Can’t afford to carpet my council house

Definitely shop around , even look at cut offs and do one room at a time if need be.
Do you know anyone who could fit it for you ?

I started off same way I didn't have alot of money but you will get there . I'm surprised they haven't given you anything to help surely you could get a grant or some kind of a charity that could help you out a bit?

Councils can't let properties without cleanable water tight floors in the bathroom and kitchen. So those will be done already

I work with the local authorities/housing association.

It’s standard that flooring is the customers responsibility and is clearly stated within their tenancy agreement.

Void teams won’t leave carpets in due to pest control, hygiene and health and safety hazzards.

In one local LA, they trialled leaving carpets in however was hugely unsuccessful, due to issues with fleas, bed and furniture bugs, carpet beetles, vermin under floor boards, wood worm in floorboards, broken or squeaky floorboards… urine and human pet sodden vinyl/ carpets, preservation/damp/burst pipes in concrete flooring etc… to name a few…

we’ve even seen maggot and fly larvae , now we all wish customers are all Mrs Hinch but the sad reality is a good percentage of customers are living in poor, hoarding or squalid conditions due to a number of factors.m

Is there a local children’s centre in your area they often help with families in need. I would say this is a need. £2000 is a lot of money when you’re just starting out. Approach them and ask for help. I second Lino for bathroom and kitchen though. And rugs for other room for now. Definitely try and do a room at a time.

Good job it's not the middle of winter OP. Try using Facebook Marketplace to request old carpets/rugs for the time being, give your measurements, people find it a pain to get rid of carpet - think some councils charge now for bulky collection - so you might get lucky if you can collect it.

also look at pay weekly carpets, i had that done when i started in my first council home. was £10 a week

People pay a lot for concrete floors- get some floor sealant as suggested. It will look great.

then Facebook marketplace or Ikea if the budget allows for rugs and playmats

FB marketplace/ local free pages
Ask for any rugs/ carpet remnants
Some people redecorate and change everything so you may well be lucky
CAB may know of local charities you can apply to
There may be a local charity who redistribute donated furniture/ white goods and just about everything needed to set up home(!) so do check
You can buy sealant for the concrete floor which would keep the dust down and protect it
Many congratulations on your new home

A quick way to solve the dust problem, until you can get a longer term fix, is to paint the floors with a concrete sealant. There're several types available, have a look at B&Q to find one suitable for your situation.

Other ideas are plastic woven rugs for the kitchen, woven coir floor tiles, lino/vinyl off cuts.

A carpet shop near me has a carpet of the month every month for no more than £18 per square metre including underlay & fitting.

Do you have somewhere like Carpets4less near you? They have aisles full of remnants. Sometimes very cheap, and just get it done room by room?

Are you on benefits? You may be able to apply for a budget loan of £812 which is interest free & repaid through your benefits.

Those colourful interlocking foam tiles that children play on might be a cheap interim solution. You might be able to get some cheap in charity shops or secondhand on local selling pages or gumtree etc.

Oh the insanity of council housing. They remove flooring before they relet if it wasn't put down by them.

Try Pay Weekly Carpets

Whete are you? I'm Oxfordshire and have some carpets I'm giving away.

Seal the concrete floors then ask round everyone you know as someone is bound to know someone who is getting new carpets and you can have the old ones. I own my home but I’ve had to do this.
If the rooms are small you can probably make a cupboard up with off cuts. Either stick it with double sided tape or stitch it together. Not easy but it is doable. Fit the carpets yourself.

Get some tins of floor sealer in meantime to stop dust
https://www.rawlinspaints.com/floor-sealers?gad_source=1

When my kids were small and money was tight I blagged out of date carpet sample books and the kids had patchwork carpets in their bedrooms.

It’s concrete flooring throughout

Not upstairs though!! A new build 2 bed council house will have the kitchen and floor done with vinyl only leaving you the lounge and 2 bedrooms. Much more do-able.

Why would you say it was concrete “throughout”? 🤔

Lots of people don’t have kids and pets. You will be surprised how many people cha be there carpets often even though these nothing wrong with them.

carpet doesn’t belong in bathrooms 🤢

Hi, so sorry you’re in this situation! We lived in a council flat in our early twenties so didn’t have much money, and there was no flooring when we moved in. We had carpets fitted in the bedroom and living room, and then laid carpet tiles down in the kitchen and bathroom as a temporary fix, because the bathroom suite and kitchen units all needed replacing too. You can get them really cheaply on Amazon and they’re non-slip, so should be able to be laid straight onto the concrete. Hope you get it all sorted and can enjoy your new home! 😊

A friend of mine had these down many years ago.
I remember he had spares so he could replace one if one got ruined. Easy to lay to. Stick and go. But you’d have to seal the concrete first.

Look at local carpet shops and ask if they do roll ends. Our local one was so helpful when I first moved into a housing association flat. They found me a roll end for £20 and delivered it for a fiver. It covered almost a whole room. Bit of a weird colour but it did for a couple of years. I went back to that carpet shop and bought proper carpets when I could afford it.

B&M Homestores sometimes have reasonably priced tiles for floors - vinyl and carpet.