I need something like carpet squares or a thick rug to put on a hard floor for babies

[FanjoandZooey]

I want to basically extend the usable area of a carpeted room in a church hall, into a larger, hard floored area, for young babies and their parents to sit on, so I need some sort of floor covering. I am sure there is something that would easily do the trick but am mentally drawing a blank. What can I get?

Ikea what, though? Or are you just suggesting I get a small branch of Ikea and put it on the floor for my babies to sit on?

At our parent and toddler group we use large duvets with covers on to sit on. Covers easily removed for washing.

Mimi that is a great idea, but you know those are not cheap and I would have to buy tons to cover the space I am thinking about. Unless anyone knows a really cheap place to get them. I want to cover an area roughly 10 foot square, or something like that ( am guessing)

Sparkler ditto on price. These are great ideas though ladies.

Go to hundreds of Allied Carpet branches and pick up as many carpet samples as you can then sew them all together?

Are they big, Malory? And (more importantly) are they cheap?

You could pick up a carpet off-cut quite cheaply -if you're really lucky you might even get one for less/free if you explain what its for and are not fussy over colour/pattern. Surely carpet shops must have stuff they can't get rid of?

Oh

just get a roll of carpet? and roll it up?

Hmmmmmmmm

would that work? (don't know why not, it just seems so totally simple)

Another thought -put a wanted ad on your local Freecycle for carpet/rugs etc and mention the reason/cause

Would a 10 foot piece of carpet be heavy? Would I be able to lift it / drag it for storage? Pls bear in mind am puny wretch despite trick arm photography of late...

Good idea Betty, am actually for profit business not charity though, so no reason not to pay for one

(am just not making very much profit hence plea for cheapness )

We use carpet rolls for our P&T group locally - we have 3 separate rolls (useful for putting under crash mats to stop them slipping away from indoor play equipment too). They are quite heavy when rolled, but one person can pick up one end and drag them to a cupboard fairly easy. Do you have the storage space?

(rough guesstimate - our rolls of carpet are about 3m x 3m - but wouldn't be able to confirm that until September)

At the singing class we go to we sit on those fish rugs from ikea. At home we have yoga mats on the laminate for extensive floor play so I can roll them up and put them away. They are about a fiver in boots just now.

Yep, I have the space, just don't usually have any help setting up / packing up so ideally would need to be able to drag it out myself. So (sorry for being utterly thick but have never bought carpet along with million other grown up things) I just go to a carpet shop and say "please can I have 10 foot of cheap carpet" and they will bring me a big roll of something I can use - will it have a backing on it or do I buy that separately? Do they deliver or do I have to get a car?

Mrs Apron I thought about those round bathmats that are £3 each, but as well as music time, we do a big heuristic play session and the babies are encouraged to crawl around everywhere, so I need a big mat as well as little ones.

I have no idea - go into the carpet shop and ask - can't hurt. I don't think ours have any backing on at all... just plain carpet. Not sure how we got them though (I think one was an offcut when someone had new carpets put down and the other two were donated from other sources)

Lidl have these coming soon.
Bit small I guess?

A lot of carpet places have off-cuts and end of rolls at reduced prices -they are usually marked up with the size and price on (tend to be small room size pieces).

Alternatively you can ask for x amount of carpet from one of the huge rolls they have but obviously you are limited by the width of the roll IYSWIM.

When I bought an offcut for a room they gave me the option of folding or rolling it and put it in the car for me.