedrooms. laminate in dining room and hall way and downstairs cloakroom. Ceramic tiles in bathroom and kitchen.

Got parquet flooring and rugs in the middle so that you feet are on something soft. That is fine

We have laminate(oak finish)in the hall and dining area.Not had it previously,find it hard wearing and easy to keep clean.The DGC tend to make a mess around the dining table and a quick wipe works wonders.We have vinyl in the kitchen and utility,again easy to keep clean.However,in the lounge and bedrooms we have carpet.I suffer with cold feet and would not part with carpet where I sit and relax (combined with underfloor heating).
One disadvantage with laminate is that you may need the skirting boards altering when it is installed.