Is carpeting passe?

[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.

 

[sudsmaster]

I'm probably biased, but I dislike wall to wall carpeting.

It looks great for year or two, but then starts to deteriorate and harbor dust and odors. With dogs, maybe faster.

I recently re-did my master bedroom in natural maple-look laminate, and I couldn't be happier. It is NOT cold in the winter - having lots of insulation under the floor in the crawl helps, as well as the foam underlayment just beneath the laminate. Cleaning it is a breeze, as well.

I don't quite get your aversion to having the natural wood running in one direction and the laminate running in another direction. Ever heard of parquet? It's all about contrast. I think it would fine to have laminate running counter to the hardwood. I wouldn't expect to get an exact match between the two, but rather look for something that harmonizes well with the existing flooring. A lighter (natural) look laminate might work, as well as a darker (like stained hickory) might be good as well. I'd look for laminate with the broad plank look - so it won't even try to look like strip flooring.

Just my opinion.

 

[maytagbear]

It depends on the application.

In an individual residence, it's between one's aesthetic and one's funds.

In a shared residence,.....oh, don't get me started. The apartment upstairs has NO carpeting, and I hear the 75 pound hound from hell galumphing around on the wood floors, I hear the couple upstairs fighting all the time....it would be SO much better if there were carpets, or decent area rugs.....

I dream of hardwood floors and big area rugs. Some Orientals, some plain old Karastans.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[bugsyjones]

Carpet

I detest hard surface and hardwood flooring. Be it maintenance or looks, I don't like it.

I love me some wall to wall. In EVERY ROOM except the kitchen and bath. Those are the only spaces that should be hard surface. And tile should be the surface of choice. I think hardwood floors only look good in turn-of-the-(20th)century houses and similar.

I hate the trend that todays remodeling is leaning towards: Hardwood floors, granite countertops, and stainless steel appliances. It all looks too sterile to me.

My current home came with your standard boring beige cut pile carpet. I like carpet, but this carpet is terrible. Low quality means it's wearing out in spots. The front room carpet needs replacing all together. It gets the highest traffic.

I would love to re-do the whole house in light blue or light green shag carpet, but you know.....$$$

~Tim

 

[alr2903]

Our hardwood flooring all runs north to south except the masterbedroom that is laid east to west, the house was built in 1953. We had all of them professionally sanded, nutmeg stain and a double coat of polyurethane. A quick vacuum and a damp mop, you are good to go. A couple of 5x8 rugs and a long runner for your hallway are nice in the winter. Dont toss your hoover spinscrub if you have one, it works great on the ceramic tile in the kitchen/ bath. alr2903

 

[sudsmaster]

Well, I live in a single story detached hybrid bungalow-ranch (with crawl) and so the "noise" of hardwood floor isn't an issue. So far the spiders below haven't complained ;-).

Also, practically all the shoes I wear are rubber soled, so they don't make much noise on hard flooring anyway. My cat makes more noise - she's a polydactyl, and the extra toes (kind of like "thumbs" have claws that don't retract and clatter on the hard flooring. Tick tick tick tick as she walks around the bedroom when I'm trying to get to sleep, lol.

 

[toggleswitch2]

~it would be SO much better if there were carpets, or decent area rugs.....

Ah you got you modem/router L/mb GREAT!

Is this not required in their lease? If not one would have a great interest in asking the landlord to put it in the NEXT lease as well as no dogs or say, animals over 15 lbs.

 

[petek]

I know you've all been waiting with baited breath. I'm going with the laminate and having the small foyer/hall area hardwood removed as well to give it a continuous look. Got a good deal on the install by a carpenter friend of my neighbors