Boring question, but your help needed please. Would you go for carpet or laminate flooring in lounge?

[Mumatuks]

We're moving house and will have the chance to lay the flooring of our choice.

At first I was all for laminate flooring thinking how easy it will be to keep clean (my kids seem to spill everything)

However, I then thought that:

a) It won't be easy for DS3 to learn to walk on

b) it's hard

c) carpet would keep the house warmer.

My heart says laminate as it will look so nice and neat, but my head says carpet!

We've worked out the cost, and it comes in at almost the same price, so that isn't a issue, just the practicalities.
Thanks in advance!

Has to be carpet for me.
I don't like hard floorings apart from kitchen/bathroom!
And i know my DS's would be running and sliding along it all the time! They try to in the kitchen.

laminate can be really slippery. how about a wooden floor?

I have wooden floors and small kids

dd1 learned to walk fine; also can use her little car inside without a problem

it is easy to clean with a broom and a microfibre mop in a few minutes without faffing about with a huge vacuum

Carpet would seem nice in winter, yes, but you can always put a rug down in the winter months if it bothers you

when they throw cocoa/ juice etc all over it I just wipe it up. Have you seen how many 'my kids have thrown XXX over the carpet how do I clean it' threads there are on here?

laminate and then a big rug as strawberry said. He can learn to walk on the rug and it is nice to snuggle up on.

Buy yourselves some nice slippers!

We had laminate when we moved in, but noticed the kids were on the floor all the time, on their knees etc. So we changed to carpet. Laminate in hall, kitchen, bathroom etc, but living room needed to be boys' knees friendly!

in retrospect
laminate

We have laminate right through downstairs, apart from the playroom which is carpeted.

Guess which room dd2 has crapped and pi$$ed on all weekend (potty training)? Yep.

I don't like laminate, it is cheap and nasty and we inherited ours from the previous owner. If we were staying, I would rip it up and sand my lovely 100 year old floorboards.

But with children, think wipe clean.

Laminate and rug (if I had a choice)

we have wooden (parquet) flooring in our lounge and I was worried about the DSs hurting their poor little knees when they crawled around but it didn't seem to bother them at all! They both leaned to walk at appropriate times too (had those socks with rubber pads on the feet)

We have a rug as well which is now a bit dirty after 5 years of babies but, the floor is still lovely.

i've had laminate, wood and carpet in different houses.
I wouldn't have laminate again, it's seems clinical and noisy. Also not indestructible -if you drop something heavy it can dent or break which is a PITA to fix.
Wood is fine, but needs a rug in the winter otherwise v. cold for the DC to sit about on.
Carpet is my favourite, warm, cosy, It does get filthy but vanish spray works well, just need to keep on top of the stain removal.

TBH, there is probably wooden flooring underneath the horrendous tiles in the lounge, but we haven't got the time to sand everything down.

I saw the flooring in b&Q, at £9.97 perpack (was £11.51)(or £3.98per sq metre). It just clicks in to place and looks so easy. We've got the keys to the new place early, so I was thinking we could get the flooring down before we move in (ha! lets hope my DH doesn't see this!!)

I'm agreeing with everyones comments so far. Yes, a rug would look lovely; yes it can be slippery; and I do have 3 DS's who will one day all be knee sliding along it, but I won't have to worry about spills!

Oh and I can't seem to find any dark colour carpets ATM. Why is everything beige or sand or cream?! Does nobody have children anymore?!

Thank you for all your replies, I'll show this to DH when he gets in (I'll edit out my bit!) and see what he thinks.

Thanks!

Pay someone to sand and varnish the boards for you. Not much different in cost to putting down durable, good quality laminate or carpet. I wouldn't put down such cheap laminate myself, it won't wear well (I am speaking from bitter experience!).

laminate just looks tacky IMHO

wood floors or carpet

after today, when i fished a leaky cup of manky milk hidden under my sofa, i have to say, i love my tacky laminate

Laminate but with a nice big rug.

I've got stripped boards but soften the look with a big rug by the hearth

I agree with Zoflorra- pay someone to sand floorboards-much nicer than laminate-laminate is cold and slippery , also if in the future if you move stripped floorboards floorboards appeal to buyers mor than the dreaded laminate.

I'd go with the sanded floors and big rug. Otherwise, carpet and buy one of those carpet cleaner machines. Dh spilt a LOT of red wine on our new beige carpet in the living room, went to Argos and got a carpet cleaner the next day and you really cannot see any mark at all now. I would not have believed it if I hadn't seen it. The carpet is wool though so has lanolin (I think) which offers a certain degree of natural protection.

We have laminate in one living room (inherited with the house)and carpet in the other. I like the carpet much better, even though we have a big rug down over the laminate. To me laminate seems a bit cold and echoey. But it's great for when we get the remote control cars out!

We took up the horrible carpet when we moved in and just had a 5 month old. We put down laminate. When he was 2 1/4 his sister was born and soon after we replaced the laminate, reusing it in our bedroom, with a carpet as we were worried about her hurting herself when learning to crawl and walk. The carpet has been down for over 2 years now and it is better. All the bedrooms have laminate and we have carpet in the lounge, dining room, hall, stairs and landing. We are going to get carpet for our bedroom as it will be so lovely to have something soft under foot instead of cold laminate on winter mornings.

Excuse the hijack, but mumpbump which carpet cleaner did you get?

We got a carpet cleaner from Argos too. Best £200 we have ever spent!