Help! Please! Cheap temporary floor

[Liondolphin]

Wonderful wise people of MN. I’m hoping you can help. I’m a long time poster but have NC several times to avoid being identified.

We have bought a house that hasn’t been decorated since the 1980s. Our plan is to extend upwards and reconfigure downstairs but can’t afford to do it straight away. We plan to strip the textured wall paper and just paint the walls white for now but there is a dark green carpet in the lounge that I don’t think I can live with.

Anyone got ideas for a quick and cheap option to replace it. I was thinking maybe wood-effect Lino. We could then re use it for a bathroom somewhere or utility area. Anyone got good suppliers?

I’m open to other ideas. Concrete floor so can’t do floorboards. Sofas are a classic design so concrete floor would jar.

Thanks I’m advance.

Large second hand rugs?
Go to a carpet shop and look at large offcuts that might fit the room?

Thanks silver. I did think about that but finding colours that match the sofa would be such a pain. It’s a blue/teal colour. It’s a large room so rugs wouldn’t cut the mustard.

We got decent and cheap wood effect lino from www.onlinecarpets.co.uk

Or if you're in Scotland there's J&W carpets.

Also got an email from flooring superstore that there's a big sale on atm.

Thanks Thecanyon. I’ll check them out.

Pull up the carpet. There may be gorgeous parquet underneath. Or decent floorboards you could just varnish or paint white.

I stuck down vinyl tiles in my kitchen and bathroom. The bathroom was concrete. The kitchen was done lockdown 1 and I have had so many compliments! The tiles are much easier to lay than the sheet stuff. I hadn't expected them to last and it is just a temporary fix as I'm hoping to extend the kitchen and add a decent floor after.

I think I'd rather clean the carpet and put down a rug to distract from it than have cheap vinyl in a large space. We did vinyl in an upstairs office, fitted it ourselves and it looks good if you don't look closely at the edges but it is terribly cold

Great to hear both sides of vinyl as an option. Thanks.

The carpet is forest green - hard to distract from I think.

@user1471530109

I stuck down vinyl tiles in my kitchen and bathroom. The bathroom was concrete. The kitchen was done lockdown 1 and I have had so many compliments! The tiles are much easier to lay than the sheet stuff. I hadn't expected them to last and it is just a temporary fix as I'm hoping to extend the kitchen and add a decent floor after.

Could you link to what sort of thing you used. I really need to do this in our utility room. I took up the ripped lino that was here when we bought the house and it's been bare concrete ever since. Looks so grim. I fancy some padded vinyl, but not £££ as we're moving in a couple of years.

Do you underfloor heating? I'd be concerned that a concrete floor with just vinyl on it would be cold. And it is quite wasteful to put down a temporary cheap plastic flooring . Like a PP I'd clean the carpet and live with it for the time being. Or if you really hate it that much lift it, then cover the concrete with multiple vintage persian rugs which you can get reasonably cheaply on ebay and will probably be able to sell on when you've finished with them.

JaninaDuszejko

I agree about the waste. We would re-use it in utility/en-suite or the garden office we are planning finances allowing (our temporary curtains 10 years ago are still in use from our old house - I find making these decisions really hard!).

I think it might be cold too. I was thinking of putting something insulating down underneath.

I might check out rugs but it’s a large room and o have a blue/teal sofa that is very hard to match.

The existing carpet is forest green so will look terrible with the teal sofa and it sucks all the light. It’s very depressing.

Just looked at Persian rugs and found the perfect one. It was £40,000 or so I’ll keep looking though!

@gingerhills

Like these. I have different patterned ones in the kitchen and then some more plain ones in the bathroom too. But I think you can also get wood effect from homebase etc. It certainly looks a lot better than I expected. It was very easy to apply too. I bought new scissors and also a tool to help me with cutting around awkward edges (a plastic thing with like a comb that you push up into a corner and all the prongs move to show the shape-so you can draw around it to cut).

WallPops FP2480 Comet Peel & Stick Floor Tiles, Blacks, Set of 10 Pieces www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B079DDZV15/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_i_HVMK89W7DFHKFRF1AZM6?psc=1&_encoding=UTF8&tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Thank you @user1471530109. They're nice. I'll look out for that tool you describe. Sounds useful.

We got cheap cord carpet think it was £1.99 a sq metre going back a few years ago surprisingly indestructible .

You can use industrial type wooden boards - forget the name - but the type they use for hoardings? Painted or varnished it works really well. We did this for a hallway and kept it. It's incredibly cheap but hard wearing.

@Liondolphin

Just looked at Persian rugs and found the perfect one. It was £40,000 or so I’ll keep looking though!

A fantastic bargain at twice the price !