Carpet vs wood flooring in lounge?

[JellycatElfie]

Hi all. At present we have carpet in the living room but with a 4 year old and a new baby it’s always getting spillages and worse. It also hasn’t worn well with heavy toys leaving dents etc. I’m thinking of having oak flooring, but mil says I will regret it because it’s so cold. We live in a 50s house which is colder than our previous new build, but I thought I could get around it by having a big rug covering the middle of the floor. If you’ve gone from carpet to wood flooring do you regret it? Money’s tight so I don’t want to make the wrong decision!

I live tiles/laminate in hallways/bathrooms/kitchen and carpet everywhere else.

We moved into a house that had wooden floors throughout and the living room was so cold and echoey so we put carpet in and it's so much better.

Our wooden floors in the hall show all the little bits much readier I find but I personally don't like carpet in hallways, landings yes but not halls.

I love wood. I buy relatively cheap and comfy rugs that can either be washed or replaced.

Well as you asked. Carpets are reservoirs of dead skin, hair, sweat and dirt including food and bodily fluids if you have small kids. Even if it's cleaned out of the surface, it is still trodden into the deeper pile in trace amounts. Dust mites and other allergens live in them. If you're cleaning them in a way that is easier than cleaning a hard floor, they definitely are. I mean, ultimately, if you don't have allergies, its probably not doing you any harm, but I'd rather not think about it.

Another one with carpet you can bleach clean! Best thing I’ve ever bought for the home.

We’ve got engineered oak and laminate downstairs. The laminate feels colder than the oak and definitely needs a rug.

We used to have carpet and it got trashed and smelt with the dcs. Plus it just hoarded dust despite all the vacuuming.

Hard wood floors show up the dirt that carpets would just hide!

Regularly vacuuming and a monthly mop with spot cleaning under the dining table/kitchen areas is enough for our floor. But we don’t have mucky toddlers!

Carpets are reservoirs of dead skin, hair, sweat and dirt including food and bodily fluids if you have small kids. Even if it's cleaned out of the surface, it is still trodden into the deeper pile in trace amounts. Dust mites and other allergens live in them

^this

I had a constant cough until we binned the old carpet. I really want hard floors in the bedrooms but that would be a step too far for dh 🤣

We got Forbo vinyl tiles in our kitchen and hall and I wish we'd put it in the whole downstairs. It's warmer than the bamboo flooring we got in the living room, and it's completely indestructible.

We've got bleach cleanable carpet too, paid for the best quality we could afford and had decent underlay too. It's so lovely underfoot and always warm in our living room.

Coir matting is fantastic. Hard wearing and looks nice.

I’m going for laminate in ours and we don’t even have kids! And the cats banned from the lounge.

The amount of dust you see on hard floors that must go into the carpet pile over time. Just minging.

I've got wood flooring, I love it.

Oak flooring with a big rug. Definitely.

I have a wooden living room floor in a 50s house and it isn't cold at all. No rug, just the floor boards. It was what the house had when I bought it but I've never ever wanted to change it. If the floor boards get too old and damaged I'll fight to replace them with more wood rather than carpet.

I find wood to be warm underfoot.

I have wood flooring all downstairs, easy to clean and always looks nice, even with 4 animals and 4 people living here! I do find it quite cold tho in the winter months. However I would cry if I had to have carpet with my lot, my hoover would never be off!

I have a carpet that is lovely, thick and soft, but so tough, you can bleach it.

It is also cream

about 1 month after it was fitted, we looked after a dog for the weekend, he is a lovely clean dog, but he obviously had an upset stomach and had a massive accident in the middle of our new lounge carpet overnight. We didn't find it until the morning, by which time it was well soaked in and stank.

It all cleaned out, and the carpet was just as good as new where it had been.

I would say look at the floor underneath, we have concrete and it is cold, I would not want wood floor in our lounge, especially when kids are small and play at floor level.

i would say, really good underlay, and really good tough carpet.

Can those of you finding it easy to clean explain please? I find it such a bloody hassle. I want to change our kitchen wooden floor (bloody stupid room to have wood in, grease spots, water stains) for tiles with underfloor heating! Would be a lot more practical!!

Can those of you finding it easy to clean explain please? I find it such a bloody hassle

1. Start with low standards. It does not have to be sparkling. Same would apply to carpet.

2. Use a floor vacuum followed by one of those new style brooms with the long threads on them for hair and bits.

3. Mop once a week.

4. Mats by doors, inside and out and all outside shoes taken off at the doors.

For those getting tiles I'm getting my tiles replaced by wood because I can't stand the grotty grout.

What is there to explain? You spill, you wipe, no stsin, no scrubbing. No room in my house has carpet. I only have a rug in the living room and my house is cosy.

I'd rather have carpet and pay to have it professionally cleaned once a year or two and then replace it every 5-10 years.

Carpet has been down 2 years now with baby into toddler, a few spillages and looks amazing still.

We replaced carpet with wooden flooring thought it'd be better with kid's and dog's and I regretted it from day 1.

It's noisy, cold, not cosy and a pain in the ass to clean.

With carpet I vac it in 10 minutes then vax it a couple of times a year but with the wood I had to brush, shift furniture because anything than can roll or waft went under the sofa and sideboard, mop it, dry it then buff it. Or wait for it to dry.

Then as soon as anybody stepped on it even in socks you could see a foot mark.
It did have a lot of natural light shining on it so maybe wouldn't have looked so bad in a darker room.

You spill, you wipe, no stsin, no scrubbing

I think we'll have to agree to disagree.

Dog is sick at night, go through in the morning and clear it up but it leaves a stain. Dishwasher leaked years ago, still have water marks. Loads of grease spots where things have been dropped, even if they've been picked up quickly. Last year when we had loads of snow the water in the utility room was a nightmare with the wood. We've still go marks from where the children dripped

In my bedroom (we've wood through the entire house) I don't want to be shifting furniture every time to sweep, get rid of fur balls then mop. I just want to swoosh the hoover round! It's double the work in every room.

Oh and we are a strict no shoes household, can't imagine how much worse it would be if we weren't.

Worth mentioning is that I had a flooring company refuse to fit engineered or wood floor in high traffic areas due to damage and wear and tear.
Happy to install carpet though.
Goes to show the experiences they must have seen with it

Interested as thinking about going to all laminate from carpet to help with dust mite allergy.

I have exposed floor boards down stairs and yes it's cold. We have a big rug down.

The truth is it's hard on the feet. One of my friends has engineered oak throughout and it's not cold, and it's clearly very practical, but it is hard, and simply not as comfortable under foot, or to even sit on, as carpet is.