Is carpeting passe?

[ronhic]

I agree with Nathan...

....carpet here is still big business....and the colder the location, the more of a house people tend to have carpeted.

It is much warmer underfoot when cold outside than anything else unless you have underfloor heating or retro fit it....

Carpet also acts as a sound absorber....so your home will suddenly go from 'quiet' to 'echoy and noisy'....least that is my experience.

In my experience it also pays to buy the best quality carpet AND good underlay. In fact, if you have to skimp somewhere, skimp on the carpet and buy the absolute BEST underlay you can.

The carpet in our house is showing signs of wear (shadows rather than threadbare) infront of doors and some passage areas, but nothing like you would expect 30yr old carpet to do...we recently had it restretched and the chap who did it has been a carpet layer for over 30yrs. He commented that 'this was very expensive carpet when new and they have used the best underlay you could get which is why it has lasted so well'...when I asked how expensive exactly....he felt that it would cost upwards of AUD$500 per lineal metre today...

....it is wool and we still get fluff off it when we vacuum...and it isn't going anywhere when you think we would need nearly 80L/metres to redo the whole house.....

 

[vacbear58]

And my twopence worth

Pete

Here in the UK laminate is also popular in living areas at least. It can be cheap to buy, is fairly simple to install and is hardwearing.

There are several considerations, some of which are mentioned above, such as allergies & pets, although we seemed to manage with both here for many years. But there are some other points:

Do you own your home? If not then the lowest cost option may be appropriate given that you may be obliged to move on and leave it behind at some point.

Is it a light room or dark? If light then the options are many but if quite dark (like my living room) then, in order to mazimise natural light, you may go for a light coloured flooring of whatever kind.

Is there a "traffic" pathway through your living room from one part of the house to the other. If so then laminate or hardwood may be the best option as it will be much easier to keep clean, even with the variety of efficient carpet shampooers there are these days.

Is it more of a day or evening room. If evening then you may choose carpet for a cosier feeling, where it may not be so important.

Or be like me and have both, laminate with an area rug in the seating area. I have the problem that I have a fairly small and dark living room that has the main traffic flow through it, so mine is laminated. Athough the laminate is light to mid brown I still think it makes the room a bit dark. The area rug is plain, in a mid yellow colour. I have no pets or breathing allergies so if I could, after 15 yrs or so of laminate, I would have carpet as I use the room mostly at night (I am at work during the day) as it is cosier. When the carpet gets grubby or spotted my shampooer brings it up like new with little effort. And if you collect upright vacuums, is is an oppertunity to use them more, one which I rather miss.

Al

 

[vacbear58]

By the way ...

The layout with the four stairs sounds lovely, I wish I could have a set up like that
Al

 

[petek]

Decisions decisions

Thanks for all those comments...I hit a couple of flooring stores this afternoon and the selection is mind-boggling in carpet. I asked the salelady which one they had would be the absolute most stain resistant (having two severely shedding black dogs) and she pointed me to a line by Krause (never heard of b4) which is guaranteed to be stain REPELLENT for 10 years, not resistant, repellant. It's 20% nylon and 80 something new. Installed with a really top underlay for $4.29 sq ft (about $4 US) give or take.
So off I go to store #2, not a disco carpet store either. I mention about getting one 100% stain repellant and he says there no such thing. I said nothing about the brand at the other store since #2 didn't sell Kraus.
Anyways he showed me another stain resistant (not repellant) one which unlike the Krause comes in 15 foot widths meaning I'd have no seams at all.

I'm sort of leaning towards the carpet because now for about the same price as just having laminate installed I could do the stairway up to the bedrooms and that hallway up there as well because it's starting to look dowdy now as well and shows all the dog hair ..

Our kitchen and diningroom are 12" white porcelain I think tiles, very cold I find and the family room, laundry room is 12 inch ceramic. Two bedrooms upstairs are the original 1958 hardwood and the 3rd bedroom is carpet. The basement rek room is a beige berber and Pip did a number or two on their when he was a pup and I've tried everything imagineable and while most probably woulnd't notice I see it.. Same with the beige wall to wall in the living room..

