Am I nuts to consider laminate flooring in the bedrooms?

[PraiseBee]

Just that. My DH is American and lots of the houses where his family live have laminate flooring with area carpets in the bedrooms. Strikes me as more hygienic. My mum thinks it could be noisy and that is wouldn't necessarily be easier to clean. Any thoughts or experience to share?

When we bought our house, one child’s bedroom had carpet and the other had a wooden floor. I noticed that the children always played in the bedroom with the carpet. When we renovated, we put carpet in the bedroom with the hard floor, and now they play in both rooms equally. Ds says his room is much cosier with the carpet.

I have beautiful old original floorboards in my bedroom. They look amazing, but in winter they are so cold. I’d really prefer carpet in there, but Dh won’t hear of it. I spend all winter in thick sheepskin slippers.

We have two staircases. One is carpeted, the other original oak. I let Dh persuade me not to carpet the wooden one because like our bedroom floor, it is beautiful. Dd fell down these stairs one day, and the clunk clunk clunk as her head hit the edges of the risers as she fell was sickening. Fortunately she was fine, but I do worry about it happening again.

We changed our living room from carpet to laminate and defo noticed a difference in warmth over the winter. Love it in living areas as it's so much easier to clean spillages etc but it is nosy and cold. I wouldn't have it in the bedrooms

We have laminate in upstairs bedrooms and it is noisy - we have large rugs for the kids to play on which helps (brio train track at 6am was really upsetting for the neighbours (semi).

It is nice from the keeping clean perspective - but I would choose carpet if I was changing the flooring - that said I do like lino (much more sound deadening IME)

We put click flooring in our daughters room due to dust mite allergy. Before you lay it, consider taking up floorboards and putting sound insulation between boards. There is also an acoustic mat you could consider putting above boards but remember you might end up having to raise skirting.

Anyway, it's fantastic and you can just put down a rug in the area they walk across a lot.

Engineered oak flooring through, with just carpet on the stairs. Perfect!

Hate hard floors in bedrooms. Always looks cold and unfinished.

We've got hard floors of various types in every room in our house except one bedroom and the hall, but that's only because we've not got round to replacing them yet. I far prefer it and would never have carpet by choice again now. Our house isn't cold or noisy and I think hard floors are easier to keep clean.

We have laminate in the children's rooms.

We put down very thick underlay and they all have giant rugs.

I much prefer it to when they had carpet. Easy to clean. Not worried about spills or stains. We don't hear them stomping either.

Laminate always makes me think of houses which were done up to sell. A no from me.

our bedrooms have wooden floor or laminate.

pro

• lego and playmobil keeps standing up
• easy to clean

con

• dustbunnies unless you keep on hoovering
• can be cold underfoot

with a good underlay noise is not an issue.

I am not from UK originally so the carpet was ripped up first thing when we bought our house. We had to go with laminate due to budget but there is no noise and it isn't cold to walk on. Good underlay is a must and your floors need to be level for laminate.

You could always add rugs if you want to have something soft under your feet. I change them around occasionally too when I fancy a quick change in the rooms and store them in the loft when not in use. Back home people take them to these outside wash points in the summer for a deep clean but it is just as easy in the garden too to be honest.

You would struggle to find carpets in any rooms in many parts of Europe, such as Scandinavia, where they are considered old-fashioned and unhygienic. Wood/laminate/vinyl everywhere.

I don't care what they have in Scandinavian bedrooms. I want carpet in my bedroom and have one. It is damp and miserable here today, and I'm glad of my bedroom carpet.

We have laminate in the bedrooms. The only noise we notice is when ds drops something and there is a huge bang, but he didn't play in his room much. In our room it good as it extends into the ensuite with no joins (it is just basic laminate but has been down for nearly 20 years and never had any problems with the laminate and water in is the ensuite)

We installed laminate in our bedroom and dressing room last year. Absolutely love it as it is cool but not cold underfoot. Easy to clean under the bed (previously a dust trap). We did put down thick underlay.

I am firmly in the camp of hard flooring being more hygienic. We have Quickstep laminate throughout the downstairs and in DD's bedroom. Going to replace the other bedroom flooring soon with it as well.
No matter how much you vacuum and clean the carpets, they are never as clean as new. Especially with DC and pets. Personally I don't find the laminate cold at all; It's a lot warmer than the limestone on my kitchen floor.

We've got laminate in our dining room and I hate it. The dogs claws make a horrendous noise on it, and it's bubbling up where people have spilled drinks and not mopped it up quickly enough.

We also have Karndean loose lay planks in the bathroom, and it's been down about 4 years. We had a water leak and it really didn't like it either but it's nicer underfoot.

We had it in a previous house and it was so much easier. Especially with two rooms housing messy teenage boys. Drinks spilled. No problem just mop it up. Current house terrible cream carpets bloody awful to keep clean but it’s rented so can’t change it.

@purplesequins

our bedrooms have wooden floor or laminate.

pro

• lego and playmobil keeps standing up
• easy to clean

con

• dustbunnies unless you keep on hoovering
• can be cold underfoot

with a good underlay noise is not an issue.

But the dust will still be there if you have carpets,! You just wouldn't see it as it would be trodden into/spread all over the carpet.

I think it looks cold as in unwelcoming rather than cold as in how it actually feels underfoot.

There was laminate in three of 4 bedrooms in this house when we moved in with bare floorboards in the 4th. I hated putting DC in their new rooms until we got carpet in. It felt all wrong and for them to be somewhere so bare. Made me sad till it was carpeted and cosy!

Dust bunnies has really made me laugh. Those of you with non carpet in upstair bedrooms, what do you have on the stairs?

Our stairs are just sanded and varnished wood.

lots of carpets shed fibres, which presumably are mostly plastic

Laminate and LVT and vinyl are all plastic. Rubber or (real) linoleum or cork (or a wool carpet or sisal) would all be better for the environment than plastic flooring and rubber and cork in particular is much warmer.

Good quality laminate is great in bedrooms.

I grew up asthmatic and in a family of asthmatics amd now have my own family of asthmatics.

I actually find carpet better, if natural fibres and hoovered regularly it perfectly hygienic. Whereas I find wood harder to keep clean and find dust bunnies everywhere.