Carpets, scotchguard, asthma and woodfloors...

[willow2]

Now that scintillating headline has got your attention, here's the problem. We need new carpets - stairs; hallway and three bedrooms. Thought I had finally found a carpet I liked, brought samples home, showed them to dh who promptly sneezed the house down. He is asthmatic and the carpet I like is scotchguarded at the factory. I thought scotchguard would be a good idea, what with being the proud mother of a 4 year old boy, but is it a real no no as far as your health goes? We have carpets down - albeit old ones - that don't seem to set him off, but am now paranoid that we will pay all that money on carpet only for him to get ill.

I know another option is to have woodflooring put down, at least in the bedrooms. Does anyone know anyone in the SW London area who does a good job and doesn't cost an arm and a leg?

Cheers.

In a way I love my wood floors but in others I hate them. Before you have them done think about the following

1. Noise carries. footsteps on stairs= baby elephants. noise also carries upstairs if you have wooden floors in bedrooms.
2. Heat- since putting carpet down in dd's room, bathroom and hall the house is much warmer.
3. You'll still need rugs.
4. Shows up all the dust- but at least you know you're getting it I spose when you hoover/mop.

I know they're easier to keep clean and more hypoallergenic (sp?) but do think carefully before having them. Sorry to be a prophet of doom

There was something in the news a while back about scotchguarding being bad for one's health, but I can't for the life of me remember if was to do with asthma or not. Maybe you could Google it and see what comes up.

We have laminate flooring in most of downstairs and I don't find it any noisier than carpet when laid on top of floorboards (and if laid on solid floor it isn't noisy at all).

Also laminate/wood shows dirt, and is easily cleaned, as LMMC says. Our carpets used to get disgustingly grubby, especially in the hall, and we were stuck with that - the laminate replacement often looks dirty (esp with this month's rain) but it's easily mopped.

Stairs do need to be carpeted though really. For an asthmatic you probably should get artificial fibre but exactly what I don't know.

If we go for wood floors it will be on top of existing boards, not just sanding the existing ones. Would that still cause a noise problem?

We have laminate (not wood) on top of boards - with the foam underlay stuff in between it seems quieter than carpet if anything - that's downstairs.

Haven't got anything except carpet upstairs, but foambacked carpet on boards is bloody noisy - laminate/wood couldn't be worse!

Thanks girlies - janh, if I end up copying you it will be the second time this year. (Are you going back to Lefkas next year? We are definitely considering it!)

I've never been to Lefkas, willow - sadly - must have been another jan!

If you do go for wooden floors I would suggest you seal them though. Our house has unsealed wooden floor (treated in some way but not sealed - now why the previous owner didn't seal them is beyond me...) and my dd got hold of a pen yesterday and "decorated" my sofas and floor. I managed to rescue the sofas, but there is no way I can get the ink off the wood without sanding!!!
Don't think you would have that problem with laminate though.

Sorry Jan, thinking of janinlondon.. i think!