Bare floorboards or strand woven bamboo/cork

[Lelivre]

We've just moved into a house it's about 1966, and was last decorated/tiled/carpeted late 80s. It's more than tired.

Funds are really tight. We are starting with simple decorating (stripping curling paper and painting everything white) as it's a cheap way to start and see improvement.

The carpets are driving me quite mad. They've had a deep professional clean but...they've got to go.

Pale strand woven uniclic matte bamboo has me quite sold. But having pulled up some hallway carpet today the floorboards actually look ok. However there is a void under the house and rather a lot of woodlice had to be vacuumed up when we moved in and I found mouse droppings and more recently a slug - this is with carpet down nearly everywhere. Do you think restoring the floorboards would be a mistake even if it's cheaper than laying the bamboo; because of drafts and wildlife? I've never lived in a house with bare floorboards before...I appreciate any thoughts

clean out all the airbricks, and observe if some idiot previous owner has blocked them with flowerbeds, paving, raised patio, or conservatory.

The subfloor void should not be damp enough to support slugs or woodlice.

Woodlice eat damp, rotting wood, so look for leaks, including radiator pipes.

If you have actual floorboards, you are lucky, it is quite easy to take up enough to look under the floor.

You need wire mesh over air bricks to keep the mice out, and any other holes in the floorboards or walls filled and covered with mesh or wire wool.

If the floorboards have gaps it will be draughty unless you repair them.

Piglet and Abbie, thanks for the advice. I've checked the subfloor ventilation, seems ok. I have blocked the holes where I found the droppings. I need to check around the other pipes, and put something on the vents.

We have decided to lay a solid floor after looking into the costs of renewing what's here.

I'm a bit worried about wood lice and damp - I've not seen any sign of damp yet and no wood lice since moving in but there were hundreds of dead ones all around the edges of the carpeted areas.

You can now get beautiful cork floors that fit in long planks like laminate. They're insulating and nice and warm underfoot. We used Haro and are still very pleased with it 6 years later.