To not want any carpets at all in my house

[winkywinkola]

I have four dcs, two labs, four cats and a rabbit.

The carpet on the stairs and even in the bedroom is trashed.

I would like wood/wood substitute throughout instead. With lovely rugs that I could get cleaned properly or throw out without too much financial heartbreak.

H says a house without carpets would be utterly soulless and echo-y. I think it would be cleeeeeeeeaaaaaaan!

It's an old farmhouse with a new extension on it so it's got tonnes of character already.

Aibu?

I live in a flat and don't have carpets- it's not noisy if you take your shoes off.

No carpets here.

Hated carpets when I lived with my parents - smelly dirt attracters.

I dont think I could go back to carpets now, we had ours stripped out until we can afford to replace but I love our floor boards and rugs actually. Carpet must hold so much dust...its amazing how it accumulates. I dont thikn carpets give any character at all in fact mostly they ruin the over all look....

I would compromise, carpet some areas, like bedrooms perhaps but leave stairs certainly and main traffic areas.

I also love our rugs when DC have been sick everywhere! bundle them up and straight in washing machine, brilliant

We have hard wearing carpet on the stairs and in the bedrooms. The rest of the house is laminate and blissfully easy to keep clean. To keep the noise down, we have play foam for the toddler and easy - clean rugs. We also bought the best underlay we could afford - it really helps.

I wouldn't want to be carpet-free upstairs.

Hard, noisy, cold and you still have to sweep and mop. Depending on the ages of your kids rugs can be a trip hazard and can be more tricky to hoover and keep clean than carpet.

Why not go carpet free downstairs and keep the animals downstairs only?

Would you consider non slip mats for the stairs?

And I agree, I hate carpets. I rent currently and have a nasty carpet which is a shame because it's a Victorian conversion and I bet it has lovely wood floors...

We have carpet on the stairs from ground floor to first floor and that's it. Wood or other hard flooring throughout. Was going to do painted wood stairs but they need repainting all the time (tip from a friend who lasted less than a year with hers).

It's not hard, noisy and cold upstairs in our house. Upstairs is hoovered and mopped once a week. Downstairs usually more often ;). Once you see the amount of crap you clear up from a hard floor on a regular basis you can't go back to dirt-trapping carpets!

I have a wooden floor in the living room, but laminate in the hallway and bedrooms. I find it easier to keep clean, but the laminate has started to bubble in certain areas which is annoying! If you're going to get it, I would get proper wooden floors. More hard wearing.

I like carpets upstairs and wooden floors downstairs.

But I'd rather have carpets than laminate.

Due to my age (61) and experience I beg to differ. My childhood was spent in a house with lino on the floors and a largish rug in the centre of the living room Floors were cold, hard and noisy.

Then in the 70s fully fitted carpets became all the rage. Heaven. Obs this was taken too far in some cases - eg bathrooms/kitchens.
It's more comfy to have carpet in bedrooms at least. In a previous house we took all the carpets up and in the bedroom it was a big mistake.

Apparently some folks who got rid of all their carpets and put wooden flooring down regret it so then put carpets back. If you drop something precious on a hard floor it's goodbye. OTOH if you are very allergic then hard floors are a good idea.

I last lived in a carpeted house in 1998. We did own one house that had lots of stairs and therefore lots of carpeted stairs, but my house is not cold, noisy, or hard. It's warm, cosy and welcoming. I am glad it's cool in the summer though.

We have engineered wood and bamboo floors mainly. One room came with laminate and we've never changed it. Bathrooms have nice bright clean tiles.

We have some underfloor heating downstairs, and I'd like more but need to save up.

I need to have rugs on my wooden floors though. Bare wooden floor aren't my thing.

I have to say when I first found out my little one was due I was panicking as we have carpets upstairs and down, but I used a very good company that have really made a difference in some of the stains that I just couldn't get out. I have Clean Socks Floor Cleaning over about every 6 months to sort my carpets out and they are like new every time. It's help me about a lot to not hate my carpets as much as I did.

Wooden floors are not cold at all, and you can add warm rugs if needed. Carpets are disgusting, look at the amount of dust that comes when you remove them, even if they have only been there for a year or so and you keep a clean house.

I disagree with above however, no carpet IS noisy in a flat, even if you take your shoes off. You should not be allowed to remove them there.

Stairs and upstairs corridor have to be carpeted imo. The sound of feet crashing up stairs and running between bedrooms will drive you insane with 4 DCs.

Everything else, hard floors and rugs beside beds for the winter mornings!

We have mostly tiled floors downstairs, and lounge is carpetted but it is absolutely filthy due to cat, dog, kids and grandkids..!! We were going to rip it out and replace with wood but then having stayed in a holiday let this summer that was all dark wood throughout, I was horrified how dusty and dirty it got. DH sells Karndean so we're now thinking of a tile effect all the way through as it least it's warm underfoot.

I grew up in a fitted carpet and the carpets never got cleaned. It was just yuck. We didn't have indoors pets thank goodness. Now I've got hard floors that get washed less often than they should and you should see the amount of dirt I remove. If I had carpets, all that would be in the carpets.

YANBU.

If you're going to do it and your house is attached to your neighbour's then make sure you get decent sound insulation. Soft furnishings absorb sound, the less you have the more audible you are to your neighbours. The idea of having neighbours with, for example, no carpets and no curtains, fills me with horror.

*with a fitted carpet

I'm not some kind of woolly bear

I am really

'I grew up in a fitted carpet'

Are you a Borrower?

YANBU. I'm in the process of redoing the bottom of my house in wood.

What have you got and would you recommend it? Could be laminate. So long as it looks like wood.

Sorry to hijack OP but there's lots of wood lovers on here. I didn't get many replies to my other thread b

Cherryplum- I guess it depends on the flooring. I live in Italy and most people live in flats - nobody has carpet!

Wooden floors can work in flats where there is proper sound insulation. I doubt your average new build UK flat is particularly well sound proofed.

We've just had the hall carpet replaced with a hard floor, and it is so much easier to keep clean - it doesn't hold onto the dog fur (our dogs could shed for Britain at Olympic levels), and all I have to do is go round with the duster/swiffer thingy, and sweep up at the end.

However, I do like carpets upstairs - we lived for a while in a house that had laminate in the bedroom, and I found that the bed was always full of gritty bits and I really hated that. Now we have bedroom carpet, and this is far less of a problem - I guess the bits stay on the carpet.