Can’t afford to carpet my council house

Some really good ideas here @Florafloral!

I wish there'd been MN to ask 20 odd years ago when we moved into our newbuild, back in olden times when you didn't get turnkey (which would have been bliss!) We were fortunate that we managed to cajole the builders into letting us have a key prior to completion (amazed looking back that they did!) which meant we had the key rooms painted, and a few carpeted, including re-using an old carpet of my parents' that they'd replaced.

I also ripped up the carpets in our old house and brought them. We'd offered them to our buyers for a small amount and they refused, so I thought sod them! At least we had the stairs kind of covered.

We had no flooring in bathrooms, hall or kitchen for ages though. It was messy and dusty and we had a toddler. I broke down cardboard boxes to cover the floors. We just had to do it a room at a time as we could afford it. Much better temporary solutions here!

It may be bollocks, but a housing officer told me that a lot of councils started insisting tenants removed carpet when they move out because of a case where carpets left behind led to some sort of infestation.

It ended up costing the council in question shedloads, they had to fumigate, place the tenants in temp accommodation and give them compensation.

For stairs you don't need carpet, I've painted mine white and have stair treads on and they have adhesive on the back so stick straight down, they were only £40 on Amazon and loads of people have them. I was quoted £400 for my stair carpet which I couldn't afford.

And Freegle.

Freegle seems to have more stuff on it in my area.

Painting and/or sealing the floors will be the easiest, I would highly recommend checking where your nearest Community RePaint project is. They sell leftover and unused paint. My local one sells paint for £1-2 a litre. It's way cheaper than retail prices.

How much can you afford OP? You can buy carpet cheaply online and if you get felt backed carpet it doesn’t need to be stretched so you can fit it yourself. We did this in our first house, it looked fine and lasted us about 6 years until we could afford to get something nicer.

Reach out to your local churches, some will run Compassion projects, ours does. We had a very similar situation a few years ago and managed to get some large off cuts (fitted too) for a lady with three small kids. It never hurts to ask.

Can you work slowly through the house? Carpet one or two areas at a time when money allows? Lots of people do that when having building work done (we did). I’d start with the your bedroom so you have a cosy space. You could put down interconnecting foam play mats in your childs room (you can find them on amazon, alphabet, number ones) and you can mop them clean.

Put laminate flooring downstairs - much more practical. You can look for it on offer when there’s a sale and ive seen people selling excess on facebook after doing their house. Also easy to keep clean with mopping.

Carpet the stairs when money allows.

I'm so sorry about that. It's been over ten years since I've worked for income support and flooring was always a must. I'm trying to think what to suggest. There's always carpets but paying the men to lay them is the problem.

I realise it may still be beyond your budget, but it is definitely worth it to shop around independent shops.
There are several places locally which advertise fully carpeting 3 bedroom properties for £500 - £700. That includes underlay and fitting. It won’t be the best quality but the ones I have seen look ok.

You have my sympathies. I couldn't have put flooring down in my HA house without assistance from my dad.

Where I live there is a local Facebook group called Before The Tip, where people just give away stuff that they no longer need or want, completely free. I've often seen carpets and rugs given away on there, do you have anything similar?

There's also a company called Pay Weekly Carpets (I think), where they carpet for you once you have paid so much off.

When I moved from my old home I was told I had to rip up the carpets.

They were all in good condition and would have made a huge difference to the new tenants but I was told that I would get a big fine for not doing it.

You need to paint the floors to seal them.

Go on to Freecycle, facebook, gumtree etc and get peoples left overs.

I did this and managed to carpet my entire home.

The carpets were all mismatched and didn’t always cover the entire room but it was good enough to last until I could afford to do a room at a time in the future.

Not wanting to derail, but councils' policy to bin all carpet between tenants is yet another of the many many many reasons on my growing list of why I've stopped giving a shit about my carbon footprint.

Also those big foam playmats that come as giant jigsaw pieces are a good temp solution for a kids room

This, I had a similar issue, sealed the concrete and stuck rugs everywhere. If you know someone with a van you can often get cheap massive rugs for free / cheap.

Also, could large rugs work in some of your rooms? We have flooring in my house, but in some rooms we’re considering getting large rugs that almost fill the rooms - some of our rooms really aren’t very large. Asda online and places like Amazon, EBay and Shein have some good rugs at fairly low prices.

Definitely try a local carpet shop too for remnants.

I really wish you all the best OP. My Nan lived in a council house, and I understand how difficult it can be with getting the council to do anything in your home.

You can buy offcuts from a place online called designer carpets. Sound expensive but isn't. Maybe you could save up and just do a room at a time. That is what we do.

Apologiea dis mean to quote anyone

It's standard to have no flooring in council houses .

Yes my hairdresser lived in a social housing flat (owned by a social housing company, not the Council - but they operate along similar lines).

She had the place carpeted, had all of the light switches and sockets replaced with chrome, had new (nice) light fittings installed and had her dad wallpaper a feature wall in the main bedroom in a neutral, expensive paper.

They told her that unless she ripped all of that out when she left, she would be charged. So that was the 3 year old carpet chucked in a skip.

And that particular company raves about its green credentials!!

Oops, couldn’t fit it in our car.

@Florafloral

Are you in the Greater London area?

There’s a house around the corner from me who have a really large roll of new carpet with a ‘take me’ sign written on it. It’s been there for around a week.

Recycle bay is also excellent for all sorts of home items for free, including flooring and carpet. One of my friends is also getting lovely things for her house from there, and I had to reluctantly turn down a dining room table and 4 chairs as I hold t fit it

Contact your local Citizens Advice to ask if they can help you apply for a grant towards it.
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/contact-us/contact-us/contact-us/#h-find-your-nearest-citizens-advice

My local Citizens Advice knows about all the available grants and funds and can help you apply, or apply of your behalf. If you need appliances or furniture they can help with that too.

You are likely to need to provide bank statements for the last 3 months and a screenshot of your most recent UC statement.

Ffs, the money that's pissed away and they are housing you with bare concrete floors🤦🏼‍♀️