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?

The best thing about hard floors, is you can get some lovely rugs. Which you can move to another room and get another one when you get bored with it.

Upstairs for carpets, downstairs they just get tatty and dirty more quickly.

Carpet definitely. Over the years I have had to replace carpets, red wine stain, dog got hold of a fountain pen (with the top off) and ran around with it, and DS being sick.

I have hard flooring in some places but definitely not in the living room. Have you thought of synthetic carpet. Cheap and honestly it looks like expensive carpet. Brought from John Lewis and slowly doing the upstairs.

It's just a one off incident, there should be a fire guard up anyway (sorry to be that person),
In defence of the OP, we also had an issue with the carpet in front of our open fire and we had a very good fire guard - we'd just moved it aside to poke the fire and an ember jumped out.

Have you tried beckmans carpet cleaner with a brush it is Like magic!

I much prefer carpet. Just always use a fire guard and/or a hearth rug. Or I like an earlier suggestion of a coal coloured carpet

I'm a carpet fan. With kids just bit a cheap polypropylene carpet at £8 or £9 a sqm. Its cosy and bleach cleanable and most importantly cheap enough to throw away when flat. It true that they don't last ad well as wool but I've had the living room one down for 6years and it's still ok. We will pro ably change in 1 or 2 years.

I usually buy from online carpet retailers rather than high street names too.

@TheSilentStars

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.

I couldn’t agree more - every time a door is opened, or people move, dust and allergens swirl around again and are breathed in. Hard flooring is popular, but I think it’s much more difficult and time consuming to really keep it healthy. Diluted white vinegar is excellent at removing stains from carpets and also deals with the odour from vomit and animal ‘accidents’. A short pile 80/20 wool carpet will give years of service, and will withstand the use of a Vax washer. You can’t beat carpet for cosiness - I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to sit and play with the children on a hard floor, and neither would they. And the Lego would skid everywhere!!

we have had coal fires all our life and youngest went through a phase of getting into the coal holder (we never use the fires as we have central heating too now) but I have no idea what your on about 'staining'? (unless you have a completely impractical white carpet, coal just hoovers/brushes out)

hot coals melt the carpet and cause damage (hense using rugs which are easier to replace) but a 6 year old should be nowhere near hot coal

we have 2 fires in 2 rooms (1 carpeted, 1 laminate wood) for what its worth I far prefer the room we have a wood floor in, DH fought tooth and nail for carpet but even he accepts its a PITA and a tonne of work compared to wood.

Haven’t RTWT, so apologies if it’s already come up - but - we have oak flooring in large sitting room and two large rugs which define two areas. Main area has a rug that was made from carpet - 3m x 2.5m - Ulster carpets, Velvet. It was ordered directly from manufacturer by a local flooring company, so they edged it in matching yarn. It cost half the price of a ‘rug’, and with underlay, is a very nice decent area of carpeted floor - with a gap of wooden flooring between it and the fireplace. It’s a nice compromise.

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
What kind of dirty pig only vacuums once a week?!
My DS and DM have asthma.
My DM used to have to use an inhaler sometimes visiting us at our old (carpeted) house.
No issues here.

She and DS also used to react to our (vacuumed and brushed daily) sheepskin rug which I bought as I was led to believe they were good for allergies, easy clean, dirt sticks to the fibres bollocks.

Funnily enough both are fine with the rug gone....

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.

If this is the case, your BIL needs to write some journal articles justifying this. This is not aligned with advice of any respiratory physicians I know nor current advice from most asthma and allergy associations. A quick journal search shows studies in the last few years have concluded non-covered floors are still superior. I’m not being goady, if he genuinely has evidence to the contrary he needs to pull it together, have it peer reviewed and published.

I’m not a fan of carpet personally. Never seen carpet pulled up that hadn’t had old mould and crap living on the backing. You can clean the surface fibres but stuff soaks through and it’s really filthy.

I have carpet for bedrooms and hallways and stairs, sheet vinyl or marmoleum for kitchen and bathrooms, wood floor for living room.

I think that's the perfect combination. Carpet is the warmest and most luxurious for bedrooms. It's cheaper than wood and easier to take up (to get at water pipes and wiring under the floor) for hallway and stairs.

Wood flooring in the living room is not damaged by food and drink spills and mud walked in. (Living room patio door is the most commonly used entrance for us.)

In wet rooms sheet materials have no joins to let water through to damage the underlying floors. They are not easily damaged by water themselves.

We have Amtico tiles in the hall and kitchen/dining/family room and carpet in the living room. We also have underfloor heating downstairs. You get special underlay that ensures the heating works properly under carpet.

I spend far more time washing the hard floors, especially the kitchen and bathrooms, than I do cleaning the carpets. The carpets came with the house when it was new and I’d like to replace the bedroom carpets which are not the best quality, but the living room one is cosy.

@Burnthurst187

So why not have a fire guard

I was wondering this too.

I can't get past the fact your carpet is your main worry. Why dont you have a fireguard in place. Your child could be badly burned.,

Why dont you have a fireguard in place. Your child could be badly burned.,

The fire wasn't lit.

Why would either of you get cross at a 6 year old having an accident?

Carpets upstairs, hard floors downstairs in this house.

Thanks. So the carpet is stained with coal dust. It wasnt clear in the post. Cant see why the stain wont come out.

Carpets in lounge here. It's just warmer, more inviting. I have hard floor throughout the rest of my downstairs (including a family room with large rug) but would never have it in my lounge.

I have two young kids and, whilst it's not looking brand spanking any more, my neutral carpet looks fine. Just don't go too light or choose a flat colour tone. Hoover regularly. You can buy carpet cleaner with a brush head that gets out the majority of marks. Don't know if it works on coal so use a fire guard and a rug in front. Failing that I'd rather change the fire

That’s very interesting, @thesilentstars. Especially since health and hygiene seem to be the main reasons why most people choose hard floors. I dare say some do vacuum and mop every day, but I do wonder how many have time for anything daily but sweeping up any obvious bits. I’m sure my dd with 3 very little ones doesn’t. She chose wood when horrible ancient carpets were going anyway, and she had 2 under 2.

I’m old enough to remember when hardly anyone had fitted carpet - a large carpet with floorboards round the edges was the usual thing. The carpet would virtually always be patterned and not show every last bit, but the wood surrounds would get very dusty and need frequent dusting and probably polishing, too. So that meant 2 or 3 cleaning jobs, instead of just vacuuming.

Personally I would always choose carpet in the sitting room, for cosiness and less noise. The bastard moths have been at ours, but we’re not going to replace them until 3 little Gdcs have reached a slightly less messy stage. Though I’d positively welcome some of their mess just now - goodness knows when they’ll be able to visit again. 🙁

Many mumsnetters have an unreasonable dislike of carpets. Some are for practical reasons - pets and/or small children, but as we have neaither I much prefer my living room to be carpeted as we live in a cold and damp part of the country. We are also a shoes off household, not because I demand it, but we prefer to wear slippers in the house. Everyoe else I know also takes their shoes off at home.

I like a carpet in my draughty house, tbh. Just get a hearth rug, that is exactly what they are for, to protect the floor in front of the hearth from soot, small burns etc. Small cheap hearth rug on top of nice cosy wall to wall. Especially when little ones spend so much time on the floor, even if hard flooring looks nicer.

A really big rug!! And hard wood floors