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Original poster

Flooring Issue.... advice appreicated

29 replies

EmilyandLola · 23/05/2007 09:34

We are buying a new biuld house at the moment, but it's not sold with flooring!

We have a 7 month old DD so I need to take the fact she will be crawling and walking soon, so flooring needs to be kind to her.
Have no pets, but hesitant to put carpet down as we will have dinner table in living room and shall get trashed with BLW DD...

Laminate seems cold and a bit naff looking after a while, or am I wrong?

What would you use?

OP posts:
Smurfs · 23/05/2007 09:38

Laminate - avoid at all costs, scratches easily and scratches very easily.

We have solid oak flooring which is great - warm under foot, kinder on little heads when they fall over than tiles and easy to keep clean.

Oh how exciting for you

Mumpbump · 23/05/2007 09:45

I would go for real wooden floorboards too. If they get damaged, you can sand them back and repair them easily and they're easy to keep clean.

LilyLoo · 23/05/2007 09:47

We have a new build and our dining room is through from the lounge so we have half carpet half wood floor. It looks fine as got similair shade for both.

Smurfs · 23/05/2007 09:47

ooops, think I overstated the potential for scratching

MrsSpoon · 23/05/2007 09:48

Another vote for real wood.

Original poster
EmilyandLola · 23/05/2007 09:56

but isn't real word on the expensive side? This will be our first non-rental property and Im so worried about stretching ourselves too much financially.

Any prices ladies?

Does it work out ridiculously expensive, and what about bedrooms upstairs? Hard wood there too?

OP posts:
Smurfs · 23/05/2007 10:02

Not sure about the price will email DH and find out!

I am a carpet in the bedroom type of person...probably as I am so sleepy first thing I would end up on rear ...all snugly underfoot....look on ebay there are lots of 100% wool carpets for not huge amounts of money.

Mumpbump · 23/05/2007 10:05

Carpet in the bedroom - cheap, cheap carpet in baby's bedroom that can be binned if necessary later. You can get remnants at places like Carpetright and Allied Carpets which can be pretty cheap. Mind you, some of their synthetic carpets are dead cheap. We got some stripey carpet for the children's rooms (which actually looks quite nice) for about £3 psqm.

Alternative to wood might be carpet tiles in the dining area so you can lift individual ones and wash/replace if they get really messy, but not keen on the look of them myself.

Mumpbump · 23/05/2007 10:07

Real wood varies a lot according to what wood you want. Pine floorboards are probably cheapest. If you look out for deals on floating floors in places like Topps Tiles, I have seen oak floating floors for about £15 psqm. Solid wood floorboards are much more expensive, starting at around £25 psqm.

KristinaM · 23/05/2007 10:10

oh yes yes,go for wood. we have 3 small kids and LOVE it.its not cheap but better to economise elsewhere eg cheap sofas & rugs from ikea ( will get trashed anyway), blinds instead of curtains, cheap carpet in bedrooms. you can always change these things later when you have more £££££

LilyLoo · 23/05/2007 10:13

TBH we spent more on the flooring downstairs and got cheap carpets upstairs. It's time to replace them all now but downstairs still like new despite the heavy wear it gets. Get the best you can afford for the lounge.

Original poster
EmilyandLola · 23/05/2007 10:13

its just the case of getting DP to spend the money. tight git.

im happy to put cheap carpet upstairs, its only the bedroom after all.

Not up for floor tiles though, PIL have them and they look so ridiculous. I know the idea of taking one up when it gets a stain, but when I go round to their house, there is always one shiny clean tile and the rest is grubby.

I think I might try get a quote for solid pine floor boards.

The kitchen and down stairs loo all ready has Lino stuff, can I rip that up easily?

OP posts:
yaddayah · 23/05/2007 10:20

We had similar new build dilemma
If you do go for wood don't do as we did and get lovely shiny walnut with a veneer, as it scratches really easily (the curse of ds's toy cars) and leaves a white mark.
Would go for plain neutral carpet upstairs as would be warmer and less noisy

KTeePee · 23/05/2007 14:55

Do'nt put carpet or carpet tiles in the dining area - we've inherited both in the past and it just doesn't work with small children.

I would go for real wood in the living/dining room if you can and cheap carpet upstairs.

viticella · 23/05/2007 20:16

We put in a real wood floor and I've not regretted it. I'd have been happy with old pine floorboards but we have concrete below so had to get a floating floor. It's got quite knocked about but wears it well, and is actually less slippery than laminate. Every time I wipe up a puddle or splat of weetabix I'm glad it's not carpet.

Try those little socks from Gap, Jojo etc with non-slip printing on the soles if you're worried about baby slipping about when she starts walking.

Cappuccino · 23/05/2007 20:20

you might be surprised at his attitude

men of my acquaintance tend to be rather geeky and enthusiastic about wood

you can put polyx oil on as well they like doing that

sparklygirl · 23/05/2007 23:05

We have laminate, which I love but it is an expensive one with is more than double the thickness of nornal laminate, doesn't seem to scratch as it does have a bit of a textured surface to it.

Furball · 16/10/2007 07:29

does anyone know anything about This stuff

We would like a hard floor in our loungs but no nothing about it.

chocolateteapot · 16/10/2007 07:37

Also agree about wood. We have it in the kitchen diner thing but carpet in the rest of downstairs. It looks fantastic with a quick sweep in the kitchen but the carpet is getting more and more stained. I am going to rip it up as soon as I get the chance.

Furball · 03/02/2009 06:54

gosh this is an old thread which I managed to kill.

might as well report back we went for solid oak and it's fab - love it. just a quick whizz with a lightly damp mop and it's done, much easier to care for than I first thought. We had the hallway done as well, which is brillant with muddy shoes comming in.

poopscoop · 03/02/2009 07:12

laminate is the worst flooring you could get.Yes it looks fab as soon as its laid but very quickly edges 'lift' and the dents and chips from he childrens toys were all over the place. Lasted a year. and was not cheap.

False economy really i'm afraid. Solid oak is fab.

Having said that, laminate is ok if used in a room which does not have that heavy use, but communal walkways such as halls lounges forget it.

Madmentalbint · 03/02/2009 07:31

This is good too

www.karndean.com/

It looks nicer than laminate, it's warmer, softer, not slippery, quieter underfoot and easy to clean. We used to have laminate which was dusty and noisy and drove me insane. I love Karndean though

Bubbaluv · 03/02/2009 08:10

Have a look at Amtico. Amazing stuff - incredibly durable, kind to feet/knees and looks stuning.

mrsmaidamess · 03/02/2009 08:39

Look for real wood in places like B&Q when they do their 20% off weekends. We bought lovely solid oak flooring in there, I love it.

CurlyhairedAssassin · 03/02/2009 22:50

Would disagree, poopscoop. We have had our laminate down 6 years and it still looks good. Am so glad we didn't get a carpet when I think of all the vomit, wine, wee, shit and Ribena it's had all over it! Made the terrible (and in hindsight, obvious) mistake of buying a cream wool rug to go in middle of floor so that DS1 (baby at the time) had something comfy to lie on! It lasted about a year before it had to be binned - stains all over it of course. Our current rug is a deep red colour and has lasted for ever. No doubt it has got stains all over it, but you can't see 'em!!!!

As soon as the kids have got a bit older, though, we'll be getting a carpet. It's just cosier in winter. But not a cream one!

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