Flooring

DH likes carpet so we have carpet in the living room and dining room & Amtico in the kitchen / breakfast & hall.

I love the look of hard floors & easier to maintain, but I have to admit, hearing is easier in the carpeted areas (I have high-amplification hearing aids & even a slight echo plays havoc).

*hall carpet!

Aely

Just going to mention the flooring here (downstairs). Not to be recommended. Concrete "raft" base covered in tiles (with 2% asbestos so nearly impossible to get rid of) in a delightful shade of poo with decorative streaks of "blood" and "vomit".

I go for carpets myself. I can't walk on "hard" floors barefoot, it is too painful, and they do help stop the cold coming up from below in Winter.

My house is also on a concrete raft, with similar (Marley?) tiles, possibly 1950s. It’s a 1920s semi. I understand the small amount of asbestos is in the backing, and it’s recommended to simply lay new flooring over it rather than have the major headache of removing the tiles.

When I moved here the kitchen had green Flotex-type nylon carpet, in front of the cooker it had spots where it had melted from spitting or spilt cooking oil. I’d love to have vinyl laid but it’s very uneven where an internal wall had been removed without prior levelling. It’s cool for the dogs on hot days, and I have washable mats in front of the sink and cooker.

DD had her living room and happ carpet taken up and laminate laid, it’s slippery and really horrid for the poor dogs, it has also chipped in places. I prefer carpet.

Wood floors throughout, most of them original uneven pine or Georgian. However I also have lots of rugs everywhere.

I find the clattery hollow sound of wood floors without at least scatter rugs to be echoey and the vibe is cold and officy.

If you are stripping carpet up to reveal original floorboards and you have a suspended floor, then make sure that there are no gaps between the floor boards or take them up and suspend insulation under them.

We once viewed a house where the ownes had stripped the carpets and titivated the rather gappy floor boards. It was a cold windy day and the scatter rugs were giving a good impression of flying carpets, suspended in the air on the cold cushion of air coming through the floro.

We have LVT all thru downstairs...been down 6 years...not a mark on it

Time2. I am sure it will increase the value of your bungalow

We too are about to have a change of flooring, going from carpet in the lounge, dining room, kitchen and hallway, to engineered wood flooring. I was really worried about who would take up the carpet, and move the furniture, as we're both disabled, but having had various people come out to quote, they were all happy to organise moving furniture, and taking up the carpet and disposing of it. It just costs a bit more, but obviously worth it, if you can't do it yourself. I must admit I'm dreading them coming to do the job, as it's going to take about a week, but we will still have access to the ensuite bedroom at night (we live in a bungalow), and during the day if it gets too noisy, or chaotic, we'll decamp to the motorhome, or at least that's the plan!! Meanwhile, I have to get on and pack away all my breakables, not something I'm looking forward to, more because I have to find room for them once they're packed, but I daresay it will all come together in the end, and we'll be glad we had it done.

Witzend

I do like carpet (warm, quiet, and the dust doesn’t show!) but the moths have been at ours with a vengeance. Underneath is parquet flooring (covered up 40 years ago!) but it’s fairly dark, which is why I didn’t like it.

But I’m now thinking of ditching the carpet and getting the wood sanded, but we have some very heavy items of furniture that would need shifting, so how to even start going about it I haven’t really thought as yet. Theres no way dh and I will be shifting that furniture.

We're about to have our wooden floors resealed and our company say that they're happy to move the large furniture if we remove the small stuff. I think you'll probably be able to find a firm that will do this for you.
They do the rooms in two halves, which means we'll need to stay out of the house for a couple of days whilst the finish "cures".

I have engineered wood everywhere except for the kitchen, bathrooms and utility cupboards where I have porcelain tiles. I think that tiles are usually better in the hallways by the front door because of dirt and scratching, as I'm guessing that laminates and vinyls could also scratch in this postion.

If you are inclined to fall about a bit, as I am now I'm ancient, you can't beat landing on a nice carpet.
I dislike hard floors.

We also know as a PP has said someone with underfloor pipe work leaking under concrete, someone with a similar problem with their underfloor heating and DDs MIL had an underfloor leak and when the plumbers dug about found asbetos. She had to live in a hotel for almost 6 months while it was all removed, leaks fixed and everything put back to normal.

Witzend Sanded and sealed parquet would look wonderful. How lucky.
I am loving this thread. I had forgotten about Amtico.

Our floor boards..wide Victorian..were sanded and sealed by DH and friend when we moved in 45 years ago. The sealant was something they used on school gym floors. Still hardly a mark. It has withstood roller skating DDs and friends. The only place where it could do with a resand is around the kitchen sink floor area.

