Council House Flooring

[Megan000]

Hi all…I’ve recently won a bid on a council house i bided on and am just waiting to go and view it and get the keys I’m just a bit stressed out about getting the flooring as I know it’ll be expensive and I can’t afford it right now should I move in before the floorings done or wait till it’s done? I’m a young single mum so don’t get loads of money and my mum said it’ll cost a couple thousand for flooring which will take me a few months to save up that means even if I get the keys I won’t be able to move in for a couple of months not to mention I’ll also need to save for furniture and paint etc…I was thinking to move in as soon as I get the keys but then won’t it be a hassle when I can afford the flooring and furniture has to be moved. There’s quite a few rooms that need flooring…living room, downstairs/upstairs hallway, stairs and 2 bedrooms (one single one double) so will cost quite a bit does anyone have a rough idea how much it’ll cost or could you tell me your experience if you’ve been in this situation.

Thank you. 😊

You can move in when you want. However your rent and whatnot will need paying even if you're not there.

I'd be doing a shout out to everyone for rugs and carpet cast offs for the minute.

Go to your nearest friendly carpet company & ask them what they advise landlords to put down in rented houses.

Our local company, a family firm, recommended carpet which is easily cleaned & very reasonably priced for a house we’re renting out. Has been down 5 years & still looks good.

IF you decide to move in without carpet when you have saved up, look for a “remnant” in the carpet shop(s) to fit a room at a time. Remnants are left over rolls from bigger jobs & someone from the carpet shop should send someone out to measure so you know what size remnant you need.

Don’t worry about furniture having to be moved. Any decent company will have a team of fitters who will be practiced in the art of moving your stuff and laying carpet. Just pack up your precious stuff out of harm’s way & clear away toys etc.
I am speaking from experience.
Good luck in your new home. Exciting times to come.

Lots of flooring places do special offers for while houses. Around here ( north west) is £750 for your average 2 bed council house.

In your shoes I've always just moved in rehashed off the state of the house. Is not perfect but I like to focus on one room at a time. I've always done my kids first, threw paint on the walls and wood queen the day I've got the keys then got the carpet fitted ASAP. If you are handy it's actually very easy to learn to lay laminate and carpet yourself. You can get carpet delivered on a roll off eBay and it's often cheaper than local carpet places so you can buy better quality for the same price if you pay it yourself. Over the last 25 years I've learned to paint, wall paper, lay flooring, lay tiles, tile walls, fit shelves etc. I love that I am absurd to do it and when I look around it gives me such a feeling of pride.

I did the house in remanants as couldn't afford flooring. Enough for a double room was about £50. ExFIL and I fit it together. It doesn't look amazing, but it's fine (doesn't look actively shit anyway) and cost about £150 for 3 bedrooms and the upstairs landing.

I'd do that, but leave the stairs and save up and pay for a professional for them, due to risk if the carpet isn't fixed properly. Do you still get the moving in decorating vouchers? If so, that'll cover paint etc. You'll be grand! Best of luck!

You can live with bare floors and ugly walls.

Price it up. Rome wasn't built in a day.

Get cheap carpet off ebay and an independent fitter. Go room by room, use rugs etc in the meantime.

You can save 2,000 in a couple of months. Wow.

I get my keys next month. My plan is going to a very well recommended carpet warehouse nearby and trying to get offcuts that are large enough, even if they aren't exactly what I'd normally pick out, and get them to fit it. I'm on the ground floor and I think I'll have concrete flooring. I figured I can hide the carpet under rugs if I want to in the future, but it will be too cold inside without it. Not allowed laminate, or I might have fitted that myself.

I could have a couple of days off work and have a go at fitting it myself, but I think that would cost about the same as the carpet fitters anyway.

Just realised, I missed the key part of the question out...

I'm hoping to get the carpet fitted ASAP, and move most of my stuff a couple of weeks after I move in. I'll be camping out on an air mattress for the first couple of weeks.

When we moved into ours earlier this year we had to move in the day of getting the keys we carpeted stairs and hallway 1st that was priority payed someone to do it. Then 2 months after we did bedrooms. Our living room still isn't properly carpeted we ended up putting carpet tiles down temporarily but we want to have it properly carpeted next year (I'm on maternity atm so we don't have to much disposable income) I didn't realise you can buy carpet off eBay so I might do that for the living room rather than have it professionally done as living room will cost us 500 by scs.

