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?

So strange OP how people have different preferences to things including flooring , I’m surprised you thing everyone should ditch carpet because you find it unhygienic. Does make me wonder what you do to your poor floors . Wouldn’t be without the cosy feel of carpets upstairs , but then nothing we do upstairs makes them dirty , eg no shoes, no food so hoovering is all they need .
I wouldn’t have carpet in my kitchen or dining room as it far more likely to get messy , but that’s my preference.

Personally I like parquet floors, though I prefer carpet in the bedroom, tile in places like conservatories, and lino in the bathrooms. I still put some rugs on the wood floors, though.
but....
What's your alternative? Most if not all are colder than carpet, some by a lot. And a lot of people like the patterns on carpets. Carpets can keep noise down, not just of feet, but all noise- hard floors reflect noise, carpets absorb it. UK housing is often poorly sound insulated. Wool carpets on hessian backing are fairly benign for the environment, and good for farming as they provide a market for wool- renewable, like the hessian.
So the alternatives then. Bare boards? (in most modern houses that means bare MDF- not very healthy stuff anyway, and if you varnish that it looks terrible, and even in many older ones with actual wood boards the boards would need a lot of work in terms of filling and replcing boards ( not easy due to tongues) to make it possible to have a non-draughty, non-splintery floor).
Laminate? Not hard wearing, not renewable, lots of nasty glues in it. Difficult to access under it for maintenance of pipes and wiring. Would probably need replacing sooner than carpet. Easily chipped and knocked.
Engineered board? More expensive than laminate, a little more possible to refinish when it wears, but not many times, probably needs replacing nearly as often as carpet.
Parquet? Wonderful stuff, but costs a lot of money. And there can be issues because of the use of hardwoods- there certainly would be if everyone had it.
Concrete? Very cold. I worked in concrete-floored places for years, in the winter it sucks all the heat and energy out of you via you feet unless you wear clogs or heavy boots, and it can be damp. And it is ugly. Yes we do get hot spells here, but we get far more months of cold and damp weather.
Tiles? expensive, easily cracked, and, like concrete, unforgiving for falls of humans, including the elderly and very young, and and drops of objects.
Lino or other plastic coated floorings? Also cold and sticky on the feet, but some are at least cheap. All made using the nasty chemicals you mention.

So based on your relative that you spent 3 nights with you have needed a massive generilsation about an entire nation?🙄

I've got carpets in the bedrooms, and laminate elsewhere. Works for me.👍

Each to their own.

I wouldn’t be without carpet in my lounge, stairs, landing and bedrooms.

YABU. People aren't 'obsessed' with carpets. They just have them or don't have them. I don't have any carpets in my house because I have a large dog and a cat, and I prefer the look of hard floors anyway. But if you're in a shoes-off, pet-free household, I see zero reason why you shouldn't have carpets if you like them.

I think that carpets are revolting and would never have them but some people love them. Each to their own.

The reason is very simple, it is much cheaper than insulating an old house.

I prefer it, we have more colder months than hot and its quite easy to replace if needed

Oh I love carpets. Granted I don't have any in my current home but that's only because I like the flooring that's already down so no need to change it.

Didn't realise it was a thing not to like carpets tbh!

As others have said each to their own.

For heaven's sake- my Henry, made to modern regs, is almost viciously efficient with its suck. If you bought a crap vacuum cleaner, that's your problem, not the EU's.

I'm in an upstairs flat, so little choice.
I'm interested in what anyone else does in this situation? I have vinyl in kitchen and bathroom. Any good non carpet options for living rooms that are suitable for an upstairs flat?

I don't like that fake wood that some people have, the cheap stuff from the diy store.

I am OBSESSED with carpet.
The day when SHEIN start making carpet and exporting it in those plastic SHEIN zipper bags will be a good day.

Or by not having a cat 🤷‍♀️

Disgusting? It covers the floor in my bedrooms and hall, it’s for walking on, I’m not eating off it or performing surgery, it doesn’t have to be sterile. It’s hot now but it still got to -8 here this winter, we live in an old house and carpets and curtains all form part of the insulation. Then there’s the sound dampening it offers.

And yet despite being able to see all of these positives about carpet, I can quite safely say I am definitely not obsessed with it.

Revolting? Visually?
Would you say that of all carpets, like, say, silk Persian rugs? Or if it's cleanliness that bothers you, it really shouldn't. You get exactly the same amount of dust with hard floors, it's just loose and more available to blow around. A good vac or broom deals with both.

The list of things Mumsnetters find absolutely disgusting and can't understand grows daily. I think by the end, the only things that won't be on it will be massive salads, six foot husbands earning six figure salaries and Boden.

We have an older house, it would look awful with a fake wood floor and be quite cold. We have the original oak floorboards in the hallway and tiling in the kitchen and bathroom and toilets. Carpet everywhere else

Oh wait, new clothes are disgusting and stinky and chemical sodden and lice infested too. Boden won't make it either.

So how do you keep your hard floors clean?
I have both. I have to spend more time sweeping the hard floors than I do hoovering the carpets. At least with the carpets the dust goes there and stays there until I hoover it, it doesn't blow about.

People who hate carpets have clearly never lived in a flat below people who don't have carpets!

We live in a flat, none of the flats in our building have carpet, its fine.

Nothing worse than one of those awful open plan houses with no carpets

I love my carpeted rooms and my cushions and curtains in my old house. It's colder and miserable in a England more than it is hot and sunny so seems more appropriate and climate suitable than blinds and tiled floors or laminate.