Go local! We got by far the best price and a great fitting service for the whole of our upstairs (4 large bedrooms and big two-level landing) for just under £800 - and that was with a GOOD underlay; pretty important!
Go local - it should work out cheaper. The local guys don't have the buying power of the big stores but they don't have the same high overhead either. Buy the best quality underlay you can afford - it'll pay dividends with a longer lifetime. 80/20 wool/nylon mix will last longer than 100% wool.
You are never alone with a spilt personality - Spike Milligna (the late, great typographical error).
Do reconsider, Becci, nylon feels really nasty with bare feet and it creates a lot of static, you can get really nasty electric shocks with nylon carpet. Ours is 80/20 and we've never had any problem with moths.
I'm another "go local" vote. We've done our whole house from the local "back street" independent guys - always cheaper and "cheerier" than the big boys. The only carpet we got from a chain outlet was the hall and they fitted it the wrong way round - who would fit a "ribbed" carpet "widthways" down a hall???!!! Needless to say, it was replaced and fitted correctly after I telephoned the manager and "informed" him (politely ) about the error!!
I'd second what Percy says - which ever price bracket of carpet you go for, make sure you get a good underlay. I was recently (mis?)sold a cheaper underlay to go with a mid range carpet and wish I could go back and change it A decent underlay makes the carpet fell much 'bouncier' and also deadens a lot of noise.
Originally posted by Shoequeen: Do reconsider, Becci, nylon feels really nasty with bare feet and it creates a lot of static, you can get really nasty electric shocks with nylon carpet. Ours is 80/20 and we've never had any problem with moths.
I was about to post the same thing SQ. I had a nylon carpet (fitted by the developer) throughout in my last flat and it was absolutely horrid under bare feet. Didn't wear well either.
You could have a look at carpet right carpet right Extra 10% off with a voucher printed from the web. web discount To be fair I've seen much more expensive carpets that are worse. Just make sure you have decent underlay (what ever carpet you are buy) If you need new under lay source it from elsewhere as underlay seems to be where carpet right make their profits.
Why bother with a carpet at all? They collect dirt and odours and date very quickly. Far better to go with wooden flooring. It looks super and cleans up a treat and should remain in fashion for decades.
Originally posted by avro: Why bother with a carpet at all? They collect dirt and odours and date very quickly. Far better to go with wooden flooring. It looks super and cleans up a treat and should remain in fashion for decades.
Shouldn't you say until fashion changes. Wooden parquet floors were all the rage 40 years ago until fashion changed.
Wooden floors are cold, create a lot of noise - particularly if you live in an upstairs flat (so you'd have to walk on that nice cold surface with bare feet so as not to annoy the people downstairs).
quote: Originally posted by avro: Why bother with a carpet at all? They collect dirt and odours and date very quickly. Far better to go with wooden flooring. It looks super and cleans up a treat and should remain in fashion for decades.
Shouldn't you say until fashion changes. Wooden parquet floors were all the rage 40 years ago until fashion changed.
Wooden floors are cold, create a lot of noise - particularly if you live in an upstairs flat (so you'd have to walk on that nice cold surface with bare feet so as not to annoy the people downstairs).
and I'd add that although in theory they are cleaner/less dust etc in practice most people don't clean them as often as they would a carpet becasue it's harder to get a mop/brush out than it is to wizz the vac around.
I have a relative who ripped all the carpets out to stop his son's 'allergy' but now complains that the bedsheets get dirty off his kid's feet Oddly I never have this problem with my carpet - so much for less dirt and dust!
To reduce dust/dirt on a carpet take your shoes off at the door.
and I'd add that although in theory they are cleaner/less dust etc in practice most people don't clean them as often as they would a carpet becasue it's harder to get a mop/brush out than it is to wizz the vac around.
I have a mixture of wooden floors and carpet, and I find the opposite - much easier to go round with the 'dust and go mop' on the wooden floors, than to get the hoover out. And you can see little balls of fluff drifting around on hard floors much quicker than you do on carpet - with carpet it just sinks in and sits there. I definitely find wood floors more hygienic than carpet - but as others have said, noisier and not as cosy (hence the mixture!)
I think a mix isn't a bad idea at all and rugs are good on wooden floors too. If the place is properly built there should not be much in the way of noise and wooden floors are relatively easy to keep clean. You do have clean them from time to time though. Try turning the heating on and you will not find them cold :-).
Socks and slippers should keep feet clean.
As far as fashion goes wooden floors are here to stay. They have beenn 'in style' for about 200 years in Scandanavia, Canada and the US. The English fascination with carpet I think is due to some pretty terrible heating systems.
A warm fire, nice rug and wooden floor is my idea of cosy!
I think a mix isn't a bad idea at all and rugs are good on wooden floors too. If the place is properly built there should not be much in the way of noise and wooden floors are relatively easy to keep clean. You do have clean them from time to time though. Try turning the heating on and you will not find them cold :-).
If you saw my heating bills you'd know there was no need to make that suggestion I recall you live in a delightful 18C cottage which has oak boards and doubtless thick stone walls. I live in a late Victorian terrace with gappy pine floorboards - so, yes, noisy and breezy! Rugs can be a good compromise (and look good), but if they are over a certain size, a similar 'hygiene' issue arises as with carpets.
quote:
The English fascination with carpet I think is due to some pretty terrible heating systems.
You're absolutely right - I believe CH became popular here rather later than in some other countries, so it is easy to see why people in the 1960s/70s loved their fitted carpets. My childhood was spent huddled round sulky gas fires which barely defrosted the ice on the windows...
A friend of mine is a flooring fitter and he says go to carpet right to buy. Fortunately I have him to fit it and the nature of that is that everyone else is rubbish at fitting
My cottage has 17 in thick stonewalls but pine floorboards and the holes in between them are considerable (I will replace them with better boards eventually) but although we will move back there some day over the last few years (due to work) we have been living in an exRAf married quarter in Wiltshire (circa 1935) and now in an exRAf (circa 1951) married quarter in Germany.
Hardwood floors are nice though and I we had them when we lived in Canada.
As for heating, this (recently renovated) German house is super and draught free. They use something called insulation too .
BTW I have noticed the very English custom of turning heating up and down, on and off. I think there is a belief that this saves on heating costs but I think it actually puts them up. The army estimates how much it would cost to heat a 4 bedroom house and charges us accordingly. Most of my neighbours (who turn their heating on and off, up and down) have to pay over the charge. We leave our heat at a constant 21 and we get a 25% refund each year.
I think this on/off business is a bit like driving on the M1 and adjusting your speed from 30 to 70 and down again over the course of a trip to Yorkshire, by the time you got to Leeds you would have spent a lot more on fuel then someone driving at a constant speed.
For reasons of safety Volvo cars always had their lights on but the English obsessionn with turning things off made them change the cars for England - so the lights could be shut off when the engine was on.
I was unfamiliar with the on/off heating custom when I first move here 23 years ago. I was visiting some people during the day and they invited me back to dinner that night. There house was horribly cold that afternoon and to prepare for the evening I put on a thermal vest, jumper and a heavy tweed jacket. When I arrived for dinner they had turned on the heating and and over the course of the evening I felt like I was in a sauna
yes I know - the person I was referring to was looking for Totes for his son! However, my point is that I walk around my carpets with nothing on my feet and my feet are not black by the end of a day!
- who would fit a "ribbed" carpet "widthways" down a hall???!!! 
Needless to say, it was replaced and fitted correctly after I telephoned the manager and "informed" him (politely 
A decent underlay makes the carpet fell much 'bouncier' and also deadens a lot of noise.