 

[petek]

Btw here is why I really really need to replace the carpet.. Pip damage. He did this when he was younger so I hope he's over that stage.. LOL
I've been covering it with a chair until such time as he's over it.
The other problem with this carpet is that it shows every black hair that falls off them and it falls off them in clumps. Even I can't keep up with the vacuuming and how many vacuums are in this house

 

[petek]

Sorry Ben,, cork would just get damaged with these dogs and their claws.

Here's looking from the living room over to the "hallway" at the top of the 4 stairs from the front door.. You can see the ceramic tile down there. All this would have to come up if I want to go laminate in the livingroom, or have two completely different types of "wood" floor look which I don't want.

 

[petek]

Looking in from that hallway into the livingroom.. too much beige. If I do go with the carpet I think I'm going to go somewhat darker to hide that hair. You can see too where Pip did a little chewing along the transition of the hardwood to carpet.

The other thing is that all that furniture and antique stuff, other than my organ is outta here as well as the wedding cake fireplace mantle. I really want to get it more contemporary modern

 

[whirlcool]

If you have a room with "noisy" hard surface flooring, just pick out a 36x46" piece of fabric and mount it on a frame and hang it on a wall in the noisy room. It greatly reduces the echo. You can find fabric with a pleasing design at any fabric store.
We did this in our last house that had flagstone flooring in the den. It greatly quieted the room down. Made it much less echoy.

 

[circlew]

Pete, have you thought about Linoleum? The real stuff, not vinyl. I'm planning on putting it in my bedroom, as well as the kitchen. It comes in a multitude of colors (Armstrong alone has about 100), mostly marbelized, so wouldn't show dirt easily. Not sure how it would do with the dog claws, but it's durable as it's often used in school and hospitals.

I'm not going to have much carpet in my house when it's done. The living room, hall and stairs to basement will be it. Don't want anything but area rug in bedroom because of allergies. Dining room and other bedroom have hardwood, that will get refinished. Baths probably ceramic tile. Carpet sure does come in a lot of choices; what they show at Home Depot and such is just the tip of the iceberg. The carpet store I went to the other day has shelves of sample binders, 6' high and a total of about 40' long. I probably looked through 50 or 60 of them, so there's something for everyone. I even saw solid black carpet; imagine trying to keep lint off that!

 

[58limited]

Personally, I couldn't get rid of my carpet fast enough. All rooms have refinished red oak hardwood, but the living room has a 12' X 10' shag area rug. Although I vacuum periodically, every two years I take it outside and have a professional company steam clean it.

I have numerous pets so I bought a Roomba robot vacuum. It really helps to keep the hair cleaned up without much effort from me.

I would choose whichever flooring, or combination of floorings, appeals to you - regardless of whether it is passe' After all, you have to live there. My house looks great with wood, the floors can be a little cold in the winter, but I live in a warm area unlike many members here. Also, I use slippers.

As far as the direction of the foyer wood, I've seen plenty of homes that change direction from the foyer/entry to the main room and it looks fine. You can find a transition to go between them if necessary.

If you decide to go with real wood, do they have Lumber Liquidators in Canada? This is a flooring store chain that sells hardwood flooring at discount prices. You might be surprised at how cheaply you can have nice hardwood floors if you are willing to do it yourself (although I will ALWAYS hire a professional to sand and poly the floors. I tried once and gouged them. The cost in my area is $2.50-$3.50/sq. ft.).

 

[dblrinz]

Am I the only person that vacuums my hardwoods?

