It's so cold and antiseptic. I'd rather have a warm carpet. I don't know...maybe it's just me.
Also it's quieter if you live in a two floor house if the upstairs has hardwood flooring the noise in the downstairs will be horrible.
The house we're buying has hardwoods throughout but we'll be installing carpet in a few areas. I do think carpet has it's place like the family room (for comfort while sitting on the floor) and bedrooms (to make them more cozy and less loud). Hardwoods throughout make a house seem like a museum to me, cold, echo-ey, uncomfortable. The rooms that we're leaving the hardwoods in will have wool area rugs covering most of them, to warm and cheer up the spaces. It's a lot more work in cleaning, switching from the vacuum brush to the floor brush, but it's worth the extra work. I have a dog and a cat and they love to walk and lay on carpeted areas, I never see them relaxing on the "naked" floors.
If I had to guess why people are so rabid over hardwood floors I'd say it's because it's easier to clean than carpet. People these days just don't have time to clean properly.
Popcorn ceilings though...I can't stand them. Now there's something that screams 80's.
Popcorn ceilings are hideous!! I know hard wood floors are good for people with allergies and I am one of them but prefer carpeting or at least area rugs for comfort, quietness (not sure if that is a word but spellcheck isn't underlining it so I guess it's okay).
shareWhile people now make a huge deal out of carpets being stinky, dirty and full of toxic allergens, back then it was absolutely no big deal. It was even preferred over hardwood probably because it was cheaper. Remember when people put carpet in the bathrooms?
Give it another ten years and people will then be saying "I can't believe they scraped off a perfectly good popcorn ceiling AND even opted for stainless appliances. My God, what were they thinking? Don't get me started about why they would rip the carpets out and live with these stark, cold, barren hardwoods."
I also loathe stainless steel anything. Reminds me of hospitals and hospitals freak me out.
Carpet is fine. Just care for it properly and clean it regularly. I'd rather spend more money having the carpets regularly cleaned than having to hear klunk, klunk, klunk with each and every step. To each their own.
I can't imagine anyone actually wanting carpet. The first thing we did when we bought our home was ripped up the rugs and put down gorgeous dark hardwood flooring throughout the whole house. It looks crisp and clean and classic. Wall to wall carpet died in the mid 90s.
shareAh, the late and unlamented carpet! Hardwood floors are best because they clean up well and strengthen the structure of the house, and do not need to be replaced if properly maintained.
The more you clean carpets, the more frequently they have to be cleaned. It's better to clean them yourself because most commercial carpet cleaners are nor reliable and do not do a good job. Having had to reclean the carpets after them, I invested in a Bissel, but am looking forward to not having to use it again,
I'll get back to you after I've consulted with Satan.
I'd rather replace my carpet every year than have to look at hardwood floors. I prefer Hoover over Bissel. The local cleaners do a better job than the national ones. We just put new carpet in last week. Had to clean it to get rid of that stinky new carpet smell. Better than hardwood oil smells, though. Ick. The only places not carpeted are the kitchen and bathroom.
The claim by the hardwood/tile sales industry that carpets are so dirty is rather amusing...do you clean your couches, chairs, beds as often as you clean carpet? or every other inch of your house? Carpets are no less dirty than your drapes, if cleanly regularly. Some people never clean anything.
You can get fleas from the reused steam cleaning water, it happened to me.
shareMy house has a mix of wall-to-wall carpeting, area rugs, and hardwood floors. All of it looks good, but the wood is definitely easier to clean, for obvious reasons (especially with four dogs!) However, the carpet is made of wool and has been here for over 30 years. My mom lived in this house when she was a kid. The carpets are still in perfect shape and very clean; we recently took up the dining room carpet because it was stinking to high heaven after years of being the indoor bathroom of choice for not-quite-housebroken dogs. Turned out it was the layer of foam below the carpet that was responsible for the stench, so we were able to just leave the nice wood floor below. We'd been afraid of what we were going to find, heheh.
Popcorn ceilings are okay. We have a *lot* of textured, white, sparkle-covered ceilings and walls. Apparently my grandpa had liked them. xD They're pretty, but annoying because anybody brushing up against them can knock a whole bunch of sparkles everywhere.
share
"My Little Throny! I used to wonder what bloodshed could be..."
