Laminate floors when selling your house?

[Dragonwoman]

Hi
We have nasty carpets downstairs (put in by prev owner). They are v dark green, suck all the light out of the house and are now also old & threadbare with really obvious frayed bits.
I think we need to replace to sell but if I put cream carpet down I will really struggle to keep it nice even for a short while. The rooms are all through rooms - no hallway and the kids always drop food on the floor in the dining room.
I am considering putting Laminate instead. Ideally I would use real wood but this is too costly for a house we are not staying in.
So my question is - is Laminate unbearably naff these days? Will it put off buyers?
I could limit it to porch and dining room but would still struggle to keep even the living room carpet nice I think.

laminate would be better than a dark green carpet. I wouldn't want carpet in the dining room or porch.

It depends what sort of laminate you get - I'm not huge fan of the stuff that was big about 10 years ago but some of it looks a lot better now and is a lot harder wearing. Shop around and get as good quality as you can afford in a classic "wood" such as oak that looks more like planks (the naff stuff, imo, is the type that imitated small strips of wood in beech and pale woods).

I think you should ask an estate agents advice. We bought our house with a horrible carpet in the hall - it wasn't a deal breaker.

There is no knowing whether the purchaser will even like laminate, so imo, you'd be wasting your time & money.

As long as the house is clean & not cluttered, I think you'd be fine

i would strip the floors..... have you looked at the boards?

i think it really depends... some people would rather eat laminate than live with it (me!), others i know have actually put laminate down over perfectly lovely real wooden floorboards...

dirty/dark flooring probably not the best first impression tho. What about cheap but clean new carpets, and a big cheap IKEA rugs over the top in the main rooms that you can roll back when you get a visit? or put the laminate down but have the cheap ikea rugs as well (you can get pretty nice ones for not much) to soften the impact of all that plastic? actually, you could just put the rugs over the old carpet, come to that... that's the cheapest of all!

I HATE laminate and it would affect my decision about a house .

I hate carpets. They're beyond vile.

I'd rather see laminate.

ask the estate agent. i am looking to buy and i hate laminate, but i would totally consider carpeting or if the floorboards are in good state, polishing.

could you lift up a corner and see if the floorboards are in good order? if they are, estate agent can add as part of the spiel. blah blah, you can get this polished etc. i saw the same property twice and got the same spiel word for word!

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I have been quoted £500 to laminate my hallway that I'm planning to sell with a bit of luck, compared with a £150 piece of carpet there's no competition.
Carpet can be cosy, we have laminate in the living room and I hate it when the baby rolls off the rug on to it.

Honestly depends on the price of the house. I personally hate laminate and would rip it straight out and I wouldn't expect to see it in the price band I would be looking at. My parents in law replaced patio doors and laid laminate before selling their house. Within a week of the new owners it was all in a skip.

So I would say ok in a cheap house but not In a more expensive one. Coir is cheap and hard wearing ( but rough on bear feet)

Whoops bare feet... Although I am sure that even grizzlies would find is a bit rough

Laminate on a description would certainly out me off. 10 mins to take up a carpet-shove it in tne car and tip. Hours and a skip needed for laminate (from bitter experience)

I also hate carpet - so unhygienic. That said, I bought a house with carpet last year, and will replace when I can afford to.

I don't think you can win either way, but decent laminate is not cheap, and cheap laminate looks really naff. I think you'd get away with replacing it with cheaper carpet than you could laminate iyswim.

I wouldn't bother about putting anything nice down, as the next people may come in and rip it up anyway. This happened to a friend of mine who put down very expensive carpet before they moved, only for the next people to rip up several thousand pounds worth of brand new carpet, because it didn't match their new scheme...

Personally if I liked the house it would make no difference to me if it was carpet or laminate, when you buy a house it is a bonus if you love all the interior as most of us want to change things to make it our own. I wouldn't stress yourself as for each that likes laminate there will be one that doesn't and you can't please everyone. Good luck in your sale

I 'm always the weird one on mn

I like laminate. Well ok i don't love the look but i love the clean feel.

I don't like carpets, especially used ones so if i bought a house with carpets i would have to rip them off before i move in. But if it is laminate i can give it a good clean and live with it at least for while. It looks fine to me with some funky rugs.

But i seem to be minority. Unless you get a continental buyer.

What is the style and age of the house?

Laminate often incurs costs such as moving skirting boards and often then redecorating walls that become damaged that job when it is removed.

Carpet is obviously easy to remove and replace. What would it cost you to replace the carpet with cheap as chips carpet? Even if it got used looking in the time it took to sell it would be less costly for a buyer to replace and less off putting IMO because of that.
Laminate also makes rooms feel cold and creates an echo which can be unwelcoming.
Can you impose a short term rule of no food out of the kitchen or dining room and put down a massive ground sheet in the dining room apart from viewings? I know it sounds hideous but it would tackle the mess temporarily and could be easily lifted and shaken outside and hidden when viewers are coming.
FWIW we have very pale beige carpets everywhere except kitchen/diner which have been down for about 10 years and are still clean, even with a dog. I hoover more or less daily obviously and no food is allowed out of the kitchen. Most visitors remove shoes when coming into the house but I don't insist upon it. You would be surprised, as long as food stays still, what you can get away with.

I'm Continental at heart, too, Laquitar, because I despise carpets. They're so filthy and unhygenic.

I hate carpets too - especially other people's carpets when you move into a house (and carpets in bathrooms - the horror!).

I don't know if it's worth replacing yours though OP, it won't be a dealbreaker and is worth checking if the floorboards are good as another poster has said. People will take the carpets into account, it shouldn't put buyers off though. Good luck selling!

Excactly Expat, they are filthy. Glad to 'meet' other carpet-haters

I agree with Laquitar, I would much rather live with someone else's laminate than with their carpets (bleugh all those skin cells).

Can't abide cheap laminate, am house hunting atm, and have seen so much of the stuff, and often badly laid too.

Some of the better veneers are OK.. I don't like old nasty carpets, who knows what's in them.

Would suggest having the carpets cleaned and buying huge cheap rug/borrowing one for a few months.

Someone should start a business hiring carpets out.

PS As second suggestion, agree with those on here who ask what the floorboards are like. I love nice boards with rugs, though now we have a dog cannot bear the clicky sound of her toenails. Have increased my preference for carpet slightly since having a toddler, she seems to roll around on the floor an awful lot.

Carpet is boak. People say, 'I hoover daily'. That doesn't clean them. Unless you're washing them with one of those cleaners once a week or so, they're hoaching with all manner of filth.

I would take laminate over carpet any day