to use foam backed carpet tiles in the DC rooms?

[TillyTrauma]

We've had to rip out all the carpets upstairs due to a carpet moth infestation but we cannot afford to recarpet the whole upstairs of the house. We have been living on the floorboards for months and the DC aren't comfortable playing in their rooms as the floor is hard. I was looking around and i found some foam backed squares that lock together like jigsaw pieces and have a carpet top.

I think this is a perfect solution - it's about 1/3 the price of underlay and carpet, the DC can choose a colour they like and it should be really easy for me to fit myself.

The only downside i can see if you can of course see that it's made of small squares and it would be much less hardwearing than carpet - but its not being used in high traffic areas.

DH and DM are both horrified at this suggestion - DM thinks it looks cheap and nasty. DH thinks it will be useless and not last.

Has anyone used these for DC rooms? AIBU to want to use this cheaper option so the DC can actually have a comfy floor in their rooms?!

Or even carpet, my parents freecycled their lounge carpet, it was a fitted carpet but for a big room, although worn in the doorways there was a substantial volume in great condition.

My DH did a room in his first house with off cuts from his parents house. There was a join but it wasn't noticeable.

If it really is your best option, then go for it and who cares what your DH/DM think

Fair enough on the DM but if she shares a home, bank account and children with dh then surely be is entitled to an opinion on this too.

I couldn't afford a carpet for my room so bought a really big cheap rug from Wayfair that nearly covered the room and it's actually really nice ! We've ended up painting around the edges rather than replace with carpet as originally intended!

Would a door go over the tiles. They are 1cm thick? What about furniture? I always feel abit wobbly on foam tiles 😂 i would feel drunk everytime I tucked the kids in at night 😂

They aren't horrible, but they seem to be expensive for what they are. Surely a cheap basic carpet would be cheaper than that.

Don't be a snob @TillyTrauma there's nothing wrong with getting things on credit, and it helps to build your credit score if you keep up with repayments.

I've just had the whole of upstairs done via a pay-weekly carpet company I found on Facebook; they don't credit check so it doesn't affect your credit score and the carpets are amazing!

We used carpet tiles in DDs bedroom for a while, but they started lifting at the corners, so weren't a great solution.

We have tiled floors in the living room and wooden floors in the bedroom. The DC each have a rug from IKEA like this They have always played on the floor, it has never been an issue.
I don't think you need to pay to carpet it solely for the reason it's too hard to play on.

Just be careful where you are buying them from.
Make sure the website has reviews and if on Amazon that you can see where the seller is located.

Op have you checked for any roll ends or companies selling off cheap near you?

Where we are (NW) there’s a company that usually supply new build homes etc and they sell off all their roll ends for £25-£100 so you’d need to pay for fitting and underlay but we managed to get a really good carpet for £25 for a decent size room and then actually bought and fitted underlay ourselves from Amazon / hardware stores as it’s just a matter of cutting and laying and then a carpet fitter was about £75 so cost £150 to do a room that were were quoted nearly 600 for!

This rug is a great shout as it is cheaper and covers a greater area than the tiles.

At £45 for less than 1.5sqm of carpet that's more than £30psqm. Are you sure about your maths? Basic carpetrite off the roll stuff is around £12psqm. Even allowing for underlay, gripper rod, fitting and wastage it just doesn't seem plausible that carpet would be so much more expensive than your £30sqm option.

You can also cut down the cost by buying your own underlay and possibly gripper rods, as the carpet shops tend to charge a premium for them.

Just to add another recommendation on finding a local place that sells remnants of carpet. It may work out cheaper.

How big are the DC rooms? I've attached a pic that I took when I was looking myself, it shows the decent sizes and the prices I was finding - It might be worth looking into. X

Ohhhh they are 30cm each not 50 😳 I need to learn to read 😂

We used these in 3 of out bedrooms www.dctuk.com/carpet-tiles/nouveau-home
They are really good quality, softer than typical tiles and easy to fit.
Quick delivery too.
And to look at its not obvious that they are tilesand not carpet.

The home comforts range

If you are looking for an affordable carpet for low use areas then check out eBay. Different reason but similar situation where we had scraped all our money together to buy our house so had next to nothing left for decoration. Bought three bedroom carpets totalling about £250 & cost about £150 to have them laid by a local fitter who supplied underlay & grippers. It was to be a short term solution but three years later two of these are still down & in no rush to change them 🙂

Some carpet tiles are rough, the ones designed for commercial use are like Brillo pads but the ones we used weren't. They aren't like a deep pile carpet, but they are as soft as a looped type carpet.

how the hell is is 'snobbish' to not want to get in to debt?!

the rooms are small (they are subdivided bigger rooms) so offcuts/end of roll could be a good place to look. I thought these tiles would work out better as a underlay and carpet in one - plus that would be easier to fit around the existing furniture, a lot was built in situ so i dont think i could clear the rooms for a full sized roll to get in! Plus the kids could choose a nice bright colour rather than beige offcuts.

The old grippers are still in the rooms (again, trying to save money with not replacing them so a rug in the middle wont really work. The rooms aren't helpful shapes - fireplaces, odd shaped corners etc (old house) so a rug would leave loads of gaps.

Try designer carpets online. They do very cheap roll ends and I have been really impressed with the quality.

In that case I think you could do offcuts, buy Cloud9 underlay online and get a fitter in for less than £600.

Doesn't solve the difficulty of shifting the furniture, but I think you're underestimating the difficulty of fitting tiles under beds etc in situ.

Carpet tiles used to be very popular and are a good idea for areas that may be prone to spillage or dirt because you can replace easily or pick up a tile to clean

Off cuts and roll ends aren't always boring, sometimes they are very much the opposite!

I remember my parents decorating our "playroom" and they asked the carpet place to show them the cheapest carpets they had and let us kids decide which of about four we wanted. We had a fabulously bold striped one! It wasn't great quality but did the job, didn't show dirt or spillages and outlasted several more expensive ones.

I wonder if the carpet tiles are a pain to vacuum, as in they lift up whilst trying to vacuum and come apart?

Do you know what, I was ready to knock these but actually... I think that they would look ok if you did a colour and white chequerboard effect? It would look ok in a kids room.

I would do it. My primary aged children are usually careful but have still managed to get pen/glue/blue tack on their carpets. At least with tiles you can change any that get ruined. Someone I know used grass look ones and they looked amazing in a wooded theme room. They are what you make them.

Definitely look for roll ends. Some carpet places have loads. I had a small hallway done for less than £200 including underlay and fitting and I have sold the rest of the roll end on Facebook market place for £30.