Flooring for homes of rampaging toddlers

[PogoBaby]

Trying to decide what to do about the flooring in our living / dining room. Current carpet isn't fab as bought it cheap(ish) in 2007 to put the house on the market but decided to stay.

DD is 1 is an destructive energetic soul and determined to feed herself resulting on most meals ending up on the floor. Will obviously also have potty training to deal with and am planning to have a second so will repeat the process in a couple of years.

Have some money to sort out the house now and thinking about putting laminate down to make cleaning etc. easier but would it survive rampaging toddler or just get chipped/scratched/stained etc. etc.?

Would it be wiser to tolerate keep the carpet, deep clean it regularly and replace when we've passed the toddler years. We're likely to be moving from this house in 5 years and have to prioritise the windows and garden now so can't afford to invest in proper wood.

Grateful for any opinions.

Go for laminate.

I have 1 potty training toddler rampaging through the house & a pukey baby. Get laminate!

We put real wood topped laminate down in DD1s room & it's scratched (from moving furniture) more than the cheaper laminate we put down in another room. (although it could just be we have scratchier-bottmed furniture in her room?)

DH insisted on carpet in our bedroom, so when DD2 brings up her feed in there i make him clean it up!

Go for laminate. We have an 11 month old DS and a very dirty dog and it's great. Don't hitnk it was that expensive either :)

we have laminate. was there when we moved in. tis a godsend. we do have a rug (onto our 2nd in 5 years - have a four year old and a 1 year old) in the living room and its pretty stained now so I dread to think what carpet would have been like! Its quite cheap stuff but I find I dont notice any scratches on it.

I've just been looking into flooring. For a variety of reasons we went for a polypropelene carpet but I did look into laminate too. I was told that it is much more scratch resistant than real wood

Thanks for all the input (sorry been out all day), looks like I'm adding laminate to the list - just need to figure out how to get it fitted as DH + DIY = A&E!!!

instead of laminate id consider a vinyl that looks like laminate

doesnt matter if it gets wet (or soaked!), can be wiped really easily, doesnt chip as easily, and slightly softer to fall on.

also cheaper and much quicker / easier to lay.

you could always have a large rug and clean that regulalry and bin in a few years

We've got the sort of vinyl nannyl has suggested in the kitchen and bathroom. It is fab and so far seems to be pretty indestructable. It was quite expensive though (we went for amtico and karndean). We've just had a polypropelene carpet fitted in our family room. We went for that because I didn't think the dart board would go well with laminate! According to the lady in the shop it is very tough and hard wearing and as it is not nylon you can scrub it with pretty harsh cleaning chemicals when it gets dirty. It was pretty cheap too.

Thanks for other suggestions, will have a look at both of them too

Our solution with two toddlers was ultra cheap flat pile, scrubbable, all over mottled pattern carpet. Plus, luxurious large rug, which rolled up and went behind settee in the day time. Lasted us for the five worst years.

Which rooms are you talking about? Laminate is brilliant in terms of cleaning but it is quite cold & hard for sitting and playing on so I'd probably say laminate/vinyl in kitchen & cheap, flecked carpet in living rooms. We now have a large, cheap rug in the playroom and DD always takes her toys to the rug & sits on there. For that matter, I much prefer sitting on it too.

Didn't realise there were more posts, thanks for the comments - good points there to think about.