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

Not wanting to derail, but councils' policy to bin all carpet between tenants is yet another of the many many many reasons on my growing list of why I've stopped giving a shit about my carbon footprint.

Go on to Freecycle, facebook, gumtree etc and get peoples left overs.

I did this and managed to carpet my entire home.

The carpets were all mismatched and didn’t always cover the entire room but it was good enough to last until I could afford to do a room at a time in the future.

You need to paint the floors to seal them.

When I moved from my old home I was told I had to rip up the carpets.

They were all in good condition and would have made a huge difference to the new tenants but I was told that I would get a big fine for not doing it.

You have my sympathies. I couldn't have put flooring down in my HA house without assistance from my dad.

Where I live there is a local Facebook group called Before The Tip, where people just give away stuff that they no longer need or want, completely free. I've often seen carpets and rugs given away on there, do you have anything similar?

There's also a company called Pay Weekly Carpets (I think), where they carpet for you once you have paid so much off.

I realise it may still be beyond your budget, but it is definitely worth it to shop around independent shops.
There are several places locally which advertise fully carpeting 3 bedroom properties for £500 - £700. That includes underlay and fitting. It won’t be the best quality but the ones I have seen look ok.

I'm so sorry about that. It's been over ten years since I've worked for income support and flooring was always a must. I'm trying to think what to suggest. There's always carpets but paying the men to lay them is the problem.

Can you work slowly through the house? Carpet one or two areas at a time when money allows? Lots of people do that when having building work done (we did). I’d start with the your bedroom so you have a cosy space. You could put down interconnecting foam play mats in your childs room (you can find them on amazon, alphabet, number ones) and you can mop them clean.

Put laminate flooring downstairs - much more practical. You can look for it on offer when there’s a sale and ive seen people selling excess on facebook after doing their house. Also easy to keep clean with mopping.

Carpet the stairs when money allows.

Reach out to your local churches, some will run Compassion projects, ours does. We had a very similar situation a few years ago and managed to get some large off cuts (fitted too) for a lady with three small kids. It never hurts to ask.

How much can you afford OP? You can buy carpet cheaply online and if you get felt backed carpet it doesn’t need to be stretched so you can fit it yourself. We did this in our first house, it looked fine and lasted us about 6 years until we could afford to get something nicer.

Painting and/or sealing the floors will be the easiest, I would highly recommend checking where your nearest Community RePaint project is. They sell leftover and unused paint. My local one sells paint for £1-2 a litre. It's way cheaper than retail prices.

And Freegle.

Freegle seems to have more stuff on it in my area.

For stairs you don't need carpet, I've painted mine white and have stair treads on and they have adhesive on the back so stick straight down, they were only £40 on Amazon and loads of people have them. I was quoted £400 for my stair carpet which I couldn't afford.

It may be bollocks, but a housing officer told me that a lot of councils started insisting tenants removed carpet when they move out because of a case where carpets left behind led to some sort of infestation.

It ended up costing the council in question shedloads, they had to fumigate, place the tenants in temp accommodation and give them compensation.

Some really good ideas here @Florafloral!

I wish there'd been MN to ask 20 odd years ago when we moved into our newbuild, back in olden times when you didn't get turnkey (which would have been bliss!) We were fortunate that we managed to cajole the builders into letting us have a key prior to completion (amazed looking back that they did!) which meant we had the key rooms painted, and a few carpeted, including re-using an old carpet of my parents' that they'd replaced.

I also ripped up the carpets in our old house and brought them. We'd offered them to our buyers for a small amount and they refused, so I thought sod them! At least we had the stairs kind of covered.

We had no flooring in bathrooms, hall or kitchen for ages though. It was messy and dusty and we had a toddler. I broke down cardboard boxes to cover the floors. We just had to do it a room at a time as we could afford it. Much better temporary solutions here!

Oh, from my work with Councils, it will definitely be this.
It still makes me think to hell with washing out my empty Marmite jars!

What about floor paint and a few rugs from charity shop

If you can find an independent carpet shop they'll have roll ends for sale or there's ones near me that sells carpet tiles and mats really cheap. They used to leave a pile outside the shop, all same colours and you'd make an offer to the owner. He generally accepted any sensible offer.

Are there 2000 people reading this can spare a £

I mopped the floors to get rid of dust, and carpeted one room at a time. It made it more manageable. I prioritied the bedrooms then the living room, all the other rooms waited til last.

Hello everyone

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It's not polished concrete though os it ?

And are seriously comparing an unfinished council house to Grand Designs as a like for like comparison?

Vinyl floor is cheaper than carpet. I know a few Proudhon have added in council properties. You can get wood look effect and it’s easier to clean with small children. I would look into a quote for getting downstairs rooms done in a wood effect vinyl first.
And then either add in bedrooms later or carpet later so cost is spread out

Free cycle is good. Otherwise you can get quite attractive rugs that are Habitat via an Argos for £40. If your kid is young then those foam slot together mats with alphabet letters can make a good temporary floor covering.

I carpet my house ( plus previous ones ) myself
Try budget carpet companies such as

flooringsuperstore and online carpets

dont assume underlay is the cheapest just because your carpet is….shop around

Carpeting over concrete is tricky as you don’t use grippers or if you try they are a nightmare to hammer in and you need glue instead. There are alternatives though.

For something really inexpensive and I appreciate this isn’t ideal

Paint the edges of rooms and lay carpet just in the middle, you can even spray glue it down. Don’t buy rugs for this ( they can be more expensive ) buy normal carpet and cut to size. You can edge them yourself over time if need be.