Can’t afford to carpet my council house

[Florafloral]

I have recently moved into a council house with my 5 year old after being made homeless. It’s a new build so All rooms are painted which I’m grateful for but I can’t afford to carpet it. It’s concrete flooring throughout which is impossible to keep clean, is very powdery and dusty. It’s making our clothes and furniture dusty too. I applied for a grant for flooring with the council but was turned down because my DD isn’t under 3 and we have no health conditions. Does anyone have any tips or how I can try and get cheap flooring. I’ve been quoted over £2000 for the whole house. It just seems impossible

All these things have been suggested to the op.... repeatedly.

I'd definitely look for large rugs on gumtree or free cycle. My bf picked up some enormous ones that are a bit of an odd style but nice and big regardless

Don't know if anyone has mentioned TEMU, the online retailer. Their rugs seem to be very cheap, mostly rectangular ones like runners, but you can get a couple to lay side by side perhaps, they go up to 160 cm, to cover the middle part of floors at least, they also seem to do a lot of children's rugs too. They all seem to be under £20 even for the largest. They're probably very thin but would cut down on the dust and give you some kind of respite from the hard concrete anyway.

Floor paint , easy to clean not ideal but I had it for years and super easy to clean, Chuck a cheap rug on it when you can afford one

I’d buy concrete floor paint or screwfix sell a multi use paint. Paint the floors a mid grey (so don’t show dirt) then pick up rugs of Facebook market place or free of you can find some on Freecycle as and when you can. The paint can be costly but a lot cheaper than carpet and it will seal the floor and get your home looking more homely quicker. Upstairs you can also paint floorboards with a different paint.

Does anyone remember the post where the lady showed off her beautifully newly decorated bedroom? I'm sure she worked to a tight budget, and there was a massive rug that she'd bought really cheaply on Amazon. She even put a link to the rug, as someone else asked about it.
I'll try to find the post.

My bedroom. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/5029545-my-bedroom

Our church often organises help in situations like yours. Try contacting Christians Against Poverty. They don’t just deal with people who are in debt and they might be able to help you.

We bought a new build which had concrete floors and remember the dust well. Those suggesting to wet mop to remove it have absolutely no idea what you’re dealing with!

We had ours done reasonably quickly but obviously didn’t do anything in the garage and every time we came back in the house the amount of dust in the house just brought in on our shoes was insane. I eventually painted it and it made such a HUGE difference.

Initially I got the ronseal one and it flaked up all over the place and was complete garbage, a complete waste of money so after that I did quite a bit of research and ended up getting this stuff. It is expensive, but it was night and day compared to the Ronseal stuff, it properly sealed the floor and got rid of the insane amount of dust. I did 2 coats because we’d picked bright blue and the colour was a bit patchy after 1 but if you went for a light colour you’d probably get away with just doing one coat and still notice a huge improvement. https://regalpaint.co.uk/floor-paint/garage-floor-paint/antislip-quick-dry-concrete-floor-paint/

Obviously bare concrete floors are never going to be overly homely, but this way at least you can get rid of the huge levels of dust and make it much more liveable in while you’re saving up for carpets/flooring.

Great news for you. Good luck for the future.

Have you a local factory outlet https://www.tofs.com/search?options%5Bunavailable_products%5D=show&options%5Bprefix%5D=last&q=rug as a short term. Although Wayfair or Home Bargains also do. Lots of offers on garden rugs at the moment which are good for kitchen.

I am disgusted that they leave you like this. Council homes here are lino tiled - not great but easy to mop.

We found a great carpet shop that did room sized offcuts - some as cheap as £25 too, but that does not mean you have even that sort of money.

Like any big problem, a step at a time. As others have suggested, cut offs or marketplace for one room at a time. Meanwhile, any free rugs, to give a bit of foot comfort. You will get there and good luck xx

Have you considered those tiled carpets as they work out cheaper and very easy to install
You can get 100 square metres for around £30 and you just need a a craft knife for edges

For very little money you could paint the floors, maybe with garage paint, which is made for painting concrete and should keep the dust down. I have a friend who moved into somewhere without flooring. She cut up old clothes into strips, made a very long plait, by keeping adding new strips of cloth in, then made a spiral mat, and sewed it together. They were absolutely lovely , warm underfoot, and she put them everywhere. They could cost nothing if you have old clothes you can cut up.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tiles-Commercial-Flooring-Hardwearing-Anti-Slip/dp/B09JB3HCDH/ref=asc_df_B09JB3HCDH/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=534979171570&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17954145469606258363&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9044936&hvtargid=pla-1485009187857&psc=1&mcid=4855d2d574d83f0ead951875610cfb88

Wow well done, it looks amazing! I love the green with the pink as well

Thank you everyone I really do appreciate all the replies. Feeling a more bit positive that I can make homely now eventually!

Feeling a bit more positive*!

Oh sorry just realised it’s a different poster! Thank you for the link though, it looks lovely. I will have a read through

This happened to me about 30 years ago I was very lucky and got a prince's trust grant for carpets. I have no idea if you still can but you never know

@Florafloral If you're in the Liverpool area, I have quite a large remnant of vinyl you can have. I might have a rug knocking about as well.

A relative of mine recently moved from her council house in which she had laid nice quality wood floors downstairs and good carpeting upstairs.

It was a council requirement that every last bit had to be removed and the house handed back with bare floors.

Can't get my head around this. There must be many folk in OPs situation who would have been glad of a house with flooring.
And also the sheer waste, considering councils all talk the green talk.
Also, if new tenants are on benefits the council may have to assist with flooring.....again, ridiculously wasteful when councils are bleating about how short of funding they are.

In the end, a charity took the wooden floor to provide to folk who can't afford to furnish, but the carpeting was binned.

I wonder if you could do something like 'gift' the floor to a new tenant? I understand the argument that the council would become responsible for a floor but if it was gifted that wouldn't be the case.

What I've always read is that the "no flooring" rule is for hygiene reasons, to prevent germs, fleas, god knows what etc spreading from one tenant to the next. I've always thought it's an utterly absurd rule! Councils should just have the floors deep-cleaned! And it makes no sense at all with wooden/laminate floors! Councils in the UK are bizarre

@Florafloral Congratulations on your new home! I’m sure you will make it lovely in time.

i haven’t read all the replies, just the first couple of pages. I just wanted to reiterate what some previous posters have said.

I sometimes help out with a local charity. They have a ‘homes’ team that do exactly this, helping people with items they need but can’t afford. It might be providing a new mum with baby items, providing a family with beds etc. A lot of the items are second hand but they are extremely thorough with checking and cleaning items and only things in very, very good condition are passed on.

maybe see if you can find any charities like that near you? If you said what area you’re in people on here might be able to point you in the direction of a local charity. They sometimes do appeals on our local Facebook groups asking for specific items that have been asked to source and people are always so generous.

which leads me on to saying you should definitely post on a few local Facebook groups. Just state your position and also offer to collect anything if you can. I had to furnish a whole house a couple of years ago for a Ukrainian family and posted on our local group and had literally hundreds of replies.

If you live near an affluent area post on their fb page too!

do ask for pictures though as some people do use it as an excuse to offload their old junk!!

good luck with it all.

There's a few websites and Tapi flooring that let you pay off over time. I would do the living room & kitchen first. Rugs in the bedrooms for now. There's lots of free giving away sires in FB maybe post on their too to see if anyone has rug or off cuts for now. Good luck OP