To think UK should have moved on from carpeting by this stage

[Finlesswonder]

It's gross, it's ugly, it's high maintenance, and in a world of global warming, it increasingly feels like a dust and burning sun heat trap.
Why are people in this country still obsessed with carpeting?

I do appreciate carpets in the winter. My in laws from southern Europe find carpeting strange

Yep, this ^. When we moved in, there was only a very thin, basic carpet with no underlay in our main living room. We recarpeted with a decent underlay and it was immediately warmer and less draughty. It was the difference between needing the fire AND the heating on in the winter vs just the heating.

Also, UK apartment blocks are not build to the same soundproofing standards as those on the continent and we have a shoes on indoors culture, unlike other cultures. Hard flooring is noisy for the flat below. It’s often worse in old buildings that have been converted which were not designed to be occupied by multiple households.

ffs who cares ? Decorate your house how you want

In fact I recall my last rental flat a few years ago in a Victorian flat. Owner got one of the tenants to redo wooden flooring throughout flat - looked beautiful. But mice came there too from garden. To an upstairs flat…

The issue with carpeting being unhygienic is obviously you're not going to shampoo your carpet once a week, right? Because that would be a crazy amount of work. So all the people in your house are wandering around in their bare gross feet, spilling drinks, sweating into the stuff, and it just....sits inside your carpet?!

With no carpeting yeah you could mop once a week because its really quick to do.

Also I've mostly only lived in flats but not in the UK, carpeting is a cheap solution to shoddy other things like thin walls and bad insulation.

Final point re people mentioning carpeting on stairs specifically as feeling safer: not sure about this. I once slipped on some stairs and landed on my tailbone, fell so hard it knocked the wind out of me, and i was in socks on carpeted stairs. Last week at my relatives I felt my feet slipping on the stairs several times! I think they can be quite dangerous on stairs (and don't understand how that can be actually, it's not a slippery material so why did it feel slippy under my [bare] feet?).

in a world of global warming,

Carpets are a layer of insulation.
Therefore people with carpets tend to rely on heating thru homes less and therefore contribute less to global warming.

If you care about global warming then you should encouraging everyone to get carpets.

We have solid wood flooring everywhere apart from the kitchen and bathrooms (tiled.) The stairs are carpeted but that's it. Carpet looks lovely when new but very quickly looks grubby and worn, unless its very high quality.

Yabu for being so rude and ungrateful about your host op.

An journal article looking at the hygiene and health aspects of this topic, for those interested:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5858259/

”…the literature suggests that the use of carpets is linked to increased levels of indoor dusts, allergens, and microorganisms, and associated with increased risk of a number of health outcomes including mild cognitive effects, irritative symptoms, and asthma. Caution should therefore still be exercised when using carpeted floors in homes, schools, kindergartens and offices unless special needs make carpets preferable.”

Some cheap carpets are slippy, you should always get a good quality carpets for stairs. Since you don't even appear to live in the UK, OP, I can only think you came on here to be goady

A journal article. Excuse the typo.

Of all the things I thought I might feel judged about on MN, completely normal home decor choices weren’t one of them!

Maybe don't be so fucking rude about your relatives on the internet who were good enough to accommodate you

Not that I really care but wandering about anywhere in bare feet is leaving sweat and icky foot skin in the floor irrespective of wood, tiles, laminate or carpet, additional if I want carpet in my house I'll have it- if people don't like it then they shouldn't bother visiting tbh.

Because we live in a country with cold winters and old houses that have floors that may not be up to having under floor heating fitted.

We changed DD’s floor from carpet to wood due to eczema and dust allergy,

It seems to have made it worse. With carpet, it settled and you could hoover it up. With wood it forms giant dust bunnies every day.

Recently I changed from carpets and curtains, to blinds and solid cherry wood floors. It's been a revalation. Feels so much lighter and more modern.
I will never go back to curtains, that's for sure.

Love my carpet! Bought as new and we don't have shoes on in the house plus have a carpet cleaner. Nothing filthy about it at all!

There are many, many things which the UK should have moved on from by now. Classism. Poverty. Two-party politics. The Royal Family. Obsession with booze.

Carpets are the least of our national worries.

I’ll never give up my carpet.

There isn’t anything wrong with carpet? Lots of people I know have carpet up the stairs and upstairs itself (bedrooms, not bathrooms) and hard floors downstairs. From a hygiene POV, you just invest in a very good hoover and don’t wear shoes in the house at all so you’re not treading muck throughout. Also, regularly having a professional cleaner to come round and deep clean it helps.

Also, people have carpet because it makes the house/keeps the house warmer in the winter.

Go eat, you're hangry.

Final point re people mentioning carpeting on stairs specifically as feeling safer: not sure about this. I once slipped on some stairs and landed on my tailbone, fell so hard it knocked the wind out of me, and i was in socks on carpeted stairs. Last week at my relatives I felt my feet slipping on the stairs several times! I think they can be quite dangerous on stairs (and don't understand how that can be actually, it's not a slippery material so why did it feel slippy under my [bare] feet?).

Definitely have done that on carpeted steps with and without shoes on. A time with my infant son in my arms and another where I slipped landed on the side of my thigh hard enough to leave a very noticeable bruise on my skin as if something had hit me and I don’t bruise easily.

I had some family members with carpeted steps but they had the things you put on the ends of carpeted steps to prevent people from slipping on them.

Why are people licking their carpets?

Because otherwise, I fail to see how it's "unhygienic".

Sure it gets dirty, but I don't lick it so it really doesn't matter

bare gross feet, spilling drinks😂

Whenever I have been on holiday to somewhere hot that only has tiled floors, I love getting home and walking on carpet. If feels like such a luxury after those hard floors!!