We have a three story town house - 12 years old. The carpet has been down since it was built - we moved in 18 months ago and got the (beige) carpets cleaned before we moved our furniture it but they didn’t come up very clean - you can see stains, marks, and you can even see where the last occupant had her sofas because the carpet is really dirty where her feet would have been. (Think she was a shoes on inside person, we are definitely not!). The same carpet is everywhere except the kitchen and bathroom. So, I could try to get them cleaned again or we can start to think about replacing them. But with what?
Our last flat had hardwood floorboards through out which I loved, you had to hoover a lot as the dust is very visible but that’s another reason that I don’t really want carpet - you just can’t tell if it’s clean, even when it looks it!
A friend has the most gorgeous golden oaky type herringbone engineered wood floor in her hallway, and I love how it looks, but I think that would be too expensive for a whole house? and we have small children, and not much time for maintenance. Also need to consider noise - we are end of terrace and the houses are quite well built - we never hear the neighbours but our kids are loud and run a lot!
So, suggestions of types, brands, supplies, looks of flooring? Wood? Laminate that looks lovely? Something else? What do we do with stairs? Same floor everywhere? Could you have a hard flooring up to the second set of stairs? Would we need to do the whole house at once? Presumably floor fitting is a much bigger job than carpet? Skirting boards removed and refitted etc?