Carpet or vinyl flooring in bedrooms?

[school17777]

I tried to make a poll, but can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong.  Anyway, our upstairs carpet is past it’s life and dh is finally ready to replace it.  I have about a week to decide.  We are considering Lifeproof carpet with highest rated padding, Lifeproof laminate or vinyl.

Advantage of the carpet is everything is done for us at no additional charge.

For unstated reasons at this time, we need the floors replaced ASAP (and no, we are not covering anything up!)

eta:  looks like the poll worked after all

Edited September 13, 2019 by school17777

[Ottakee]

Carpet for sound unless you have pets up there, allergies, or kids prone to make huge messes 

[Pen]

The least toxic option you can manage.  

[ktgrok]

Carpet = dust mites, allergies, etc. I hate carpet. 

[MercyA]

You ladies are singing my song. My husband insists on carpet because he is almost always barefoot inside and so my daughter and my dog will have nice soft places to sit and play.

I, on the other hand, would love hard floors throughout the entire house, with nice, fluffy, washable rugs here and there. 

Dog pee, dog poo, dog vomit, kid vomit, kid pee, spilled food, spilled drinks, water leaks--all fairly quick and easy to clean up on a hard floor. But on carpet? What a nightmare. You blot, and blot, and blot, and blot some more. And then scrub and soak and lug out the carpet cleaner. And then you know even after all your efforts some of it is still lurking there--along with soap residue, if you're not careful. Blech.

Whoever invented wall to wall carpet was probably someone who didn't have to clean up messes. 🙂 

[Arcadia]

Neither. I prefer parquet (wood). I have carpet now and my husband vacuums because it’s such a pain to vacuum. I do not have rashes from the carpet except when my husband vacuums, the worse is when he use a bagless vacuum cleaner.  He only buys the < $200 vacuum cleaner.

I had parquet growing up and my parents has it waxed so that it was easier to upkeep.

My university dorm single room was Armstrong laminate and it was slippery when wet so I had to be careful when cleaning the floor (I fell a few times, but I also fell on marble floors and tiled floors)

[Selkie]

Another carpet hater here. We have hardwood floors in our bedrooms.

[PeppermintPattie]

If you do use vinyl for the floors, what will you do with the stairs? (I'm in the same quandary.)

[moonflower]

I used to be a 100% hardwood person, and I'd still prefer it on the whole, but for upstairs bedrooms without pets I'm not too worried about messes and would be okay with carpet.  DH and the kids like carpet and it is soft for babies and small kids rolling around on the floor.  If you have allergies or pets or whatever I'd go with laminate instead.

[Carrie12345]

I don’t mind carpet too much for bedrooms, but I’d pick a hard surface with rugs, given the option.

I’d stay away from vinyl, though. My parents threw some down in a bedroom (asthmatic sister) and it was very slippery. We had also had vinyl in our foyer/dining/kitchen area that was textured so it wouldn’t be *terribly slippery, but the texture made for difficult cleaning. Dirt would settle in the recesses, but serious scrubbing would scratch it up.  I recently put peel and stick vinyl in my pantry closet and slipped several times while installing it, lol! (But that’s fine because now it’s covered by shelves.)

We put laminate wood planks in the bedroom my daughters share. They destroyed the carpet that had been in there.

[Pawz4me]

Vinyl or laminate. Anything other than carpet.

[DawnM]

This order:

Hardwood

Carpet

Laminate

 

I don't like laminate at all.  It echos and feels/sounds like plastic to me.

[sweet2ndchance]

We are nearing the end of the slow process of replacing all the carpet in our house. I hate carpet for all the reasons mentioned above. We have no intentions of moving unless we win we lottery and can move where we want and have the house of our dreams built, which will feature absolutely no carpet. We are using vinyl flooring and I love it. Cheaper than hardwood, less maintenance than hardwood(we live in a humid climate so wood expansion/contraction is a worse issue than other places I've lived), doesn't feel as delicate to me as laminate. That echo/plastic-y sound DawnM mentioned makes me feel like it could break easily but that could just be me, I've never had it in any house I've lived in for that reason.

Our dream house will have decorative concrete floors throughout. I've had them before and they are a breeze to keep clean. The bathrooms in that house had tile and he grout lines were my nemesis. It was white grout too so with two young boys and a man-child husband at the time who never seem to be able to "hit the mark" in the bathroom, trying to keep that grout white was a nightmare.

Anytime something gets spilled on the remaining carpet in the house, I can usually be heard grumbling as I try to clean it, "Who the heck thought it was a good idea to upholster a floor!?!"

[moonflower]

We had a rental once that had (temporariy) carpeted bathrooms!  I am not sure which is more miserable, a carpeted bathroom or a carpeted dining room/kitchen.

