Moving In + Fitting Floors

MercilessKiller

vase wrote: »

Just live without flooring for a bit! Highly unlikely to take a long time though. I've had carpets fitted within a week, laminates a tad longer...

The issue with living without flooring is.. well, we have a lot of stuff. We'd have to move all the stuff in, then move it around like crazy every day... I guess it's doable worst comes to the worst. I didn't really know if you can live in a place without the floor coverings or whether that can cause damage etc.

adhara

Are you putting in carpets everywhere or carpet/laminate?
Surely you can leave the unpacking for a few days, and store excess (moveable) furniture in the rooms that aren't going to be floored immediately? Or even doing it on an upstairs/downstairs basis (providing you have an upstairs and not a bungalow/flat!).

Vampgirl

I know that you say you want to move in as soon as you complete, but I'd really recommend having at least a few days overlap if you can. We recently moved into a new build and fitted our own carpets - we had almost a week overlap between completion and moving day and yes it meant we paid rent/mortgage at the same time for those few days, but it was totally worth it and we avoided a lot of stress.

For us it worked like this:
- A few months before completion due we figured out exactly which carpets we wanted and who we wanted to supply/fit them
- A couple of weeks before completion our carpet guy went in to measure up
- Once we had a completion date, we booked a date for him to fit the carpets
- We booked the removals for the day after carpets were fitted

The overlap also meant that we had time to do a bit of painting and fit white goods so that once we had actually moved in, most of the work was behind us and we could relax a bit.

Errata

MercilessKiller wrote: »

The issue with living without flooring is.. well, we have a lot of stuff. We'd have to move all the stuff in, then move it around like crazy every day... I guess it's doable worst comes to the worst. I didn't really know if you can live in a place without the floor coverings or whether that can cause damage etc.

Of course it's doable. As for damage - workmen have been walking on the floors in hobnailed boots for weeks.
Concentrate on how much money you'll save by not paying for Barratt's cheap as chips but very, very overpriced carpets.

[Deleted User]

I think you will find that people who are a bit short on cash flow can and do manage without floor coverings for weeks/months while they are saving up (happened to me). Its not nice but it had to be.., I got sick of sweeping up dirt.., but we managed and the flooring did get laid eventually. You won't damage concrete or wooden floorboards if you don't have flooring down. You shouldn't need to move furniture around but twice, 1) on moving in 2) on flooring fitting - so its not going to be a constant thing (as your last post says).

I suspect that you are making this more stressful than it needs to be.

ben_m_g

We where faced with the same decision they wouldn't allow anyone else in to the property before exchange.

Threatened us that they would not be responsible for any nail pops etc as it wasn't them that fitted it.

Because I had a small child, bare floors wasn't an option, we got a half decent price but..

Personally I would wait it out and get the floor yourself.

Belindav123

We moved into a new build with no floor coverings with a 9 month old baby.

We did the laminate and the tiles ourselves room by room over a few days, and when the carpet fitters came in, we just moved furniture for them room to room.

It was hard but doable, and within 2 weeks all was fine.

We also lived without turf for 2 weeks as George Wimpy messed up the order ( we paid for them to lay turf).

When money is tight, and you can't afford 2 homes, you make do. It is worth it in the end.

Good luck.

MercilessKiller

Thanks everyone for the responses!

We'll aim for a 1 week overlap (completion + renting) and hopefully, we can get all the carpets and white goods delivered within that week as per VampGirls suggestion. That certainly sounds like the ideal solution!

If something happens and there's a delay, then we'll just have to go with it.

The biggest problem is we have a 2 month rent notice period but the completion date can be moved up to 14 days before

[Deleted User]

Hope it all goes well.

arbrighton

MercilessKiller wrote: »

The issue with living without flooring is.. well, we have a lot of stuff. We'd have to move all the stuff in, then move it around like crazy every day... I guess it's doable worst comes to the worst. I didn't really know if you can live in a place without the floor coverings or whether that can cause damage etc.

We're not in a new build but currently just finishing off an extension and despite doubts from builders, we've lived in throughout. We've lived with no floors in the new kitchen for a couple of weeks while trying to schedule things. Dust has been crazy. We've also taken up carpet in the hall for reasons I can't currently remember.
Flooring is being fitted downstairs throughout this week (we haven't really sorted what we want upstairs yet and I'd like to decorate again without having to avoid new carpets). We're having vinyl fitted. The extension is being done first then all the furniture from the existing will all shift into there and they'll do this part, with lumps and bumps to try and sort out.