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?

We have carpet and a big rug in the living room. The rest of the ground floor is covered in a cheap and nasty laminate that I can't wait to get rid of, but when that time comes I'd probably replace it with a better quality hard floor. We all wear slippers in our house because the hard floors are really cold to the feet.

The living room carpet is also from previous owners and is definitely getting on a bit, it has definitely suffered our cat pooing/weeing/puking on it but we have an army of products standing by to sort out spot stains. We also bought the Bissell carpet/upholstery washer to clean the sofa arms, it was great on that and also removed a long dribbly (probably Calpol) dark stain that had scorned repeated attempts for four years, so I was really chuffed with that!

In summary, if there's no allergies, I'd recommend a robust (not deep pile) carpet and a Bissell carpet cleaner (we got ours from Amazon, not very expensive and reviews very very well)

You can solve it by sticking a rug over the carpet in front of the fire?

Sounds like your DH would just prefer a wooden floor to me! If that’s the case could you compromise on a hard would floor with a big rug that covers the main bit you walk on (and a protective rug in front of the fire??)

We have a nearly 4 year old and have new carpet in the living room. Yes she has got a stain on it bu it’s that easy clean stuff so it will come out. It’s a shoe free zone so easy to keep clean.

I don’t find hardwood very warm for a living room, we have it new in our dining room and it’s lovely and then a big rug for DDs play area.

If you have a rug on a hard floor then just have carpet. You still have to clean and care for the rug in the same way. Rugs are also a PITA for cleaning. Sweep and Hoover everything, then remove rug to then clean the hardwood floor....arg.

I've always imagined, though never tried it, that you could cut round a mark in a carpet and drop in a new piece cut from the off cuts you have in the loft.
You could discolour the new bit to match first, and use carpet glue to keep it from fraying. Ask a supplier. Look online, lots of advice.

Ah, the debate we have in our household. I'm on team floor. My bf is on team carpet. To be fair, I'm not sure I knew carpets were a thing until i arrived to the UK

Our compromise at the moment is that floors everywhere else but carpets in the bedrooms (well, once we have a place that we own). Carpet in the bathroom and two taps were the biggest culture shocks

No, you are not unreasonable to want carpets but I would want a floor and a rug in a space where a lot of different things (eating, playing etc.) Is happening.

If it’s not a room on a through route through the house, then carpets. We have wooden floors all downstairs because our back door is in the lounge. I wish we could have carpet because it makes it cosier, but we have wooden floors for practicality.

We have a coal fire and a light cream carpet. When we had the chimney swept this year, when the sweep left, I noticed the carpet was BLACK along the front of the fire and when I pulled the rug back, there was a clear line of black, a good 6 inches wide. I was panicking thinking the carpet was ruined but I hoovered it without the hoover head, so I could put the end of the hoover flat against the carpet and then after that I scrubbed it with the rug doctor stuff in the red aerosol with the scrubby brush on the top and it all came out. This process works for me any time coal falls out too - when DH is setting up the fire he tips coal on from a bucket and it often rolls back out onto the hearth and sometimes a bit falls onto the carpet.

I would definitely go with a carpet, it's so much cosier and doesn't need to be ruined by a fire 🙂

I wouldn't want anything but carpet in the living room.

I haven't read all the thread but when we moved into this house there was carpet that I was keen to replace, but didn't do it immediately. When I was pregnant I was parsuaded to go for laminate downstairs - we have carpet on the stairs, landings and in the bedrooms, and we now have a loft extension which has carpet in the two bedrooms and landing but not in the bathroom.

Laminate is softer and warmer than hard wood. Our sofa's actually a futon sofa bed - we have replaced once in our 22 years in the house but it does fine. I have a soft plain throw over it and a second one in a different colour so that they can both be washed. The kids do make a mess but not as much as the cats we used to have from 1999 to 2016.

I think carpet or laminate will suffer wear and tear - after 13 years our laminate has some very damged areas - the worst is near my desk and the chair at it. Th floorboarrds underneath would also need replacing if we were going to go for the hardwood floor option, and that might get damanged wtih two middle aged people and two teenagers then young adults stomping around on it.

Nearly everyone else I know takes their shoes off at home, even where floors are hardwood or laminate not carpet. I wish I could persuade dp and ds1 to do so (ds2 does lots of other things that bug me but he is like me about shoes - takes them off before he does anything else in the house).

I would have originally thought I'd want carpet down here but would now when I come to replace the current flooring go for laminate again. But you're not being ridiiculous. Nor is your husband but no floor is going to be undamageable, and what's going to be most comfortable and workable for everyone depends a lot on your home and circusmstances. No one's being unreasonable and I hope you can find a compromise.

I think carpets will always be grubby with small children and pets despite best efforts to keep them clean. I mop our living room floor at least once a day as it has drinks spilt, sticky marks and footprints on it. With a carpet I wouldn't be able to clean properly on a regular basis. But the downside is that the room is not as cosy as with a carpet.

@Grobagsforever
No not banned. I'd never ban my children from my living room! Ds knows no pens, crayons, paints etc in the front room and I just clean any spills and stains as soon as they happen

Well the unexpected bonus from this thread is that I now have several cleaning products on order and if successful team carpet will have a far stronger case 👍😄🥳

I’m not keen on hard flooring anyway but definitely not in a living room as it looks so cold and uninviting. A lovely deep pile carpet all the way thanks very much!

Carpet all the way here, apart from the bathrooms/kitchen. Can’t beat the cosy feeling of them. I never get why people moan they are gross or unhygienic, so is hard flooring if you don’t look after it or clean it 🤷🏼‍♀️ I’ve got pale carpets, and fabric sofas with young children and a baby on the way and my carpets have never been ‘gross’.