How long were you on the council list for?

Wondering why you didn't pre empt this and start saving back at the beginning

I've just priced up my front room on scs. I need 5m wide x 6m basic twist carpet - the cheapest option for that, a door bar underlay and fitting (no grippers cos they've run out) is £658 inc £30 delivery.

Ebay £180 for the carpet, £120 underlay, grippers £22, £7 door bar, all free delivery. Last quote I had for fitting was £180, so £509 all in.

Ive been in this situation in the past but the council/ housing association had an arrangement with a local carpet fitter. I moved into a flat with no flooring and I think I paid maybe a fiver extra in rent a week which covered the cost of the carpets. They laid it the day I got my keys but hadn't officially moved in until the following Monday.

I didn’t realise that council tenants are not allowed to have laminate flooring, I wonder why not?

Anyhoo, congratulations on your new house!

When we moved in here we had nothing. The floors were concrete and the walls a mess. It had been neglected for years.

Delaying the move wasn’t an option as we were in a homeless shelter.

Went round carpet shops and got cut offs and laid them myself. Concentrated on beds for the dc’s, oven, fridge/freezer and washing machine. Also got a cheap futon which was used as our sofa and my bed.

Wouls have been a lot easier if there was freecycle, eBay, marketplace etc. Never mind youtube for plumbing in the washer, laying carpets and skimming walls etc.

Even if you delay moving you will still be paying rent, council tax, gas, electric and water, even if it’s mainly standing charges.

I had a quote for £800 for carpet and lino so bartered down to £650 opting for underlay only in my son’s room. Fitter ended up putting underlay in all the rooms anyway. Was much easier to fit carpet whilst the house was empty.
2 beds, 2 living rooms, stairs, hallway and long landing.

also use an independent carpet place and ask for offcuts- they’re usually quite big and can do a whole room

I had to get rid of my carpets after a couple of months as my asthma worsened. The only rooms I was fine in was the none carpeted ones. Had the ridiculous no laminate rule hence got the carpets.

It only applies to people who have neighbours underneath them here.

How bad is the paint on the walls and the ceilings?

As ideally when you do up rooms you paint first then put in the flooring.

Otherwise you risk splashing paint on your flooring.

Hello, I live in South London, I sorted out my Dad's 1 bed flat with staircase (generous sized rooms) for 600 quid for carpet from Carpet right and 140 to have it paid. I got it done before he moved in. It was a cheap carpet and cheap underlay but fitted really well it looks nice. Same carpet throughout kept the costs down, the manager of the shop gave me a discount as it was for my dad going into a sheltered flat on a pension. I bought carpet that was in stock, no special orders so it was done quickly. There are grants available fir this sort of thing, ask the council. Good luck.

endfurniturepoverty.org/

Have a look on this site OP, the assistance finder is good. Can also recommend the BHF furniture shops when they have a sale on. It happens!
Ignore all the snotty posters on this thread asking you why you 'havent saved'.
There are some deluded cows on this site.

When I first got my place it was in an awful state and the walls were orange with nicotine. We sugar soaped everywhere then gave all the walls a covering with cheap white paint, I basically lived in one room for ages whilst we decorated the rest, much easier to do if you don't have a ton of furniture already, which I didn't as I was starting afresh.

DD was a toddler so I put those foam letter tiles in all the rooms (you can pick up foam tiles super cheap now) so she didn't hurt herself on the concrete flooring and had a stair gate up as I'm first floor with my own stairs then I decorated room by room. DD had all of her toys in one room which were easy to move when we came to decorate.

I highly recommend insulated lining paper, makes the flat much warmer and hides any lumps and bumps on the wall without needing replastering.

Thank you I’ll look on the website now, appreciate the help. Yes I was hoping not to be judged by anyone as I’m trying to be positive but there’s always some people who can’t help but be negative.

Has anyone else noticed an influx of threads like these the last week or so? Perhaps it’s just a strange coincidence. I’m sure you didn’t want people to pick up on the comment about saving £2k in a few months.

Two things -

You can save a few grand in a just a couple of months?

How do you think people that buy houses manage?

Oh behave.