I hate hardwood floors with a flaming passion.
1) They're ugly. I think they make the floors look unfinished or look like a log cabin. 2) When you walk on it...klunk, klunk, klunk, 3) They're cold in winter. That could be remedied with heated floors but still the klunk, klunk, klunk is still there. 4) The upkeep sucks. 5) They scratch if you look at them cross-eyed. 6) They're slicker than ice. 7) Did I say they're ugly?
I think they're lovely. I'm glad I have a wood floor in my room, now with just one little area rug. My only annoyance with wood and linoleum tiles is that they squeak and creak...but then, everything around here seems to do that. Dx But I don't find the wood clunky or uncomfortable aside from that. Even with four dogs running around on them all the time, ours aren't scratched up. I guess the finish on them is really good. Ours are also not slippery at all (it's even better to go sliding across the linoleum in socks), and have virtually no upkeep. Smooth floors are so much easier to keep clean than carpets and rugs that accumulate all the hair and tiny pieces of unidentifiable crud, or start impossibly turning dark, or need a spot-bot to clean up staining messes. ;p
AT THE SAME TIME, I will say in defense of carpeting that our house has had it wall-to-wall in many rooms for over 30 years, and those carpets remain in excellent condition to this day. With regular vacuuming and cleaning, they're not doomed to trap mold, allergens, etc. (Of course, no one in my home has any allergies anyway.) Wood is still easier to clean, but I'm glad that we have a nice mixture of wood, carpeting, and area rugs. All three are very aesthetically pleasing. 8-)
As for popcorn ceilings? They're okay. I'm not in love with them. Many of the ceilings in my house are sort of an unusual variety of popcorn, I think...basically, they're white and bumpy and textured like that, but COVERED in sparkles/glitter. One dining room wall is the same, and it's always been so annoying to have anyone bump into it. Sparkles, sparkles everywhere. >x<
Our house was built in 1972. We had carpet everywhere but the kitchen and bathrooms, which were tiled. About 15 years ago we put hardwood in our kitchen and foyer, and it's beautiful, but we are keeping carpet in the rest of the house because it is softer, quieter, and warmer. I would hate to get out of bed in the morning onto a cold hardwood floor rather than a warm, soft carpet.
Boo Hoo! Let me wipe away the tears with my PLASTIC hand!--Lindsey McDonald (Angel)
You know, there is a compromise here. Believe it or not, wall-to-wall carpeting has not existed since Neanderthal man roamed Europe. π
As I said on the HH board, people used to cover their wood floors with rugs - not carpeting, but rather rugs you can take up and have cleaned or change out for a different color if you like. This is the solution for those who like the look of hardwood but have areas they want covered for warmth or quiet. You can still see and appreciate the beauty of the wood (and, P.S., show all your friends that you are just as rich and trendy as they are, which seems to be a common, if unspoken, goal on HGTV) while having the softness of wool. And, by the way, you can spend a huge amount of money and be very fancy indeed with rugs. I don't know why this hardly ever gets mentioned on "reno" shows.
Having had both, I prefer hardwood. I currently live in a house with this light tan carpet that gets stained very easily and anything sitting on it for more than an hour leaves dents in the carpet. Thanks to my furniture, vacuuming is a pain in the butt, especially since the vacuum is bulky and my space is tight. I'd rather have hardwood that I can just Swiffer up and then mop occasionally.
Crouton! Crouton! Crunchy friends in a liquid broth.
better to play basketball on too.
π΄π΄π΄π΄π΄π΄π΄π΄π΄
Carpet is disgusting.
shareI have lived a few places, however I grew up in a house with hardwood floors. I haaaaaaaaaaaaaated it. It was FREEZING in the winter ( I live in upstate NY ) I envied my friends that had beautiful wall to wall carpet. Carpet is nice. It's squishy on your feet, it doesn't sound like horses are in your house. It's not loud and echo-y...
And it's warm.
"My mummy ate lemons. Raw. She said she loved they made her mouth. tingle .Little love."
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