Domestic Floor Covering

Thinking of ditching the lounge, dining room and hall carpets and having Amtico tiles laid instead. Anyone had experience please?

Re: Domestic Floor Covering

Sorry Dobra, call me old fashioned if you like, but if I had my own way I would have carpets throughout the whole house [except kitchen and bathroom] there is nothing like scrunching your toes into a nice thick pile. The acoustics of a room are certainly a lot better with carpets. Not to mention the room being warmer.

Mrs Fox decided to take up the carpet in the hall and replace it with vinyl tiles. I went along with her thinking it would be a good idea. Three months in, and I hate the sound they make as I clump from one room to the next. It's like walking down the corridor of a hospital. Although I wouldn't tell Mrs Fox she has made a mistake, I've managed to talk her out of replacing the carpet in the bedrooms, which would have been her next project.......

Parkay and Laminate floors look marvellous in glossy magazines, but totally unpractical in a house.

Re: Domestic Floor Covering

Can be very cold.

Are your floors wood or concrete?

Re: Domestic Floor Covering

Yep you will need underfloor heating, we have carpet upstairs, wood floors in the dining and living rooms along with the hall and tiles in the kitchen, which are cold..should have had underfloor heating when they were laid..a mistake.

Re: Domestic Floor Covering

You may vacuum your little hearts out but the fact is that carpets house all manner of bugs and debris - particularly (shock horror) if one has pets.

Not good for those with allergies or any type of breathing problem - let alone the bacteria that breed there.

Re: Domestic Floor Covering

Good for scrunching your toes into though Pummie, and the UK doesn't have as much insect life as Australia. nothing much survives in our carpets after Mrs Fox has been let lose with her vacuum cleaner. Perhaps in a warmer climate like Aus hard flooring would be more suitable.

Re: Domestic Floor Covering

Sorry no experience council banned hard flooring except in kitchens and bathrooms here, very sensible in flats IMO

Re: Domestic Floor Covering

Personally I'm not over keen on Amtico. It is difficult to lay and expensive. If it were me I would probably go for a good quality oak flooring instead

Re: Domestic Floor Covering

Thanks fr all your comments folks, I will now have to have a formal interview with Mrs Dobra (she who must be listened to MOST carefully) to present my findings. Looks like copies of the D Telegraph on the floor to match the window coverings......

Re: Domestic Floor Covering

If we lived in the Mediterranean I might consider hard floors throughout but in a cold English winter I love a wool carpet

A lot of modern carpets are 'scrubbable', my son has one that has had every body fluid known to man on it after three babies and a puppy and it scrubbed up like new