What's the best type of flooring for a living room?

[emkana]

I just can't decide...

me either, so will watch with interest

Wood - love it!

Ah but is wood a/horribly expensive b/a pain to maintain?

We've got parquet and a big rug in the middle. couldn't be easier to clean round the edges of the room so much less dusty than carpet.

We have Karndean plus rug. Easy to clean and quiet.

hmm but for slatterns like me who hoover rather infrequently, would wood be more bother?

do you have to sweep it every day?

wouldn't a big rug be as dusty as a carpet?

LOL no we certainly don't sweep it every day. But it's so quick when you do, much easier than getting the hoover out.

OK, I have to confess, DH has a floor obsession and does our rug every couple of days. He's bought a new gadget, it's an electric sweeper which he caresses lovingly every time he passes So he gets that out whenever there's a crumb on the carpet... Having said that, it's still much easier than the hoover.

I shake the rug once a week. Ocasionally it gets hoovered too. We are paranoid about noise, so had to have something on the floors. (DS and Dd2 wear cochlear implant/hearing aids and have trouble with background noise.)

ahh you see. Not quite so simple, pea

The wood is still easy peasy though. I can tell that as I watch DH work.

well we are buying laminate for dp's house before me and dc's move in as wood is too expensive (there would be murders if it got chipped) but carpets are not really practical for two small dc's imo, what with spilt drinks and crayola's etc! laminate would be much easier to keep clean

although we do have a hand woven turkish rug that cost about £200 (i think, cant really remember but i know it was a lot) that i know my dog is going to love sleeping on and if anything gets spilt you can guarentee it will land on the rug esp if it is coffee or ribena!!

3 nippers.

lovely, lovely carpet.

cosy, homely, nice on your feet.

easy on aging knees for playing with aforementioned nippers too.

wood. schmood.

laminate. schmaminate.

i'd go shagpile if i could.

even nice in this type of weather

x

Carpet, carpet carpet.

We have bloody laminate in our hallway and bedrooms and I hate it - can;t wait til we get the money to rip it out!

First you have to sweep/hoover, then you have to mop, then you have to dry so you don;t slip over everywhere and this really needs doing at least every other day - what a total waste of time and effort (can you tell I'm very lazy!!!) Also the rooms are colder and in the winter leads to more condensation and is cold underfoot - go for a nice warm carpet!

We have solid wood flooring and a rug.

We've got varnished floorboards in the living room - the varnish is slightly glossy but not very... sorry to be vague but it was like this when we moved in so not sure exactly how they got it like that. Anyway, after 4.5 years of abuse from us they still look pretty perfect.

Cleaning is SO easy, just hoover, with the odd wet wipe when I'm feeling diligent (not very often).

Also have a rug in the middle of teh room which is lovely and comfy to sit on but needs to be hoovered at least every other day as it's v fluffy and visibly attracts crumbs and general shit like a magnet.

We have real wood, oak planks and it's great. Danish oiled, needs washing every few weeks a sweep in between. Hoover rug once a week when we do upstairs bedrooms.

It's great much better than laminate which is hard - though I know it is obviously more expensive. plus it looks knockout.

Carpets - breeding ground for mites, bugs and absorber of all horrible things. Our playroom had a carpet put in the same day as the wood went down and we are already thinking of ripping it up as it looks so grubby. Wood looks like new!

what quint said: carpet, carpet, carpet

i predict a backlash against all this hard flooring

don't like it in bedrooms or sitting rooms

thanks tutter was beginning to feel a bit lonely there!

Carpet.Carpet.Carpet.

I feckin sweep and wash this shitty laminate every fecking day - it shows every scrap of fluff...grr.

I miss my old house
I miss my carpet (sob)

Maybe we should have wood floors and its the laminate thats shit!

Yep, you're right. I have had laminate before and it's horrible compared to real solid wood. Which BTW doesn't show a thing, no fluff, no nothing LOL.

I hate carpet, bought a new one 18 mo ago, now it looks really grubby (mind you bright/darkish red is a good colour to go for, doesn't show too much) and I would have floorboards like a shot if they were still under it - sadly it's been cemented long ago.
But that means no mice which is good.

New flat has nasty 70s carpet in the living room, can't wait to investigate what's under it...though might be shocking condition of course.

Laminate is nasty, we have it in ds bedroom which is good for setting up trains etc and any spills or sick incidents, (though they have always been in my bed so far ) but it is slippy and cold. It was here when we came.

Wood every time - it ages beautifully, even when knocked and walked on and so on. Everything gets worn but wood wears it well

So there we go then wood, carpets and laminate in that order!!