Advice on flooring please

[coco2891]

Hiya I'm hoping someone might have a suggestion please . We have 2 children 4&5 , I really wanted new laminate flooring through the living room. It's carpeted at the moment (dark grey / worn )but now the kids are bigger I think having a soft floor is less necessary and I'm really After a natural colour floor - husband hates the idea and thinks we should definitely have carpet 😬🙄☹️
We can't have beige carpet with 2 children , spillages and mud being walked in. What's the solution ? Thanks x

Not sure what the solution would be I’m afraid - though if it’s the fear of spillages putting you off carpets, there are some great carpets now that look just like wool but are actually polypropylene - and seem nigh-on indestructible when it comes to stains (you can even use bleach on ours). We have beige carpets from the “First Impressions” range produced by Victoria Carpets and so far have had red wine spilt about three times (including an entire glass of it), various bits of dinner, mud and had to use bleach on another occasion (cat pee). Three years on and both carpets still look pristine.
flooringmegastore.co.uk/first-impressions.

Wow amazing thanks I'll have a look x

Actually, laminate flooring can be damaged just as easily as carpet. Spilled drinks in particular as the wet gets under the flooring and can lift it. The laminate can split or crack if something heavy is dropped in it. It's cold underfoot, noisy and makes the room echoey. It's also slippy.
I'm with your DH on this one. Carpet every day! We too have one that can be bleached. Just get a short pile one so it doesn't get flattened easily.

My parents both have really decent vinyl click flooring. Looks like proper wood but is pretty soft underfoot and they have 10 year guarentees on their floors too. Certainly not loud to walk on and doesn't scratch, dent or lift and is warm still. Plus my sister spilt a glass of wine at Mum's last Xmas and it just mopped cleaning up with no staining.

It's what we are now looking at getting throughout whole of downstairs.

I'm also with your husband, laminate is a hard flooring for a living room, and generally needs rugs to soften it up. It's a practical choice and no more.

I couldn’t stand to have laminate in a living room. It would seem so cold to me. I like warm and fluffy underfoot. I’d just compromise on the colour a little to be on the safe side.

I'm a dissenting opinion here! We recently took all the carpet out of the house (except the stairs) and replaced it with LVT. I love it and find it so practical. I agree that hard flooring is always colder and that laminate can be damaged by liquids though.

😬 I've had a load of lovely different colour samples arrive today - trying to win husband over by sending him massive fluffy rugs. Thanks for all the replies x

Twittlebee with the flooring being click together vinyl, rather than laminate, I take it it doesn’t get marked from furniture?

Can you afford some engineered wood that clicks together? It's nicer underfoot than most laminate.
It's also more forgiving as dents from damage can look natural rather than scuffed.

We have wooden floors, mostly floorboards and it's so much easier to keep clean. We have rugs in the kids bedrooms but machine washable.

Vinyl click is your best solution. I've just got it in my kitchen. Not cold on feet and waterproof, definitely recommend! We have real wood in living room and it dents easily

Linnet not that I've noticed and my Dad is frequently rearranging his living room

Thanks Twittlebee, I’ll look into vinyl click flooring some more 🙂

My father's a floor fitter. He'd recommend vinyl and rugs to "warm it up" a little. He is always saying it's much more durable, cheaper and easier to maintain. (trying to get me to have it in my living room atm but both kids are under 5 and I really want to keep my carpet till they're a bit older!)

Thanks for all the replies ,
I need to do some more research x

We've just put Quickstep laminate in (couldn't afford 80sqm of LVT) and the one we have chosen is 100% waterproof and guaranteed for 20 years. We have open plan living, dining and kitchen so I needed something that would work with a high traffic area. But, in the area that will be the living space, we are buying a huge piece of carpet, to fill the area (probably 12ins smaller than the walls) and will get the edges whipped, so basically the living area will feel carpeted. Alternatively just a massive rug!