Carpet or wood flooring?

chelseablue

Can anyone advise the pros and cons of wood flooring?


Especially those with young children, I have a 14 month old and currently have carpet in the living room


Needless to say its becoming rather stained and its driving me mad!

System

The pros are no carpet burns but the con is less traction, unless you wear rubber

chelseablue

Oooooo errrrr!

PenguinOfDeath

Cons of wood flooring for your neighbours....the noise!!

HappyMJ

chelseablue wrote: »

Can anyone advise the pros and cons of wood flooring?


Especially those with young children, I have a 14 month old and currently have carpet in the living room


Needless to say its becoming rather stained and its driving me mad!

Loads of pro's and few con's.

It feels cooler in winter so you'll need a rug. Carpet is warmer on the feet.

Much much easier to keep laminate flooring clean. Don't use a wet mop or you could damage it though. A steam mop is perfect using steam to clean with little residue water it will evaporate quickly.

Laminate's a bit more expensive but can last a long time if cared for properly.

Laminate's a bit noisy but remove your shoes every time wear slippers and it'll be fine. Never ever let anyone with heels onto laminate. Residential standard (as opposed to commercial) laminate is nowhere near as strong.

SmlSave

Carpet hides at lot of dirt/crumbs that laminate shows up and is warmer.

Laminate doesn't stain and is easier to clean.

I have two kids and currently an old carpet downstairs, we get it professionally cleaned twice a year. In our old house we had laminate and as soon as we have the funds we will again.

LilElvis

Not a single square inch of carpeting in our house - all wood and polished granite. Dyson Animal and Vax steam cleaner are all we need. We would never go back to carpets as the floors are much easier to keep clean and we don't have heart failure when our daughter spills milk on the floor.

Also great fun sock sliding on the hall floor

amistupid

Oak flooring downstairs in our house, much easier to clean than carpets, which is just as well as we look after out 20 month old grandson most of the week. It's expensive to buy but worth every penny in the long run.

gentlewoman

I have engineered wood flooring, cost is less than solid wood and more than laminate. (I also use accent rugs just for decor. In my child's room I have a cotton rug just so that it doesn't feel cold when playing on the floor)

Looks fab, as the top layer is real wood. It's very easy to clean and maintain with young kids.

A good quality engineered wood flooring can be very long lasting, as it can be sanded and lacquered again. Also very easy to install (the click lock system). Noise can be reduced with good quality underlay.

JIL

I also have engineered wood and if we moved it would be the first thing we would do. I have it all through downstairs, I have a huge rug in the living room and carpet on the stairs. I then have IKEA laminate in the bedrooms with rugs.
The stairs carpet annoys me, it's always full of dust and stains easily. Its a constant reminder of why I don't want fitted carpets.

mumpig

As a cheap alternative whilst kids are young, I have vinyl flooring that looks like floorboards?
There are some very good fakes now, warmer than laminate, scrubs lovely, and looks very nice, especially with a rug or two.
Cost me £125 including fitting for the living room. I had it put on top of laminate that was getting near replacement and it looks and feels much nicer than laminate and no worries about spills and stains.