Laying carpet onto wood flooring - help?

Gayle1983

My partner and I have real wood flooring in the living room of our house. This had been put down by the previous owners. We want to put carpet down to try and make the room a little warmer.

Is it possible to have our new underlay and carpet laid directly onto the wooden flooring or should we lift it first? And if the advice is to lift it then how do we go about doing this as I can't see an easy way of getting it up off the original floorboards?

Also does anyone have any experience of negotiating with small independent carpet shops. We've been keen to avoid carpetright and use a local independent carpet shop. The carpet we like is £25.99 per square meter. We've found the same one online for £21.42 and even including delivery the online carpet works out at almost £120 cheaper. Do these sort of shops expect people to negotiate? I don't want to embarass myself or them by asking if they can lower their price a little.

olias

I would think long and hard before doing this. Could you not consider warming the room up by buying a few good rugs? You can buy huge ones that will almost cover the whole room.

The reason I ask is that real wood floors are very expensive and very desirable to buyers when you come to sell. They can be ruined by laying carpet on them by fitters nailing gripper rod all over them and also the underlay can stick to and mark the wood.

For the money it sounds like you are planning to spend I would definately go for a huge rug (or several). You can also take them with you when you move!

Olias

Gayle1983

olias wrote: »

I would think long and hard before doing this. Could you not consider warming the room up by buying a few good rugs? You can buy huge ones that will almost cover the whole room.

The reason I ask is that real wood floors are very expensive and very desirable to buyers when you come to sell. They can be ruined by laying carpet on them by fitters nailing gripper rod all over them and also the underlay can stick to and mark the wood.

For the money it sounds like you are planning to spend I would definately go for a huge rug (or several). You can also take them with you when you move!

Olias

We have thought about this a lot since we bought the house just over a year ago. This is hopefully going to be our forever home that we stay in for many years to come and we both want a nice carpet to make the room really cosy. I know what you mean about wooden floors being desirable to buyers but at the moment we don't have any intention of selling up any time soon. I don't think rugs will give us the desire effect as we already have a couple down and they don't really make much difference.

phill99

I think you are going about this the wrong way. Timber is a natural insulator in its own right. If you are looking to improve the warmth of the room, then there are probably other and better ways than worrying about carpeting over a wooden floor. For instance, is the radiator the right size for the room? Is it behind furniture so not emitting all its heat? Are the windows draught proofed / double glazed. Could your boiler do with a service?

If you can get it cheaper on the web, then do so and just geta local independent carpet fitter to fit it for you and get him to supply underlay and grippers.

If you want carpet because you prefer it to wooden flooring, then thats a different matter. If you just prefer carpet, then go for it.