Carpet vs other flooring

[thumpershere2]

I would love to put in new flooring, our old carpet is aboaut 30 years old and ugly as it can be. Now I have heard that carpet is the worse you can have and that wood flooring or any tile is alot better. Carpet is hard to keep clean, we have 2 cats, 2 dogs, enough saaid? I would rqther have scatter rugs and a wood flooring. What say all of you out there that have to clean the floors??

 

[comissaryqueen]

I recently took out all the carpeting in my house except the guestroom. I also have dogs and what a difference it made. It is so much cleaner and smells alot better. I did flooring, tile, and hardwood. I wish I did it sooner.

 

[thumpershere2]

queen, that is what I would love to do and I think i will go to town next week to price the wood flooring. I know it has to be alot easier to keep clean. I spend alot of time with the vac cleaner.I would settle to do room to room right now. I would start in living room and then dinning and then the 2 bedrooms.

 

[comissaryqueen]

Yeah I did one room at a time. Taking the old carpeting out was the hardest part.

 

[lindatooo]

I lived on hardwood floors for several years - they scratch and are not impervious to kitchen mishaps. Though I've heard Pergo is tougher. You still have to clean up the dog and cat hair. They're also hard and cold - no fun for barefeet. Area rugs need to be cleaned just like wall to wall and they sometimes slip even with the pads under them. Ceramic tile is also cold and hard and can break if something heavy drops. They vinyl tiles can be cut, scratched marred and stained. Now I have wall to wall carpet except for hardwood in the entry and vinyl tile in kitchen & baths. When it's time to replace I think we'll get the same.

 

[-DEADLY SUSHI-]

If you have allergies I would go with Pergo type flooring. Its not TOO cold. Carpets require more maintence but also deaden sound (echo) in larger rooms. If you get a carpet I highly recommend a good vaccum and a very good carpet shampooer. With so many pets I would worry about hair on the carpet along with stains. Personally, I would go with a Pergo type wood floor.

 

[Darkstream]

All my carpets are Persian, Chinese, Indian or other Islamic.

You can see the wood floor arround the edges. They do not slip if you put them on a proper felt underlay. And most of them are large enough and heavy enough not to move.

They can be removed for cleaning if you wish, but I simply vacuum clean them, and have never thought of anything else (no cats or dogs though). They have the advantage that you can take them with you when you move.

They are between 30 and 70 years old, and I reckon they have at least another 100 years wear in them (except for the Indian, which never was good quality).

Of course, they cost rather more to begin with.

This may not suit everybody, but it does have it's advantages.

.

 

[lindatooo]

Darkstream - if you could get wall to wall carpeting of that quality it would last 50 to 100 years as well! My MIL has parquet floors with rugs like you describe - they are extraordinary!

 

[mish]

I've asked myself the same quesation - only because I'm thinking about resale value. Everyone seems to want hard wood floors. I don't. Grew up with them in New York. Feels like a gymnasium to me. If I could, I would install all marble, possibly slate?

IMO, Pergo is what it is - fake. If you can, go for the real thing, if you want hard wood. Only way I'd put that stuff in, is to sell my place - since realtors seem to base the selling value on such nonsense as floors. Not for me.

 

[Zereh]

I was appalled when I pulled up the carpet in my living / dining room. I know it was older carpet (10+ years, I'd guess) but I had no idea how freakin' nasty it was. It wasn't stained nor did it stink but the amount of fine dusty dirt that was underneath of it was gross.

It doesn't matter how good of a housecleaner you are or how often you vacuum ~ carpets suck up dirt and dust and trap it.

I installed hardwood (Pergo-type stuff that didn't require gluing, interlock I think it was called). Yeah, it does require some work. But a quick sweep or a swoosh of a Swiffer and you're done. And it's clean... the dirt didn't just mush itself into the carpet and down to the padding and the under flooring. =P



Z

 

[mish]

Wanted to mention, if you have wall to wall, pull up a corner of the carpet & see what's underneath - hard wood, mold, etc.

Walk through your local home depot center. You may find ideas you'd never thought of. Shop around & compare prices.

 

[Claire]

I personally hate wall-to-wall, as easy as it is on the feet and back, when it stains it is done and I'm not a neat person and love red wine. On the other hand, it is the least expensive to replace. Almost everyone I know loves, just adores, their laminate (i.e., Pergo). I'm a bit limited here by a 150 year old house with dark pine floors, but will take the kitchen and sand it down and polyeurethane it. I've had polyeurethane wood floors before and they were wonderful. I loved the ceramic floors I had but you need to keep a few things in mind -- #1, anything that drops on them will break, and #2 if you live with hard water, the grout should NOT be white, because it will stain.

 

[thumpershere2]

Thanks for all the comments, I now have a better Idea of what i need.

 

[norgeskog]

given a choice, I would always opt for hardwood floors, and perhaps ceramic tile in kitchen. IMHO easier to care for.

 

[jpmcgrew]

I want to get rid of all my wall to wall I have two dogs and two cats the hair gets impossible to clean on .For the linolium floor in my kitchen I use a hard floor vacumn and it works great.

All you are doing when you steam clean your carpets is making mud pies underneath. If you have a smooth floor you can get somewhat inexpensive area rugs and whats neat about that you can change them out with the seasons and they are easier to clean.If you get cold feet just get some nice comfy slip on slippers.

 

[BlueCat]

I've had one house with hardwood floors and a linoleum kitchen and now have wall to wall, with Pergo in one room and Porcelain tile in the kitchen. Both houses held a couple of humans, a couple of cats and one small dog. The cat hair is worse, of course on the hard surface floors, and you can track dust and whatnot around on your cold little feetsies, which is a drag when you carry that dust or dirt onto the carpeted areas (my carpet is a very light cream color). Hardwood does scratch, and water stain, but it's very nice. To keep it nice is a bit of a pain. Maybe the newer ones are easier - mine was an older home. It took a lot of dust mopping and mopping in general, and the traffic areas did look worn easily, just like with carpet.

I have a bit of trouble with the Pergo looking filmy after washing and is it LOUD! I dropped a fork on it and everyone practically jumped out of their skin! But it doesn't scratch. You still have cat hair and dust though.

I don't think you mentioned tile, but it is also nice. Boy you had better not drop a glass or a plate though. They explode! My tile is fairly easy to clean, but it has a bit of a rough surface and I go through mop heads regularly. Linoleum (or whatever they call it now - "No Wax" I think) is icky.

Carpet is soft and quiet and warm, but you have to vacuum a lot. Of course, spills are a bigger problem than on your hard surface floors, but if you are diligent, you can keep them at bay as well. Generally, I've been happy with carpet as long as I keep it clean.

My expert opinion - get what you want to have in the house, but realize that you have to clean it OFTEN, and none of these surfaces are the easiest to clean properly.
BC