Need some MSE-style flooring/carpet advice!

Pennywise2012

The situation - I'm moving into a flat that has no carpets, and kind of tiled floors (as opposed to floor boards) that need covering - they're not salvageable. As I have very little money and many things to buy, my plan is to get things done as cheap as chips, and then replace things over time as and when I can afford it.

Soooo, what I would like people's advice on is this. Should I just get a mega-cheap carpet and no underlay? I'd probably only want it to last a year or so. How essential is underlay in the short term?Or would I be better forgetting carpet and going with lino/stick on floor tiles?

Obviously the best option is to just live with what's there and save up for something nicer, but I don't know how long I'll be living there - if I'm only there a year, I'd hate to spend 6 months saving up, buy something fab, and then end up only getting 6 months use out of it.

I've been keeping an eye on freecycle, but floorcoverings don't seem to come up in my area. Any opinions are appreciated! :beer:

georgehere

definitely keep scouring ads for secondhand carpets - try as many sources as you can including old fashioned printed papers ... freecycle and online resources might be well used by the younger generation, flitting around from flat to flat, never with a need to buy/sell floorcoverings - but maybe not used so much by folk who have had their own home for many years and are redecorating more often [yes there are a lot of sweeping assumptions in this statement, I know]

for a short period, cheap carpet has to be the way to go - especially if you can get remnants

and ask for a discount - make the carpet shop an offer on a remnant of 50% of what they have it marked up for and see what they say

cattie

The flat I'm moving into shortly has a good quality cream carpet in the large living room, which is hiding a lovely parquet floor. Once I move in I intend to list this carpet and the underlay on Freecycle. So perhaps you can just keep your eyes peeled in the hope something near you comes up soon. .

I've heard that some people also list items they want rid of quickly on Gumtree at reasonable prices.

grizzly1911

You will get away with a cheap carpet with a felt back for the short medium term on a level floor.

Not sure of your room sizes but B&Q do some relatively cheap roll ends/pre cut sizes in a polyprop pile carpet.