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

I bought a house after divorce and couldn’t afford to do flooring for a long time.
I bought this stuff from Carpetright. Don’t be fooled by the photo! It’s really thin, I used to call it my “rubber backed fluff”.
I bought it smaller than the room - no need to go to the edges, you don’t walk there - and no underlay or any kind of adhesive, just laid it out like a giant rug. Just on top of chipboard flooring boards. It looked pretty shit, but it did the job!

Remnants are often good value - especially from independent shops.

Also look out for free rugs on freecycle type places.

Join a local Facebook group for your area.
Advertise for help on that.

For example, lots of new builds in my area so folks are advertising for free stuff all the time. They just ask and I know they get stuff because I’ve donated and delivered items to them.

Im recarpeting my bedroom shortly. The carpet is immaculate, not worn, not stained. Perfectly good.

I’ll advertise it before it goes to landfill in case anyone would like it.

Don’t be proud. Join the local groups and ask.

Definitely seal the concrete. It will buy you time until you can sort something more permanent.

Are you absolutely strapped for cash? On FB there's usually carpet shops that offer weekly payments, no interest added. I had to do mine one room at a time, lino at one point in the bedroom. I was lucky that the local carpet shops had roll ends big enough. At points I had to live in debt.

This is exactly the sort of project 52 Lives supports.
https://www.52-lives.org/
You can apply yourself or ask a relative, friend , HV etc. to apply on your behalf. Good luck, bare floors are depressing as well as cold and uncomfortable.

May be it will be cheaper to seal the floor with something to stop the dust. Or cheap stick down vinyl tiles from one of the discount shops. What's upstairs?

Sorry I did miss it in your OP that you had been turned down. Have you checked out local charities in your area ? And Facebook is a good suggestion, you could also try Freecycle

Echoing other comments, and carpet shop staff will understand - they see this all the time and try to help. Have all your measurements ready to go and look for offcuts. You'd be surprised how well they can do the geometry to make an offcut fit. I have an offcut on my landing and stairs that I didn't ever think could work, but she was superb and did all the shaping so it worked on a turning staircase. Good luck OP and congrats.

Next Door is another website that has a free section. Carpets are often up for grabs. Also you could actually ask on Next Door for any old carpets. Lots of people are having carpets replaced and would be delighted to hand over their old ones.
It is recycling so good for the environment too.
Don't go into debt for something so readily available for free

You can buy carpets very cheaply off amazon ,obviously they are not the best quality but better than nothing ,,can you get someone to help you lay them .?

https://endfurniturepoverty.org/get-help-with-furniture/

Comb through this site OP! Lots of luck to you

Definitely get on facebook etc. and look for big rugs. People give them away here all the time. Focus on one room at a time and go from there.

We will be in this position soon and will also have to go room by room and use large rugs until we can afford flooring.

I agree with sealing the concrete, then buying some large rugs or offcuts and fitting them yourselves.

If you can, start with some big rugs you find in charity shops. You'd be amazed what people donate. We found one that covered half of my bedroom and our bedroom is pretty big. (Ground floor apartment) it was only £15. This should hopefully help you until hopefully you're in a better position. Good luck and hang in there. You're doing a great job.

Neither can a lot of people so they save up and do one room at a time (main rooms) or buy cheap carpet and pay someone separate to lay it (eBay does plenty of cheap new carpet) no way does it cost 2k you are obviously looking at carpet right etc plenty of cheaper places like online carpets

Garage floor paint comes in lots of colours. My one reservation would be the need for ventilation while it dries. However once dry it is a dust-free moppable surface. Hope you find a solution, lots of good suggestions already.

Congratulations on your new home...you know once the flooring is sorted you will love being there.

Go your local DIY store and get a concrete sealant,
Paint it on and it will stop the dust until you can get the money together to to buy carpet

Lived without carpert for years until i had the money and then i carpetted one room at a time

https://www.onlinecarpets.co.uk/ then find someone of Facebook to lay it, no way does it need to cost 2k

If you've got a British Heart Foundation furniture store nearby, you can buy decent quality rugs very cheaply.

There’s a charity near me that is solely dedicated to providing free flooring to people in the area. I can’t imagine it’s the only one - may be worth asking on Fb?

Sorry you're in this position OP. For us we couldn't afford to carpet the house in one go (with some concrete floors in the mix but others just had 45 year old disgustingly stained carpet down). We've done one room at a time, prioritising where we wanted it most for comfort/ maximum use - for us it was kids bedrooms first and then living room. We also found a carpet warehouse that just sells remnants/ leftovers, so were able to get really nice quality carpet for the kids rooms for under £300 fitted (including underlay).

I'd start by finding it cheap and then work out which area to do at a time.

I think this sort of thing should do it- and you can (I think) then paint over the top (do check online) with something like tile paint in rooms like the kitchen and bathroom.

https://floorseal.co.uk/product/concrete-floor-sealer/

I’d also recommend sticky vinyl tiles from Dunelm (floor pops) which I have fitted myself and it was pretty easy (I literally used a Stanley knife and a ruler and some extra gorilla glue on the back).

https://www.dunelm.com/product/floorpops-alfama-self-adhesive-floor-tiles-1000158942

Get carpet right to do it . The cheapest stuff. Get underlay from eBay. So much cheaper. The fitter isnt that much. Especially if you find one on Facebook for a bit of cash discount

Also the cheap stick on laminate in b&m does the job for awhile.

We are only just replacing the cheapest carpet upstairs after 8 years x

I’ve used garage floor paint before - there are various colours. It does sound like you may need a sealant first but it would tide you over and look good with any rugs or remnants you can get hold of.

First of all go to a few places to get a quote. Chain places are always going to be expensive.
When i moved into my HA house there was no flooring whatsoever.
I managed to carpet a 2 bed house including stairs (lino in the front room and hallway) for less than £900. It was the same carpet throughout. Fitting was included- some chains charge for fitting on top. I put it on my credit card and paid it off bit by bit.

if you can’t afford what they are charging- check out the offcuts section.

Lino/vinyl is always going to be cheaper too.
check out freecycle/gumtree/fb to see if people have carpets for sale/free too.