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?

‘Why are people in this country still obsessed with carpeting?‘

Carpets carpets carpets. It’s all you hear about. Turn the news on, carpets. Buy a tabloid, carpet gossip. Meet up with friends, after small talk it’s all about the carpets again. Like you OP, I have had enough.

Strangely my DH were discussing this just the other day……

the concept of carpet is mad and so unhygienic !

Do only British people like carpet then? And no it is not 'disgusting' what a ridiculous comment.

I'd ditch the cat rather than the carpet

To reduce noise levels, especially in flats.

In 6 months time we will be very glad we have carpets down

I have minimal carpets - living room, tred on stairs and main bedroom. Having it in the living room I like, it’s cosy. Stairs, im in an old Victorian Terrance and it’s probs the only thing stopping be falling down then every time they’re so steep 🤣, the bedroom I would prefer laminate in.

Of all the things to get worked up about.
I personally hate hard floors, I find them cold and uncomfortable.
Also my kids are more likely to injure themselves falling on to hard floors.
I'm certainly not obsessed with carpets though.

"in a world of global warming, it increasingly feels like a dust and burning sun heat trap."

Good point! I'm thinking of taking out our loft insulation too. We should be doing all we can to combat global warming.

🤣🤣🤣

I do not live in the UK... have always wondered how one of my sisters manages to have clean floors by just hoovering. Carpet all through her house, except in the kitchen.

Carpet cleaner or one of them vanish sprays.

Most of our housing stock is wildly energy inefficient and carpeting helps with insulation. That's not true for most of Europe. These older houses often have steep stairs and carpet can be safer (I fell down the stairs multiple times when I lived in a Victorian terrace).

We also have a lot of terraces, flats, and semi-detached houses. Carpets deaden noise.

Exactly! I’m in Sweden and we regularly get minus 20-minus 25 in the winter, yet our houses are warm. Houses here are just built much more energy efficient and nobody has carpeted floors. Even new built houses in the UK are more poorly constructed than here so I can definitely see the need for carpeted floors won’t be going away.

I don't really like carpets but my bf does (I'm not British, he is). So we've worked on a solution that we'll have floors everywhere except that bedrooms that will have carpets. I've reached a conclusion that's its one of those "this is familiar to me, therefore it is my preference" situations.

Right, so that is a sample of one person!

I have no carpet in my house so YADBU

Who are these 'people' you say are obsessed with carpeting? I've never met any. We're a whole nation obsessed by carpeting? Bonkers. It's just flooring.

We have a mix of stone, floorboards, carpets upstairs except bathrooms, but after persevering for years with draughty original floorboards, we had carpet laid in our snug- no regrets.

I would love to "move on" from carpet in our house but it's not that simple. The house is a very old cottage which doesn't have a straight line in it including the floors, we would never be able to get the floor flat enough for anything other than carpet. Also the house is much too draughty to not have carpet. We don't have pets and have a very good hoover which means it's easy to keep them looking nice.

I've been slowly renovating a house and started with no carpets as is the current trend. I lasted one winter and got them in the bedrooms and now I'm desperate to have it in the living room. I like the idea of wooden flooring but I find carpets so cosy and homely, particularly in winter.

They are mandatory in my flat except kitchen and bathroom - which I think is fair enough!

I’d possibly prefer something else in the hall and living room but carpet’s hardly a hardship.

How do you cope with hotels? Don’t they always have disgusting carpet, even outside of the UK?

I just started to think this. In the past year I've been to a hotel in Sweden, Spain, Finland and Italy and none of them had carpeting 😅

But seriously I do think carpets serve a purpose in the UK. I grew up in the nordics and we had different heating system (no boilers, district heating, underfloor heating etx.), trible glazed windows and the steps are not particularly slippery. Also I feel like the walls are thicker cause I hear my neighbours a lot less and the triple glazed windows also keep the sound of the busy road away. But obviously it might be a coincidence. I feel like in the UK the carpeting is solution to some of this and it is cheaper than changing all the other things.

We’re actually putting carpet back in our sitting room as the room is freezing! Three outside walls, windows on two sides and gappy floorboards . What else would you suggest? It’s a 300 year old house in Scotland.

It's absolutely batshit that so many with allergies have carpets in the home.

Carpets are a breeding ground for allergens such as dust mites, pollen, animal dander, mould spores, etc. Vacuuming exacerbates the problem as it simply means the allergens become airborne and more easily inhaled.

Because the U.K. gets more cold days than hot, by a country mile! And wood or tiled floors is not great in our climate