Poll of the Day > Area rugs, wall to wall carpet or hardwood floors

(+) Yeah! (+)

My home has hardwood floors which are cool but a pain to keep maintained.

Polished concrete

Compared to carpeting, hardwood floors are easy to maintain. Have a pet for any amount of time and carpets can get nasty no matter how well house trained they are. Tempted to tear out the carpet in my living room and replace it with hardwood floors this winter. Maybe I will put an area rug in the center of the room.

Hardwood because it is easy to maintain.

Carpet shouldn't even exist in homes tbh. It wears out and gets nasty looking after a few years and is bad for allergies

An inch deep layer of jello

OhhhJa posted...

Carpet shouldn't even exist in homes tbh. It wears out and gets nasty looking after a few years and is bad for allergies

That's why you're supposed to replace it, not just put it down and leave it there for 30 years.

Spiny steaming hot basalt with a layer of boiling tar over it.

Pets/children/sloppy roommates etc. - Hardwood floor

Otherwise carpet

Flooring made from petrified skulls like the catacombs of Paris

ParanoidObsessive posted...

That's why you're supposed to replace it, not just put it down and leave it there for 30 years.

Sure but if you live in an apartment, you don't necessarily have that option

ParanoidObsessive posted...

That's why you're supposed to replace it, not just put it down and leave it there for 30 years.

And not wear your shoes in the house. And vacuum it every once in a while. There isn't a good reason for an average quality carpet to not last at least 20 years under normal wear and tear conditions.

As for the topic, it really depends on the room. Carpet is great in bedrooms and living rooms. Hardwood/laminate floors are great in hallways and dining rooms.

faramir77 posted...

And not wear your shoes in the house. And vacuum it every once in a while. There isn't a good reason for an average quality carpet to not last at least 20 years under normal wear and tear conditions.

As for the topic, it really depends on the room. Carpet is great in bedrooms and living rooms. Hardwood/laminate floors are great in hallways and dining rooms.

I never wear shoes in the house. And I vacuum frequently. But if your apartment has shitty quality carpet and you have pets, good luck keeping it looking immaculate

OhhhJa posted...

I never wear shoes in the house. And I vacuum frequently. But if your apartment has shitty quality carpet and you have pets, good luck keeping it looking immaculate

Have you had a professional carpet cleaning company come by? Obviously won't help if your experiencing fraying or something but getting a professional cleaning every 5 or so years really helps, too.

Aside from that I think the main problem is the poor quality carpet. I had a few pets growing up and the carpet in my mom's house is still holding up. It's been there for 30 years.

We've had one professional cleaning and we've personally steam cleaned it a few times. But it still looks shitty after having been here for about 5 years. The carpets even has a giant wrinkle in it in the living room and started to fray/peel up where it meets the tile near the front door. I think that likely means it was installed poorly

OhhhJa posted...

Sure but if you live in an apartment, you don't necessarily have that option

Yeah, but you said homes, not apartments.

And even in apartments, you can still change it. Landlords should technically change it between rentals (just like they should repaint the walls).

I know friends of mine who bought new carpet for their apartment years ago. It basically became an issue because their landlord told them if they bought it themselves he'd reimburse them for it, but then he never did, so they tore it up and took it with them when they moved out just to spite him.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Yeah, but you said homes, not apartments.

And even in apartments, you can still change it. Landlords should technically change it between rentals (just like they should repaint the walls).

I know friends of mine who bought new carpet for their apartment years ago. It basically became an issue because their landlord told them if they bought it themselves he'd reimburse them for it, but then he never did, so they tore it up and took it with them when they moved out just to spite him.

I've thought about asking if I can get the carpet changed but management is terrible at my apartment and I try to never deal with them if I can help it. They have lied straight to my face multiple times

Either way, I don't see the upside to carpet at all. Hardwood looks nicer and is easier to maintain and you can even put rugs down if you don't want all hardwood everywhere

Carpet in some places, hardwood in others. As someone with a small child, I'm glad to have both in my home.

Foam puzzle floor mats.

carpet is far more comfortable on my feet

Lava or magma is the cool thing to do.

We were quoted $14k just for hard floor in our living room :/

I prefer the warmth and softness of carpet.

JixHedgehog posted...

We were quoted $14k just for hard floor in our living room :/

You could have laminate or vinyl planking installed 10 times for that same cost. I don't get the appeal to hardwood floor.

Carpet feels nicer on feet and is quieter, but pretty quickly gets dirty and is a pain to properly clean (and if you don't, it stops feeling so nice). Hardwood (along with most hard flooring options) is easier to clean and move furniture on (with appropriate precautions to avoid scratching), but is harder and colder. The result is that what's popular tends to flip back and forth between carpeting and hard flooring as enough time elapses that society forgets what they disliked about the other option and start to think it would be an improvement over what they currently have.

Rugs are a nice happy medium. They feel nice underfoot and help to dampen noise, but are much easier to clean and replace as needed than full carpet would be. The downside is you can't have those benefits all the time (unless you buy a whole house's worth of rugs, but that's silly), but nothing's perfect.

faramir77 posted...

You could have laminate or vinyl planking installed 10 times for that same cost. I don't get the appeal to hardwood floor.

Laminate in particular is pretty bad if you've got pets or small children or are otherwise likely to end up with occasional liquid spills on it, since it tends to soak up water and warp very easily. Vinyl's better for that, but is still less durable in a lot of ways than hardwood. I'm generally inclined to lean toward thinking hardwood's more expensive than it's worth, but there are benefits/drawbacks to pretty much any option.

adjl posted...

The downside is you can't have those benefits all the time (unless you buy a whole house's worth of rugs, but that's silly)

I'll buy a whole house full of rugs before I have carpet ever again. I don't think it's silly. It's like nicer, mobile carpet with different design potential

I feel like on that scale, you lose out on a lot of the "easier to clean" aspect. As much as carpet's a pain to clean, you can at least shampoo it relatively simply, whereas washing/drying a hundred rugs is quite an ordeal even if you stagger it by doing them in batches. It's not a completely crazy alternative, but I do think there's an upper limit to how much you can scale it up before it stops being worthwhile.

adjl posted...

I feel like on that scale, you lose out on a lot of the "easier to clean" aspect. As much as carpet's a pain to clean, you can at least shampoo it relatively simply, whereas washing/drying a hundred rugs is quite an ordeal even if you stagger it by doing them in batches. It's not a completely crazy alternative, but I do think there's an upper limit to how much you can scale it up before it stops being worthwhile.

I'll just buy new rugs instead lol

Hardwood hurts your feet though and makes sitting on the floor a literal pain in the ass. You also have to clean them more.