At the patio windows end where there was a concreted area already we have red quarry tiles. That is an unforgiving area to drop anything breakable. This concreted area was separated from the kitchen by a wall which we had taken down and was a toilet, coal hole/bunker and single back door all on concrete.

The side gate under the end. of the house was tall enough to let a horse through. There could have been a small stable in the back garden.
Sorry to have gone off subject.

I have Karndean tiles in my extension, which is also the route to the garden. Very practical.
Karndean herringbone tiles in the hall are still like new after 12 years and much admired by visitors.
But I have carpets in the living room and bedrooms for warmth and comfort underfoot.
I am soon to have the smallest bedroom, now a study, redecorated. I can’t decide what flooring to have. It will have to accommodate a swivel desk chair. Any thoughts?

I do like carpet (warm, quiet, and the dust doesn’t show!) but the moths have been at ours with a vengeance. Underneath is parquet flooring (covered up 40 years ago!) but it’s fairly dark, which is why I didn’t like it.

But I’m now thinking of ditching the carpet and getting the wood sanded, but we have some very heavy items of furniture that would need shifting, so how to even start going about it I haven’t really thought as yet. Theres no way dh and I will be shifting that furniture.

We have engineered Oak, in our living room.Looks just as good as when new, fifteen years ago,

Just going to mention the flooring here (downstairs). Not to be recommended. Concrete "raft" base covered in tiles (with 2% asbestos so nearly impossible to get rid of) in a delightful shade of poo with decorative streaks of "blood" and "vomit".

I go for carpets myself. I can't walk on "hard" floors barefoot, it is too painful, and they do help stop the cold coming up from below in Winter.

In my last house, which I moved from on 2019, I had beautiful Amtico tiling laid in the through lounge. It looked like the original parquet flooring. It was wonderful, survived pets, and small g.children, opening directly on the garden. So easy to keep clean and looked as good when I left as it had when I had it laid 16 years earlier.

Came to my fully carpeted flat. Gave it a year - during that time knocked over a glass of milk shake, and it took me over a week to get the stale milk smell out. Mopped it up straight away, steam cleaned daily, nothing worked. That decided me.

Karndean flooring laid throughout that big Living/Dining Room and hallway. Absolutely beautiful to look at (people always comment when visiting me for the first time), so very easy to keep clean, occasional run round with vacuum, and very occasional wipe over with spray mop. It has a lifetime guarantee, which can be passed on to whoever purchases the flat when it sold. Warm underfoot in winter, cool in summer. Okay when I knock over my glass of water, I do have to mop it up immediately - not that difficult.

Both my bathrooms, and kitchen have Amtico flooring, totally non-slip even when wet. All have a really good underlay to provide extra warmth and to ensure no noise to anyone underneath me.

Only room I have a carpet is my own bedroom.

Would never, ever want to return to carpeted living areas.

Oreo

butterandjam

You might want to consider that a quality carpet+underlay offers heat and sound insulation. For older people , a smooth/hard surface can be a slip hazard ( especially if wet).

Pee on the carpet or spill your gin, and at least you won't fall over in it....

😆
Did you do both those things?

Not yet, but we're well prepared for our decrepitude.

I can tell you that if you drop your phone / empty glass/ remote control on carpet it's unlikely to break.

Years ago we had a country house (fatally described as "designed by an architect for his own use") with extensive quarry tile flooring laid over a (broken,non functioning) underfloor heating system.

Quarry tiles are indestructible, unlike anything hard dropped on them.

We have LVT flooring too……..so easy to maintain but on no account should it be cleaned with a steam mop!

Karndean is not great compared with Amtico.
It's worth paying more.

I like all the types of flooring mentioned, but carpets are quiet and cosy to walk on and keep the rooms warmer in Winter.
I think I like the idea of hard floors more than the reality.

butterandjam

You might want to consider that a quality carpet+underlay offers heat and sound insulation. For older people , a smooth/hard surface can be a slip hazard ( especially if wet).

Pee on the carpet or spill your gin, and at least you won't fall over in it....

😆
Did you do both those things?

I had engineered oak over the whole house when I moved in bar all the bathrooms which are tiled floors and the landings and stairs. Flat rugs in a couple of rooms but the flooring is so easy to clean this way just a quick hoovsr and occasional wash with a flat mop more often in Winter but honestly it never even looks dirty I love it, so much less work than carpets.

I like the look and feel of a carpet in the lounge, which we currently have. It does need a good hoover though.

The bathroom has Karndean, the hall has wood flooring and the kitchen has oak laminate strips which we like.

You might want to consider that a quality carpet+underlay offers heat and sound insulation. For older people , a smooth/hard surface can be a slip hazard ( especially if wet).

Pee on the carpet or spill your gin, and at least you won't fall over in it....