Which is best carpet - what price should we pay?

mrsbez_2

Hi all,

need some advice. We are looking to replace the carpet in our living room and i would like a nice quality carpet, one that i can clean easily and will cope with children!!

Can anyone tell me how much i should expect to pay, and what is the best type of carpet to go for.

Thanks

tawnyowls

See my answer on the other thread:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=299875

With children, though, would you consider other types of flooring? Even the most hardwearing of carpets will generally knuckle under the abuse kids can give it - spilt drinks/food; pee, poo & vomit; mud (and worse) walked in from outside, etc. A hard floorcovering might be more practical and hygienic.

Cat72

I would agree with tawny about laminate , however if you dont want laminate the next best thing is a manmade heavily stainfree carpet. Although a lot of carpets have scothguard etc their is one range ( the names changes in some shops ) whic you can spill coke on and it just lies on top- it is generally called Stainfree twist, stainaway twist ( top twist in one shop). When you look at the label it has a picture of a carpet wwith crayons etc on it .It is very hardwearing and they offer a money back guarantee if you cant get stains out of if it fades ( about 7- 10 years ).It varies in price but as a guide about £15 a sq metre.Avoid wool carpets if you have kids as to get a good hardwearing one you are talking about £40 sq metre and there is a lot of cheap ruubish , which although they are 80/20 -as one rep says you could spit through them ! You would need about a 50 ounce weight in a wool carpet to be any good - but personaly with kids the stainfree is great.
The other thing is your underlay- NEVER buy underlay from a big carpet shop- they massively over charge .Instead buy 100lb weight ( dont buy less for hard wear ) yourself either from local trade suppliers or local sources. This should only cost about £30- £40 for a 15sq metre bag .

johnlincoln

i got a carpet bargin the other week. i wanted a light coloured plain carpet for my hall, stairs and landing. the carpet i was replacing was not old, just not my taste so the underlay was ok.
i found a place in lincoln (cut price carpets) who sold one to me for £36 with the same price for fitting! and it was bought and fitted within a week! brilliant.
its reasonably hard wearing, but at that price i dont mind replacing it more often - when fashions and my tastes change!

tawnyowls

Cat72 wrote:

Although a lot of carpets have scothguard etc their is one range ( the names changes in some shops ) whic you can spill coke on and it just lies on top- it is generally called Stainfree twist, stainaway twist ( top twist in one shop). When you look at the label it has a picture of a carpet wwith crayons etc on it .It is very hardwearing and they offer a money back guarantee if you cant get stains out of if it fades ( about 7- 10 years ).

Agreed. Flotex can be useful in these situations as well, as can contract grade gel-backed carpets (the sort they use in nursing homes).

startrekker

Polypropelene is the magic fibre to look for. Its bleach cleanable. Get a nice heavyweight one where the pile is close together which will dictate the wear and durability

poppyolivia

I'm planning doing the same for my living room but have decided to make the playroom into a family room so the living room shouldn't be too hard to keep clean...yeah right who am I trying to kid?!! I have a 6 year old and an 18 month old!!!
I thought a waffle/hardwearing one would be nice in chocolate. You can get quite a few nice looking ones out of the catalogue and they deliver free.

Cat72

I would honestly avoid chocolate as you would need to hoover it everyday- you see every fleck of dust etc, very dark colurs are a nightmare. You are looking for something more a mid colour. The waffle effect ones are also not the hardest wearing, some of the polypropene ones wear very quickily.
If you pop into a local store or a carpetright they will have the stainfree twist I was telling you about and it comes in a huge range of colours- and flecks.
If there is one in your catalagoue that you are considering buying post the details on here .

donmaico

I would always buy polypropylene contract carpet as its reasonably hard wearing and resist stains ok. Also at £6 -7 a sq mtr its cheap to replace some dont even requite underlay although i always use it,My last one was a mid brown berber style I put down in a house I let.

hazybubbles

We have just got new carpets and spent ages looking around. In the end went with carpet right as there was a sale on. Got polypropelene one you can bleach at £7.99 a metre. Think its called Thames twist.

wallbash

Stop posting .This thread is four years old . SPAM button to be used.