Can’t afford to carpet my council house

It's not ideal, and OP has already been given lots of helpful advise on how to get some flooring more cheaply. Not everyone in a council property is on a low wage; would you suggest that the council should provide flooring for everyone, and be responsible for it for ever?

Have you tried a charity like Trussel Trust?My local food bank put me in contact with a group who bought by daughter a new bed frame...

Was it a budgeting loan you applied for? If not, perhaps try that.

Good luck

Get Yr measurements, take to any carpet shop, ask if they yave anything to fit a room cheap. Many have large pieces left from commercial jobs or carpets they buy in bulk which they know will sell well and are cheaper. Whereabouts r u? Grab some carpets even if u got for underlay and fitting later. Gd luck

Get Yr measurements, take to any carpet shop, ask if they yave anything to fit a room cheap. Many have large pieces left from commercial jobs or carpets they buy in bulk which they know will sell well and are cheaper. Whereabouts r u? Grab some carpets even if u got for underlay and fitting later. Gd luck

Put a post on FB. Many people buy new carpet and dump perfect carpet just because it's the wrong colour. I'm sure many would be happy to donate.

A friend of mine got decent sized offcuts from the bins of the local carpet shop!

This is absolutely crazy and those working in, or looking for a home, in social housing should campaign against it. Quite apart from the inconvenience to incoming tenants, what about the enviornmental cost?

Obviously there will be properties where what's there is unusable, dangerous or unhygienic and it should go. But not as a blanket policy!

Tenants in private rents and buyers don't have to face this bare shell option if they don't want to. This actually makes me mad.

Yep the op has been given countless suggestions yet seems to only want the grant! Funny that. She said it's going to cost "2k" when no actually it wouldn't especially not doing one room at a time with cheap carpet, I've carpeted my house and it was nowhere near 2k so she obviously isn't aware she could save up and do one room at a time! The only solutions seem to be grant or spend 2k!

I love Alex, I think she’s great. I regularly support her small business. However, I don’t think her situation is realistic in the sense of she had a lot saved up, was able to buy things over time prior to moving and her carpets/flooring were expensive.

She’s done a fab job of her home but I don’t think it’s realistic for this lady to achieve the same when she’s mentioned she’s struggling.

There are companies where you can pay it off your flooring weekly. Have a Google.

Brilliant suggestions on charities funds etc.
Post on a local Facebook free page - might seem awkward but you may get offers of help from carpet fittings etc, someone getting rid soon.
Online carpets is the cheapest place I’ve found - cheap vinyl for downstairs £6-7/m2. They offer clearly/klarna but unless your house is enormous could probably do downstairs for £200-300. Vinyls easy to fit yourself also, YouTube, Stanley (ask a neighbour if you don’t have one!) and glue. I really feel for people moving into a home with no flooring - it’s a huge upfront cost. Good luck!

https://www.instagram.com/alexandremiwren?igsh=NnY1dnIwOWg3N3hu

There's the loveliest young woman on Instagram who has been homeless. Her journey is an inspiration

What a supercilious comment- I'm sure the OP knows she's not the only one, and would "save up" if that were a practical option. 🙄

been there myself and this is what i did;
scoured places like Marketplace for rugs they help a bit until you can carpet least you can do lounge by beds etc
sounds basic but I flattened out cardboard boxes and popped them down in places like kitchen they stop it being so cold and dusty when grubby you can dispose of them
if all else fails to stop the dust if nothing else put down old sheets or duvet covers

Where I live, the social housing authority doesn't just remove flooring between tenants, but every fixture and fitting, bar kitchen cupboards. Blinds, curtain rails, shelves, towel rails, even the toilet roll holder...it's so bizarre and means the next tenant ends up with a massive outlay when they can least afford it. Guessing it must be 'health and safety' (they don't want to be liable for someone hurting themselves on a faulty fitting or it falling on their head) but imagine buying a house and the vendor having to strip the place bare by law, people would be well pissed off.

There's a few websites and Tapi flooring that let you pay off over time. I would do the living room & kitchen first. Rugs in the bedrooms for now. There's lots of free giving away sires in FB maybe post on their too to see if anyone has rug or off cuts for now. Good luck OP

@Florafloral Congratulations on your new home! I’m sure you will make it lovely in time.

i haven’t read all the replies, just the first couple of pages. I just wanted to reiterate what some previous posters have said.

I sometimes help out with a local charity. They have a ‘homes’ team that do exactly this, helping people with items they need but can’t afford. It might be providing a new mum with baby items, providing a family with beds etc. A lot of the items are second hand but they are extremely thorough with checking and cleaning items and only things in very, very good condition are passed on.

maybe see if you can find any charities like that near you? If you said what area you’re in people on here might be able to point you in the direction of a local charity. They sometimes do appeals on our local Facebook groups asking for specific items that have been asked to source and people are always so generous.

which leads me on to saying you should definitely post on a few local Facebook groups. Just state your position and also offer to collect anything if you can. I had to furnish a whole house a couple of years ago for a Ukrainian family and posted on our local group and had literally hundreds of replies.

If you live near an affluent area post on their fb page too!

do ask for pictures though as some people do use it as an excuse to offload their old junk!!

good luck with it all.

What I've always read is that the "no flooring" rule is for hygiene reasons, to prevent germs, fleas, god knows what etc spreading from one tenant to the next. I've always thought it's an utterly absurd rule! Councils should just have the floors deep-cleaned! And it makes no sense at all with wooden/laminate floors! Councils in the UK are bizarre

I wonder if you could do something like 'gift' the floor to a new tenant? I understand the argument that the council would become responsible for a floor but if it was gifted that wouldn't be the case.

A relative of mine recently moved from her council house in which she had laid nice quality wood floors downstairs and good carpeting upstairs.

It was a council requirement that every last bit had to be removed and the house handed back with bare floors.

Can't get my head around this. There must be many folk in OPs situation who would have been glad of a house with flooring.
And also the sheer waste, considering councils all talk the green talk.
Also, if new tenants are on benefits the council may have to assist with flooring.....again, ridiculously wasteful when councils are bleating about how short of funding they are.

In the end, a charity took the wooden floor to provide to folk who can't afford to furnish, but the carpeting was binned.

@Florafloral If you're in the Liverpool area, I have quite a large remnant of vinyl you can have. I might have a rug knocking about as well.

This happened to me about 30 years ago I was very lucky and got a prince's trust grant for carpets. I have no idea if you still can but you never know