I see a lot of posts regarding how it is simply easier to vacuum carpeting rather than mopping, sweeping and what-not. Well, I have a house full of hardwood flooring that get vacuumed regularly(probably not regularly enough) with the bare floor attachment on my Meile(I have the horse hair wood floor attachment) or Electrolux(aerus)...I find that this keeps them pretty darn clean - When I do wash them which is not nearly enough most areas are not that dirty. Also, our floors are 112 years old, haven't been resurfaced in nearly 20 years and though they don't look like they are newly finished they don't look bad except for a few spots that I could touch up if I were just a little more bothered by it. All-in-all, I find hardwoods easy to care for. The use of rugs can soften and warm any room. We have gotten all, but one of our rugs very reasonably at estate sales, Pottery Barn (not the best of the group, but looks nice),Lowes (a remarkably sturdy rug), or even Marshalls(Though I will admit this was a fluke to find a wool runner rug for my hall in the mix of some very cheaply made rugs)

So I vote for real hardwoods with a really cool canister vac.

 

[spankomatic]

My sister has a black lab and a black GREAT Dane. She went with brown carpet in the Tahoe house.

 

[spankomatic]

For safety I always think it is a good idea to carpet stairs....

 

[petek]

What a nice stairway there... Are those bird cages on the wall? They look somewhat like antique show bird cages used at bird show competitions.

 

[petek]

I vacuum the tiled areas continually in the battle. I use my trusty Cdn model 60's Electrolux 89.It has the absolute best designed floor tool for masses of dog hair, no brush to catch hair on..just a long slot and wheels so it rolls over hard floors easily and sucks up all the hair.

 

[spankomatic]

Bird Cages....

They are actually Elephant bells from Africa.

 

[petek]

geesh I couldn't have been more far off if I'd tried LOL Maybe I should be wearing my glasses reading on here

 

[mixfinder]

Multiplicity

We use a brand of carpeting called Fast Tracks in the 303 apartment buildings my company manages. It is a frieze which doesn't show walk patterns and is soil resistant. My sister did laminates about 10 years ago and they are simply wearing out, losing surface colors, shrinking, some are concave and the area were the cat's water dish sits has curled. In a recent remodel they used Marmolium planks that lock together for the bathrooms and a similar technology for flooring that looks like weathered barn wood but clicks together in large pieces for their bedroom. Any solid surface flooring is more expensive than carpet.

 

[aeoliandave]

Well Pete, is sure sounds like carpet is the sensible way to go. I, of course, will be most pleased when I visit, what with my sensitive little Pisces feet thing that makes trodding across hard floors barefoot and even in double socks an exercise in pain management.

And carpet those nasty crippling stairs to the basement, too!

Seriously though, a vacuum collector needs a long broadloom runway for proper demonstration and you know your own footsies will be ever so much happier on warm soft floors through our harsh & trying four seasons. Keep the upstairs hardwood and use the $ you save for the best & plushest wall to wall the budget can stand - the kind you want to roll around naked on.

That's what I intended to carpet my upstairs back bedroom studio with 10 years ago but the budget wouldn't permit, so it's Craftmen carpets over a green plywood floor. Now I have various large curbside rescue carpet remnants covering the 30' x 30' Attic Vacuum Lounge, each of which suits a particular vacuum style era.
Downstairs is the same yucky bol rubber back nylon carpet the house came with. I considered hardwood laminate for the sake of the pianos but for all the good reasons listed in this thread I know no-pile industrial as used in public buildings and our Theatre are the way to go; for the kitchen I must have seamless battleship or new retro pattern linoleum/congoleum (like this lovely stuff I found under the scrambled egg & ketchup carpet that covered the whole kitchen floor, and bathroom, wall to wall) for playing with floor washers.

Some day...

Dave

 

[circlew]

Modular carpet is another option you may wish to consider, especially since you have indoor pets. Many broadloom patterns are also available in this form. Each piece is 24"x24", so if the animal (or human) has an accident, that piece can be pulled up and replaced. Most of the carpets are loop type, which is very durable under heavy traffic, and many patterns are multi-colored, which won't show dirt easily. The disadvantage is no padding.