I just haven't had problems with carpeted bedrooms, though, and my kids are not particularly clean kids.  As long as the bedrooms are clearly separate from the eating/drinking area we haven't had significant mess problems, really.    I do enjoy vacuuming.

[HomeAgain]

We have hardwood upstairs and I love it.  In each bedroom we put down an area rug for our cold winters, but I like that I am able to switch those out as needed, there's no trying to tie decor to the carpeting, no dust mite problems....and I have kids that have had rough bouts of getting sick, so there is the benefit of not having to clean that out of carpeting.  I will toss the area rug if needed.

[PrincessMommy]

I'm in the minority and prefer carpeting for bedrooms.  But, I understand the appeal of hard surfaces throughout a house.

If I were to install something new in the bedrooms (something that we will be facing in the next 5 yrs) I think I'd prefer Luxury Vinyl Tile planks.  I installed them in our sunroom.  They look like wood - several contractors were duped.  It is not slippery at all.

If you go with vinyl get the kind with the extra padding on the backside to help with sound.  some have cork and then padding on the underside.  That is probably the best.  

[BarbecueMom]

Our entire house is vinyl floors except the stairs (carpeted - DH has nerve damage and hard stairs are a hard no).  I will never go back to carpet in bedrooms or living areas again.  Too much art, science, bodily fluids, and apple juice in our house for carpet.

I have a childhood friend whose mother will not part with their carpeted kitchen.  I can’t even imagine.

[PrincessMommy]

10 hours ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

I vote any hard surface- just not carpet LOL. I have allergies, so carpet is my nemesis. We did have luxury vinyl flooring installed in one house though about 8 years ago and it killed us on resale. We had to comp the flooring because people here view vinyl of any sort as low-end (regardless that the price is not!), so that would be my only caution there if you have a chance of moving. Oh. And the fumes. Whatever they glue that stuff down with is potent for a bit. My first choice would be wood or tile. But between your two- yep. Laminate or Vinyl. 

Preach!

People are so fickle.  It is the same with granite.  They see anything except granite as unacceptable.   Of course, they want the other homeowner to do it for them... obviously, it's unacceptable to PAY to get what they want themselves.  🙄  The only fake flooring I don't like is Pergo (at least the old stuff) it sounds hollow and looks cheap.  I'd take sheet vinyl over Pergo.  🙂  

But, I dont' really like wood floors either.   We have them in our bathroom - ick.  

[sweet2ndchance]

2 hours ago, BarbecueMom said:

Our entire house is vinyl floors except the stairs (carpeted - DH has nerve damage and hard stairs are a hard no).  I will never go back to carpet in bedrooms or living areas again.  Too much art, science, bodily fluids, and apple juice in our house for carpet.

I have a childhood friend whose mother will not part with their carpeted kitchen.  I can’t even imagine.

I will never ever understand carpeted bathrooms or kitchens. I've seen both and had a partially carpeted bathroom once. It was a rental house and I figure it was just in the master bath, the vanity area was carpeted but the toilet and tub were in a separate area that had sheet vinyl so I decided that since finding nice rental housing in that area was tough anyways, I'd just live with the carpet in my bathroom since it wasn't in the kids bathroom. Never. Again. Even in the vanity area of the little used master bathroom, it was a pain.

[mom2scouts]

I grew up in a house with hardwood floors in the bedroom and my bedroom was above the garage. I hated, hated, hated getting out of bed in the morning and stepping onto the cold, hard floors. I happily have carpet in all my bedrooms.

[kbutton]

7 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

I’d stay away from vinyl, though. My parents threw some down in a bedroom (asthmatic sister) and it was very slippery. We had also had vinyl in our foyer/dining/kitchen area that was textured so it wouldn’t be *terribly slippery, but the texture made for difficult cleaning. Dirt would settle in the recesses, but serious scrubbing would scratch it up.

Newer products aren't like this IME. The textured vinyl planks clean easily with Bona products. We've had little to no scratching (and hardwood scratches too, so...), and no scratching from cleaning at all.

That said, we bought commercial grade LVP, and it's installed continuously in our upstairs.

Below: It is different in how it sounds, but it's SO MUCH QUIETER than hardwood or traditional laminate. Amazingly so. 

6 hours ago, DawnM said:

I don't like laminate at all.  It echos and feels/sounds like plastic to me.

 

6 hours ago, sweet2ndchance said:

Anytime something gets spilled on the remaining carpet in the house, I can usually be heard grumbling as I try to clean it, "Who the heck thought it was a good idea to upholster a floor!?!"

I love it! Having owned a carpet cleaner that I used pretty regularly, I can't imagine ever installing carpet again on purpose. Emptying that tank of rinse water was revolting. 

