For those in council housing

[LittleMissMe99]

I've no experience with social housing. But my mum is getting a flat when rules relax a bit. I understand that it doesn't come with flooring/carpeting of any kind. So I'm wondering what people do regarding this? Is there any help available? What have those of you in council housing done?

Oh and kitchens and bathrooms will have flooring but it will be basic vinyl. In all three I’ve lived in we were given kitchen updates at some point in the tenancy and were given options to choose from for the doors, countertops and floors.

Our council housing give you carpets throughout and let you have white goods, sofa, table, beds. They have a brochure with lots of different things. They only offer it if it's your first ever council tenancy. If you work you pay a small amount back over 5 years if you dont work your housing benefit covers it. Our local housing associations though give people nothing.

My house was completely bare just concrete on the floors.
We had a bed but nothing else.

My parents thankfully helped with carpets and white goods.
We got the cheapest blinds possible and put them up because we couldnt afford curtains and we sat on deckchairs for quite a while.

@littlemissme99

See if there's a company that works in conjunction with the Housing Association that offer goods. You can generally buy everything and use the grant towards it. To give you an idea we got two reclining leather chairs, dining table, tv unit, wall unit, chest of drawers, a bed with mattress. We paid £120- ish towards it. Carpets contact LA - we got the hallway, living room, one bedroom supplied and fitted free.

Also there are lots of charities that help with carpets and household items. I got someone nearly £2,000 for household stuff once (i think that's my record). Just contact your local CAB.

There are a couple of carpet companies depending on your area that I know of that allow you to pay weekly for good quality carpets with underlay if you want.

You pay a deposit of around £70 then pay weekly thereafter. I had a terrible experience with one called 'Pay Weekly carpets' (we were carpeting a room at a time) but another one called Flexipay Carpets have been excellent. There are other companies available of course.

Floor coverings are not supplied in Scotland as far as I know. There are different Grant's you can apply for white goods though. I don't think there are any decorating Grant's any more. I also think different councils have different Grant's available. MIL will be in same position after lockdown. I can afford to buy everything for her however she has far too many pets to waste money on anything decent so she'll get getting lino from b&m and whatever carpet officers or cheap off the roll new. No underlay and dog piss will just soak through.

Oh, special flooring installed in bathroom, it's a wet room.

Thank you everyone

Your DM is extremely lucky to be receiving a council house! They don't normally come with anything except flooring in the kitchen and bathroom for health and safety.

The kitchen & bathroom will have flooring usually non slip vinyl, if your luck the previous tenant may have left carpets / laminate but most councils rip them up these days.

I work for a council that offers help for carpets and white goods. It's called the welfare support scheme.

It's always worth asking it there's help available

When my father moved into his housing association retirement flat about 5 years ago they asked him whether he wanted the carpet and curtains the previous tenant had left and he had to sign to say they were his responsibility if he wanted to keep them. I had the same when I moved into my flat but that was 16 years ago. We also got decorations vouchers but they hadn’t ‘magnolia’d’ the walls, my daughter’s room had the Jamaican flag painted on one of the walls!

Id recommend Lino off cuts hunting. That ways its easy to take up if you move. Easy to clean and you can put rugs down onto of the Lino as you acquire them.

@Footymum81 - that seems like the absolute best way to do it.

Such a hideous waste to rip out and bin furnishings if they are in serviceable use.

I've never been in council provided housing but I think it shocking that flooring throughout isn't provided as standard.

Today 13:05 EinsteinaGogo

Indeed, it’s very wasteful, but the council could be in trouble if a carpet left behind had fleas etc

Making a new tenant sign for the new carpets would be far simpler

Some old people can have a house carpeted with great stuff, due and then the carpets have to be thrown away 😫

We got decorating vouchers for £250 ( I think) but no flooring ,we have had to pay for all of that ourselves, carpets don't have to be that expensive though ,we got ds,s bedroom carpet for £50 and our bedroom carpet for £70 obviously not the best quality but perfectly fine it was from an on line company , and dh fitted them , we have laminate flooring in the lounge which we fitted ourselves.

I had no flooring and no vouchers sadly. I have spent a fortune on this house and it still looks crap as it's a crumbling sub standard built shitbox, so whatever I do it's like polishing a turd.
Hopefully your mum is getting something decent.
I had to put in a new bathroom as we had no shower and a malfunctioning toilet but the council wouldn't replace it.
When I eventually move the council will rip out everything probably, but I'm taking my very nice flooring with me!

Over lockdown many people have cleared out attics and garages, I did the garage.

I found no less than 10 pots of paint, I would pop a post on Facebook for any half used paint pots still useable and any rugs or of cuts of carpets etc

I’m sure people will be glad to off load paint with refuge sites closed

Ours was completely stripped when we moved in, took us a few years to have proper flooring - we’d taken the old carpets with us but they didn’t fit but was nice to have something underfoot as we moved in December.

We got about £200 towards decorating costs as it was in a state but had to go to their chosen supplier to purchase.

There was no white goods - we ended up renting them. I still do that as can change them when I need to or want something different.

Takes time on a low income but worth it to have a secure home :).

Website like flooring superstore do big sized really cheap roll ends, if you know anyone reasonably handy they aren't difficult to fit yourself although you probably won't get the same neat finish as a carpet fitter.

Go for felt backed and as think as affordable if you can't afford the underlay too.

Some charity shops sell rolls of cheap carpet I saw some in Marie Curie

In scotland you can apply to the scottish welfare fund for carpets ans white goods.

I'm in the process of moving into a housing association/council property and it comes without any flooring apart from bathroom and kitchen lino. I was fortunate enough to get a dap grant and was given a brand new washing machine, cooker and 50/50 fridge freezer. Along with those items i was awarded some smaller items which were one pair of curtains, a 16 piece white plate and cup set, a set of three saucepans, one frying pan, and a sixteen piece cutlery set. The only things they said i couldn't have that were applied for was a toaster and kettle so i was very very lucky, not everyone gets all those items when they apply. I've just finished carpeting the bedrooms and putting vinyl down in the living room and halls ( i made a mistake when ordering, i thought i was ordering laminate lol however it was a great mistake to make because it was a lot cheaper and looks amazing). I found carpets a lot cheaper by searching for the best prices online and found a carpet shop local to me that was very very reasonable and just managed to afford to do it although its going to be an extremely tough month because of that. The person who lived in the property before me had only put brand new quality carpets that cost over £600 in 6months before they moved and because they knew they would be ripped up and disposed of they took them up themselves and gave them to a friend who had the same layout out flat in the block. I think its disgusting they rip perfectly fine flooring up, i understand if its stained and tired looking but you can tell a new carpet over an old one its just wasteful. They should give the new tenants the choice of whether they would like to keep or have the carpets or other flooring disposed of. They had also recently decorated the flat with wallpaper too which was also stripped off. As above why not give the new tenant a choice. It saves the council a lot of work and is more environmentally friendly.

We had nothing when we moved into ours. They'd also stopped doing the grant, we just got given a box with some paintbrushes and polyfilla in, which really helped

We were able to get some family help with carpeting the kids room/living room at least. I remember hearing that some charities might help though.