To want carpet in living room?

[icklekid]

Clearly not a life changing issue but over the Christmas period ds (who is 6) accidentally knocked coal from the fire and damaged the carpet. I’ve tried but can’t get the stain out. This carpet is old and the last one in the house that we have renovated room by room over the last 8 years. So basically I wasn’t too cross as the carpet needed replacing anyway. Dh was very cross and is now insisting we need to replace it with hard flooring and a rug. His argument is that if it happens again what would we do. I appreciate that is true but I really prefer carpets. We have hard flooring throughout the rest of downstairs so I’m not against it in principle. Am I being ridiculous?

Is the carpet burnt? If not you should be able to get the stain out.

If you’re talking about hot coals then they would have damaged a wooden floor too.

We have a carpet that is bleachable. Maybe consider something like that.

If it is just a stain, not a burn, you need rubbing alcohol.
I use vodka.

Carpets are best!
I know they are not popular these days but believe me, having lived in Scandinavia where no one has a carpet, the hard, bare floors are dreadful. Out there they claim carpets are unhygienic but they do use rugs, and end up stepping from rug to rug to avoid the hard floors!

If you want carpet, have carpet. A new carpet, properly cleaned, isn't a hazard, it's beautifully cosy and lovely for bare feet in the morning. It also softens the blow when things are dropped and, if you have children, it's lovely for sitting on while down at floor level, playing with the children. Put a rug on top in front of the fire in case of accidents.

I have lovely soft carpet throughout my UK house and wouldn't ever have it any other way....

Have carpet, and a rug in front of the fire.

Carpets are so gross and hard to keep sanitary
Agree with this too.
Our last rental had carpet.
I can’t tell you how fun it was with a 4 year old and a baby and a dog...

Baby sick, nappy explosions, spilt food and drink, older child sick, dog poo and wee when a puppy...

I really don’t miss hovering over the offending area gagging armed with paper towels, washing powder, boiling kettle, scrubbing brush.
I used to clean 2 or 3 times obsessively sniffing in between and after as I was often convinced even when ‘clean’ I could catch whiffs of whatever horrid substance has got on it.

It holds odour aswell.
I only have carpet here on my stairs and if you smell it you can smell ‘dog’ despite it being vacuumed daily, sometimes twice daily.
I can’t remove the carpet as it would be terribly dangerous but I’d really like to!

I love my hardwood.
Any stain just requires one quick sweep up with paper towels, a dousing of Dettol spray or bleach water if I don’t have dettol in and it’s gone.

I wouldn’t be without carpet.
I’ve had kids and dogs/cats, always had carpet.

We have carpet with a small hearth rug in front of the fireplace.

Carpet and a rug in front of the fire.

Yes to carpet. We have hardwood floors and a huge rug which is okay but doesn't have the cosy feel of a carpet.

How bad is the damage? If you don't plan to have anymore children then I would try to make do with the carpet you have now until they are older. Children ruin nice things - if it's not the fireplace it will be something else. Good job they're so cute...

@blisstwins where would you recommend for a large rug? Just got hard floors and need something for my living room. OP I love my hard floor but do need a rug.

Get the carpet fitter to hem an extra rectangle of the new carpet and lay it at the hearth.

I love carpet too OP, I really don’t get the craze for wood floors, our carpet is 17 years old, we had the same carpet put through the whole of our house when we moved in, other than the bathrooms, that’s one room I don’t like carpet, had two babies & still looks good, if you buy a good quality carpet it will last.

Of course you're not being unreasonable. You know what you like.

My mum and sister love carpet. I loathe it and have hard flooring throughout. It's just personal preference.

FWIW I wouldn't let one accident dictate policy. I doubt it'll be a regular occurrence.

@AwaAnBileYerHeid

I really don't think you can beat a carpet for cosiness. Not just the warmth aspect, but it just makes the room feel cosy, a feeling that I just can't seem to get from hardwood flooring.

I agree - we have hard flooring and a couple of rugs in the living room and I hate it.

However, we also have 3 dogs and 2 cats (until recently was 4 dogs) and the carpet we had down got filthy, and worse, smelly - we had it cleaned twice a year, but it's amazing how much grit, hair, dust etc gets into fibres - so when it really had to go DH wanted hard flooring.

I hate it with a passion, but it's easier keep clean, no doubt about it.

Coal coloured carpet.

I have hard flooring in the lounge/dining room. It did look a bit harsh, have put a huge rug under the coffee table, same under the dining table and another one to the side of one of the sofas. Looks much more cosy.

@ScrapThatThen

Coal coloured carpet.

Perfect solution!

I love carpet, but only have it in a few rooms.

Have never compromised in the living room, it should be a warm cosy room so for me it’s carpets.

I have wooden floors throughout upstairs - hate it.

I’ve got carpet everywhere except bathroom and kitchen. I picked man made brown speckled carpets. They look good and stay clean. There’s a rug in front of the fire. We usually eat in the living dining room instead of the kitchen diner because it’s warmer.
In three years there’s been no food split, and only puked on once. I’ve got a preschooler who’s fairly feral and baby who pukes constantly I don’t understand why others have issues keeping a carpet clean. Dh just hoovers twice a day easy.
If you’re is just coal stained get it professionally cleaned costs about £40 per room and the results are great.

I've had houses with all carpet (including bathrooms, yuk!), a house with no carpets at all, and a house with a mixture (short pile carpet upstairs wood/stone floor downstairs).

The best is a mixture.

The house we're in now was an 'all carpet' house (including fluffy bloody bedroom carpet in the HALL (minging) and all up the stairs and the landing ( i mean who has that?!?) and we are gradually getting back to short pile carpet in the bedrooms, the landing and on the stairs and wood/stone everywhere else.

I have never in my life pulled up a used carpet and thought ''hmmm, how clean and nice this carpet is, almost a shame to get rid of it''. This tells me all i need to know.

Rugs on top of carpet? No. Just no. Reminds me of my nan's house in the 60s/70s.

@Burnthurst187

So why not have a fire guard

This!

It sounds like their DC was messing with the fire, poking it..A guaranteed way to make a coal roll out.

Grandmother had an old story book that fascinated me as a kid, as there was a burned singed hole where a coal rolled out when she was reading in front of the fire.
Bet she was fiddling about with the poker! 😂

Carpet with hearth rug.
If you have wooden floors he'll only complain about them getting stained or things broken when dropped.

I prefer hard floor and rugs. Easier to clean though a decent rug isn’t cheap.

Carpet absolutely.
The thing with hard flooring is, unless you keep it spotless (and that means vacuuming and/or washing at least once a day) it's likely to hold more allergens than any carpet ever would. My bil is a consultant paediatrician and despairs at everyone putting hard flooring in then taking their children with varying degrees of respiratory issues to his department only to find they hoover or brush the floor once a week.
Sure carpet has dust and other filth, but it sticks into the fibres.
He says the new trend of hard floor in the UK has tripled their caseload of children with asthma and pre-asthmatic conditions because people stick hard flooring in and think that's it.