4 hours ago, PrincessMommy said:

I'm in the minority and prefer carpeting for bedrooms.  But, I understand the appeal of hard surfaces throughout a house.

If I were to install something new in the bedrooms (something that we will be facing in the next 5 yrs) I think I'd prefer Luxury Vinyl Tile planks.  I installed them in our sunroom.  They look like wood - several contractors were duped.  It is not slippery at all.

If you go with vinyl get the kind with the extra padding on the backside to help with sound.  some have cork and then padding on the underside.  That is probably the best.  

This the kind of LVP that we have, though the padding is not cork. It's amazing. People look and look and then finally ask if it's hardwood or laminate because they aren't sure. The sound is usually the giveaway. 

3 hours ago, PrincessMommy said:

People are so fickle.  It is the same with granite.  They see anything except granite as unacceptable.   Of course, they want the other homeowner to do it for them... obviously, it's unacceptable to PAY to get what they want themselves.  🙄  The only fake flooring I don't like is Pergo (at least the old stuff) it sounds hollow and looks cheap.  I'd take sheet vinyl over Pergo.  🙂  

But, I dont' really like wood floors either.   We have them in our bathroom - ick.  

I don't like hardwood in wet areas. It seems like a disaster waiting to happen. 

I also don't like granite. Maybe there is a type I'd like out there someplace, but I don't get the big deal about it at all, nor am I willing to live with it because someone, someday might want to buy my house, lol! 

The funny thing is that I know a number of people who have to "live with" things they don't like to preserve "resale value." Ugh. I think it's gotten out of control.

Many high end houses here have LVP. It's not always on the main floor, but it's ubiquitous here. The local flooring store can't keep up with installation for how much they sell, so they offer great prices for cash and carry customers. They pass along the savings to the customer if they buy over a certain amount also.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

I prefer and happily live with carpet in the bedrooms and dressing area, tile in the bathrooms, and wood everywhere else.

I am barefoot all the time (though I do wear socks in winter). I hate cold, hard floors on my feet.  My last house was all tile (except carpet in the bedrooms).  That floor KILLED my feet and legs.  

I have engineered hardwood now, floating, with padding underneath for sound reduction and cushion, and radiant floor heat.  I could live with that in my bedroom, but I still prefer carpet.

If the floor is unheated, I'd opt for carpet.

[May]

DH would prefer hardwood on the stairs, landing area and upstairs bedrooms. We have hardwood in the main living areas, office, kitchen and porcelain tile in the basement. Then, we got a dog🙄 Now, he doesn’t want to change it out because it would be too hard for the poor dog😳 Anyway, we have still have carpet in the above areas but the dog is only allowed upstairs when we go to bed. The previous owners did install a high grade carpet and we have it professionally cleaned yearly.

[DawnM]

2 hours ago, kbutton said:

Newer products aren't like this IME. The textured vinyl planks clean easily with Bona products. We've had little to no scratching (and hardwood scratches too, so...), and no scratching from cleaning at all.

That said, we bought commercial grade LVP, and it's installed continuously in our upstairs.

Below: It is different in how it sounds, but it's SO MUCH QUIETER than hardwood or traditional laminate. Amazingly so. 

 

I love it! Having owned a carpet cleaner that I used pretty regularly, I can't imagine ever installing carpet again on purpose. Emptying that tank of rinse water was revolting. 

This the kind of LVP that we have, though the padding is not cork. It's amazing. People look and look and then finally ask if it's hardwood or laminate because they aren't sure. The sound is usually the giveaway. 

I don't like hardwood in wet areas. It seems like a disaster waiting to happen. 

I also don't like granite. Maybe there is a type I'd like out there someplace, but I don't get the big deal about it at all, nor am I willing to live with it because someone, someday might want to buy my house, lol! 

The funny thing is that I know a number of people who have to "live with" things they don't like to preserve "resale value." Ugh. I think it's gotten out of control.

Many high end houses here have LVP. It's not always on the main floor, but it's ubiquitous here. The local flooring store can't keep up with installation for how much they sell, so they offer great prices for cash and carry customers. They pass along the savings to the customer if they buy over a certain amount also.

 

I think you just need to go with your own preference then.

I do like the tile that looks like wood.  It seems far more durable than laminate.  Laminate can buckle when wet. 

[katilac]

My bare feet like carpeting, my allergies do not, lol. I can't wait to get the carpet out of the last two rooms!

[school17777]

On 9/13/2019 at 2:09 AM, PeppermintPattie said:

If you do use vinyl for the floors, what will you do with the stairs? (I'm in the same quandary.)

I will put carpet on the stairs.  There is a vinyl option for stairs now, but it costs double not including labor as it does for nice carpeting.

This is one of the carpets I’m leaning towards for the stairs, hallway, and bedrooms.