Now that my 1yr has ruined my carpet due to his excessive vomitting whilst ill it's been decided that we will have wooden flooring in the lounge as well as the hall and conservatory.
We are arguing as to what direction the planks should be layed in the lounge.
The hallway leads to the lounge which is situated at the back of the house and is adjoined by the conservatory via double doors.
We agree that as we walk through the front door into hallway that the planks should be positioned vertical.
As the lounge is a rectangle shape I think the planks should be positioned horizontal and then vertical again in the conservatory -hope this makes sense !
Other half doesn't agree and wants the planks to run in the same direction as the hallway into the lounge. However in my view this would look odd as the doors to the conservatory are mainly closed and even when opened you need to step over the door frame.
Your opinions please before I request a divorce !

If you are to stick with convention, you should certainly lay the wood in the direction of the longest wall. There are good aesthetic and pleasing design reasons for this. An example is a ship: consider how odd it would look if the ship's planks went around instead of along. Or think of how a barrel looks and imagine it with hoops instead. No good. It's the same with a room - have them along the short way and the flooring would look like ribs.

I would lay them all in the same direction if the rooms are adjoining, otherwise it will look odd.

I see the logic in what johnbee says, but in my 2 late victorian houses the floorboards were laid the opposite way to what he says. In the very narrow long hallway the boards go across, not along, and in our knock-through ditto (although those rooms were originally more or less square) and look fine.

Are'nt boards placed vertically called a wall?

You are supposed to lay them so the long edge is facing the window.

Hope that makes sense.

They are supposed to be laid running towards the fireplace. This is because the joists underneath supporting the floorboards at 90 degrees would be themselves supported by the exterior wall at one end and the interior wall at the other.

TBH I'd replace the carpet with cheap stain resistant stuff!
We did the entire carpeted bit of the house in this when we moved as we have "nutritionally creative" children yoghurt for paint, biscuits for treading into carpet.
Yes, it's not the best carpet in the whole world but nothing touches it! It just dries and cleans straight off. Then when the kids are 20 and have moved I can have nice stuff!

Yes, floorboards in all our houses which had wooden floors (1900 - 1930's) have been laid across the house rather than from front to back. But you don't mention what's under your carpet. If it's already wooden (chipboard etc) the direction of the boarding will be determined by the direction of the sleeper walls underneath - if it's concrete then you've got a major problem because a wooden floor laid on top would need a step up into the room.

And bare floorboarding makes for a very noisy acoustic and is tough on childrens' knees when they fall over on it, and you'll probably end up putting a rug on it anyway.