Can’t afford to carpet my council house

Neither can a lot of people so they save up and do one room at a time (main rooms) or buy cheap carpet and pay someone separate to lay it (eBay does plenty of cheap new carpet) no way does it cost 2k you are obviously looking at carpet right etc plenty of cheaper places like online carpets

If you can, start with some big rugs you find in charity shops. You'd be amazed what people donate. We found one that covered half of my bedroom and our bedroom is pretty big. (Ground floor apartment) it was only £15. This should hopefully help you until hopefully you're in a better position. Good luck and hang in there. You're doing a great job.

I agree with sealing the concrete, then buying some large rugs or offcuts and fitting them yourselves.

Definitely get on facebook etc. and look for big rugs. People give them away here all the time. Focus on one room at a time and go from there.

We will be in this position soon and will also have to go room by room and use large rugs until we can afford flooring.

https://endfurniturepoverty.org/get-help-with-furniture/

Comb through this site OP! Lots of luck to you

You can buy carpets very cheaply off amazon ,obviously they are not the best quality but better than nothing ,,can you get someone to help you lay them .?

Next Door is another website that has a free section. Carpets are often up for grabs. Also you could actually ask on Next Door for any old carpets. Lots of people are having carpets replaced and would be delighted to hand over their old ones.
It is recycling so good for the environment too.
Don't go into debt for something so readily available for free

Echoing other comments, and carpet shop staff will understand - they see this all the time and try to help. Have all your measurements ready to go and look for offcuts. You'd be surprised how well they can do the geometry to make an offcut fit. I have an offcut on my landing and stairs that I didn't ever think could work, but she was superb and did all the shaping so it worked on a turning staircase. Good luck OP and congrats.

Sorry I did miss it in your OP that you had been turned down. Have you checked out local charities in your area ? And Facebook is a good suggestion, you could also try Freecycle

May be it will be cheaper to seal the floor with something to stop the dust. Or cheap stick down vinyl tiles from one of the discount shops. What's upstairs?

This is exactly the sort of project 52 Lives supports.
https://www.52-lives.org/
You can apply yourself or ask a relative, friend , HV etc. to apply on your behalf. Good luck, bare floors are depressing as well as cold and uncomfortable.

Are you absolutely strapped for cash? On FB there's usually carpet shops that offer weekly payments, no interest added. I had to do mine one room at a time, lino at one point in the bedroom. I was lucky that the local carpet shops had roll ends big enough. At points I had to live in debt.

Definitely seal the concrete. It will buy you time until you can sort something more permanent.

Join a local Facebook group for your area.
Advertise for help on that.

For example, lots of new builds in my area so folks are advertising for free stuff all the time. They just ask and I know they get stuff because I’ve donated and delivered items to them.

Im recarpeting my bedroom shortly. The carpet is immaculate, not worn, not stained. Perfectly good.

I’ll advertise it before it goes to landfill in case anyone would like it.

Don’t be proud. Join the local groups and ask.

I bought a house after divorce and couldn’t afford to do flooring for a long time.
I bought this stuff from Carpetright. Don’t be fooled by the photo! It’s really thin, I used to call it my “rubber backed fluff”.
I bought it smaller than the room - no need to go to the edges, you don’t walk there - and no underlay or any kind of adhesive, just laid it out like a giant rug. Just on top of chipboard flooring boards. It looked pretty shit, but it did the job!

Remnants are often good value - especially from independent shops.

Also look out for free rugs on freecycle type places.

The chap that fitted our new carpets asked if we would mind him offering the ones he taking up (previous owners, not my taste) to someone he knew was a bit desperate. It might be worth ringing a few carpet fitters - it would do temporarily.

Hello! Congratulations on your new forever home 🏡
We also moved in to a new build, 2 years ago and had the same thing. No carpets or curtains.

Tapi carpets did us a great zero interest deal and we pay £48 a month for our £2000 carpets.

We only did upstairs. Downstairs is tiled. We bought a rug from IKEA for the lounge area for £80.

Works well. Curtains also from IKEA.

Lots of love ❤️

Look on facebook marketplace and preloved for large rugs.
Once you have a few, go to a diy place and buy a clear sealer for the concrete floors, paint on to stop the dust then fill with rugs.

I did this several times in my first couple of flats to save money.

Firstly I’d seal the concrete, that will hugely reduce the dust and you’ll be able to keep it clean. This would probably do your whole house, so much cheaper than carpet https://www.diy.com/departments/smartseal-concrete-floor-sealer-concrete-dustproofer-eliminates-dust-effective-concrete-dust-proofer-breathable-25l/5061002782320_BQ.prd?alt=true

Then I’d look for roll ends and offers rather than trying to get the whole house carpeted at once, you should be able to save a lot that way and spread the cost.

Big rugs downstairs will help. Locally we have j and w carpets who do end of rolls and room sizes remnants there will be somewhere similar near you. Keep a note of all your room sizes so if anything comes up on gumtree, marketplace etc you can act quickly.

I had a flat with concrete floors. I painted the hall and bathroom floors which was a cheap way to reduce the dust until I could afford tiles for the bathroom. I like the painted floors and managed to get a second hand big rug for the hall so didn't carpet it.

It's shit and I sympathise. I was turned down too, even though I'm disabled and had 2 young kids. We lived for over a year without until a support worker did something behind the scenes and I got it!

My advice would be to find help. If you have any support at all ask them to contact the council on your behalf maybe? Or they may know a back door way of getting it like mine seemed to. Or speak to CAB even? Don't give up. It's a nightmare not even having the basics for your little one I know how you feel.

Best of luck and I wish you both much happiness in your new home 💐

If the landlord (council, in this case) provides flooring, the landlord is responsible for repairs and replacement. And the landlord doesn't want that responsibility or expense.

How lovely that you have a new home for you and your child - congratulations OP.

There are homelessness support charities that I refer people to regularly that provide free home goods (2nd hand). If a similar thing exists near you they might have rugs etc that could do you whilst you save.

Agree with remnants approach too as I've done this in the past and it has been a fraction of the cost.

This was me. I lived for 2.5 years with no flooring after moving into a council house. It was horrendous especially with a toddler.

See if your council offer any schemes to help? Start a credit union account where you can save a small amount each week and then you may qualify for a loan? Local carpet places sometimes have cut offs that are almost the right size, maybe you can get that cheap as a starting point? Free cycle or gumtree to see if anyone is giving away rugs as a short term solution?

Its tough when you move into a council house. Your so grateful to have a place of your own, but it’s hard to make it a home when your on a low income. Good luck!