Reeny I think the black feet might say something about your friend's cleaning regime... or the son's habits ... I walk on my wooden floors with bare feet a lot (except in winter) and my feet are never black at the end of the day!

Avro, I know what you mean about the on-off heating, my ex used to be incredibly mean with the CH. He used to set it to come on for half an hour before we got in from work, which meant the house finally warmed up ten minutes before bedtime! I have the heating on all day, but I would NOT want to keep it on all night, would find it impossible to sleep in a room which was 21 degrees.

quote:

Originally posted by velvet:

Avro, I know what you mean about the on-off heating, my ex used to be incredibly mean with the CH. He used to set it to come on for half an hour before we got in from work, which meant the house finally warmed up ten minutes before bedtime!

Joke time!! Bloke sitting in the lounge says to his wife "right, get your coat on"... she says "oh good are we going out??".. he says, "We're not, I'm going t'pub and I'm switching the heating off!!"

quote:

Originally posted by wandapops:

quote:

Originally posted by velvet:

Avro, I know what you mean about the on-off heating, my ex used to be incredibly mean with the CH. He used to set it to come on for half an hour before we got in from work, which meant the house finally warmed up ten minutes before bedtime!

Joke time!! Bloke sitting in the lounge says to his wife "right, get your coat on"... she says "oh good are we going out??".. he says, "We're not, I'm going t'pub and I'm switching the heating off!!"

I'd tell that one to my ex but I don't think he'd see the joke

I would agree about the Scotchguard carpet - I had one and when my cat had an 'accident' I could just clean it off with no marks. Worth every penny and a decent underlay. I wish my ex-upstairs neighbour had had one under her wooden floor - gosh she must have her 4inch stilettoes on again! Great fun at 4am. I went to a local firm and they let me borrow several sample books to try out at home. That is important. As one respondent has said you either like boards or carpet. PersonallyI am fed up with boards - my buyer seemed astounded that I had carpet.

Velvet,

Although the heating would be set to 21 I am afraid the draughty army quarters we lived in did not get up to that heat or at least not upstairs in the bedrooms, I think 16 or 17 would be more likely although downstairs was warm enough.
Our present German quarter holds the heat well but the thermostat is not in degrees and I imagine it is at 18 or 19 all the time.

Shoequeen wrote

<Me too. I think you're either a carpet fan (I am) or you prefer wood floors, once you've come down on one side or the other, little will change you.>

I think it even goes beyond this, part has to do with upbringing. Being from Canada I always associated hardwood floors with luxury while carpets were rather downmarket but in England older people in particular are often very fond of carpet even in the bathroom I have heard of a Scandanavian lady in England who not only demanded that the carpet be ripped out of the bathroom of her home but was emphatic that it be taken out of all the rooms.

I was involved in a joint British/Canadian army camp (British were furnished with carpets and Canadians with hardwood floors) for a few years and heard one English wife mention that the Canadians had to put up with floorboards. In fact the Canadian wives were very proud of their hardwood floors and would have been offended had anyone tried to move them downmarket with carpets!

We made an offer on a house in North Yorkshire but cut down the offer by the amount needed to replace the new carpets with wooden floors. Happily we ended up with an C18 cottage with the original floors.

Life is different in different places. Customs and good and bad are different. In places like Canada women can breastfeed babies anywhere but bottle feeding a baby will raise eyebrows in Churches and get you booted out of certain places (like public transport).

Getting back to carpets, the English fascination with carpets is a pretty unique thing and I think it is dying a pretty quick death these days. An aquaintance of mine just sold off the family carpet business because he saw no future in carpets and I think he was right. You just have to look at makeover programs to see how quickly they date.

I think carpets are pretty much dead as a fashion statement and like the zoot suit with the Crete pleat-I do not think that they will ever come back into fashion again-but if you like it, go for it!

BTW the custom with wooden floors is to wear socks and slippers-not stilletos.

another hijack question but can anyone tell me roughly how much fitting and underlay are? I've got to get 3 bedrooms, and a hall/stairs/landing done in the next couple of weeks and have estimated the carpets to be under £800 without considering underlay or fitting! D'oh! Any help is much appreciated...
K

I love carpets, the thicker and softer, the better. But I would only buy wool, either 100% or 80/20%. Our bedroom carpet is 100% wool and we've never had any problem with moths. 100% wool is softer than 80/20, but I would agree that 80/20 is slightly harder wearing, and we have that in all our other rooms.

Years ago we had an acrylic carpet, (in the bedroom where we thought it would be suitable). Nasty horrible stuff, all the bits of fluff stuck to it and wouldn't vacuum off. In the end we threw it out and went back to wool. As for nylon, yuk. Just the thought of it with all its crackling, sparking and attraction to dirt, makes me shudder.

If decent quality carpet is not an option, even laminate is better than poor quality carpet, because the costs of fitting are the same whatever quality you choose.
.

quote:

Originally posted by keenabird:
another hijack question but can anyone tell me roughly how much fitting and underlay are? I've got to get 3 bedrooms, and a hall/stairs/landing done in the next couple of weeks and have estimated the carpets to be under £800 without considering underlay or fitting! D'oh! Any help is much appreciated...
K

I had to get the fella back this w/e because he didn't measure all rooms last time. When I get the quote I'll let you know, it's for a similar number of rooms (plus lounge).

Thanks for all views so far.

quote:

Originally posted by Connie:
Years ago we had an acrylic carpet, (in the bedroom where we thought it would be suitable). Nasty horrible stuff, all the bits of fluff stuck to it and wouldn't vacuum off. In the end we threw it out and went back to wool. As for nylon, yuk. Just the thought of it with all its crackling, sparking and attraction to dirt, makes me shudder.
.

Yes, I had one of these when I moved here - in a tasteful mix of brown, green and black