Best hardwearing, stain resistant carpet?

[BlogOnTheTyne]

What type of carpet/floor-covering would you use for a home office with around 30 visitors a week, that opens straight onto the outside - so lots of dirty footprints and heavy footfall?

It's got to look good/comfortable but be easy to clean and hardwearing.

I don't know.... We have kosset (they have a white cat on the label) carpets and they have been amazing. Bleach cleanable and cleaned up great when DH upended a takeaway madras on one.

That said its obviously just a residential house.... With a toddler but still not getting the traffic you are expecting.

Smartstrand this is what I'm planning to get for our hall, landing and stairs. Our local indepenent carpet shop highly recommend it, it's completely stain resistant for life, cleans with water and almost indestructible. It worked out about £100 more than an 80/20 wool carpet, feels lovely and soft and comes in a good range of colours.

Not on commission, I promise.

Is smartstrand available in the uk?

Polypropelene carpets are very hard wearing and withstands cleaning well.

It does tend to flatten under heavy furniture feet which is probably not a big problem for you.

"Heather Twist" keeps its looks best.

IMO you usually get better prices and service from a local independent than from a big chain.

Underlay, grippers and fitting prices are added on after you've seen the price ticket. Look out for the total cost.

We've got Smartstrand, it's not that nice. It's got a really open weave which means you can see the bottom bit of the carpet when it gets pushed over (which it does all the time). Its very thin to sit on. I didn't notice this in the shop BTW. It will really track if you are walking on it a lot.

There are lots of different ranges of Smartstrand though, ours is low to mid priced so maybe the more expensive ones are better.

Oh and I'm not sure about the non staining thing as ours has a massive poo stain which won't come out (thanks DS1).

Oh and it's made (in part) from plastic bags and sounds like it when you walk on it. Very bad choice of carpet IMO!

Does it have to be carpet? What about something like Amtico with a rug on top?