Why does everyone want bare floors nowadays?

[quote] Nobody has carpet anymore.

Good. Carlets are visually unattractive.

Cleanliness.

I hate wall to wall carpet. HATE. IT. The first thing I did when I moved into my current house was have the contractors tear out all the nasty wall to wall carpet in the bedrooms and put in hardwood floors.

Wall to wall carpet just seems so tacky and 70s/80s dated to me. I know others will disagreee with me, but that's just my opinion.

Bare wood floors = clean

Carpets suck up germs, hair and dust. It can never be totally removed. It’s gross.

You can always put down area rugs.

Wall to wall carpeting was a post war advertising success. Just like vinyl siding.

People with asthma will tell you that their condition improved right after getting rid of carpeting. It’s not healthy.

[quote]In my day, wall-to-wall carpet was the standard and people couldn't wait to have luxurious carpet installed. It felt so nice and cozy and your feet didn't get cold! I don't understand it. What's the obsession with bare wood floors?

Because it's not the 1970s and hasn't been for a very long time. In the modern world hardwood floors are pretty standard.

Never change, eldergays. Never change.

Wall to wall carpeting was a tacky post-WWII thing. No one had that crap in their homes before that.

Have "people with asthma" ever heard of a vacuum cleaner?

r9 You're an idiot

[quote] Wall to wall carpeting was a tacky post-WWII thing.

Just like vinyl siding.

Area rugs can be rotated if a stain develops in one area and you can vacuum and sweep under them in addition to vacuuming over them and shampooing. And you can replace the carpet pads periodically.

I don’t mind wall to wall carpeting in a second floor or apartment bedroom - provided no pets and it’s not directly in front of a bathroom door where it may get wet. It can make the room seem larger and brighter. Also, it doesn’t break the bank to periodically replace a 12x12 to 13x18 stretch of unseamed carpet.

R9 has never torn out old carpeting in a new (to them) home. Last time I did it was about 10 years ago. I got a weird rash on my forearms after just a few minutes. Put a long sleeved shirt and gloves on and finished, but never again.

The worst were the post-WWII freaks who even put wall-to-wall in their bathrooms and kitchens.

[quote] The worst were the post-WWII freaks who even put wall-to-wall in their bathrooms and kitchens.

And vinyl siding!

That was crazy r13. So unsanitary and just plain gross.

I like hardwood floors. Unfortunately, these days I keep seeing floors covered with ugly grey laminate. UGLY!

A special problem, though, if installing hardwood floors in apartments. Living next door or below people who have hardwood floors means you hear every step, and every sound is amplified.

Like it or not, carpet (along with curtains and/or drapes or cushioned furniture)) absorb sounds. So, your neighbors will hate you if you remove all carpets and other soft furnishings and they are then forced to listen to your every clumping sound.

I used to be able to hear every footstep in the apartment next door and I could track the tenant's movement around the room.

Recent rules in our building require high end insulation be installed between the bare floor and newly installed hardwood floors. To deaden the sound.

Scene in the movie Diner where the guys talk about a rich friend's house. They're struck by the wood floors: 'Weird. Can't they afford wall-to-wall carpeting?'

R16 I was going to post that one advantage of carpets, sound muffling.

I see a lot of listings I suspect are flip houses with that gray fake wood, R16. It’s awful. As soon as I see that it’s a hard “no.” What other really stupid choices did they make and where did they cut corners? The worst is when it’s near or next to real wood floors.

Old wall to wall carpeting is gross, but it can be torn out and replaced with something appropriate for the house and nobody thinks it should command a premium. Gray fake wood is the kiss of death.

r18, that could certainly come in handy, for certain situations.

[quote]I see young people doing this a lot nowadays. Nobody has carpet anymore.

[quote]In my day, wall-to-wall carpet was the standard and people couldn't wait to have luxurious carpet installed.

Carpet fibers are an allergen.

I have COPD, and my doctor suggested I get rid of my carpeting.

AREA RUGS.

I have a rug and vacuum weekly. Its filthy dirty each time and the rug is in a low traffic area. NO CARPET!

[quote] AREA RUGS.

Area rugs can be rotated if a stain develops in one area and you can vacuum and sweep under them in addition to vacuuming over them and shampooing. And you can replace the carpet pads periodically.

Agree wall to wall is gross but this plastic dreck is worse.

This is how people have lived for most of history, OP. If she doesn’t put down any rugs, that is a bit extreme to me.

Bamboo is environmentally friendly and it's plentiful. I have replaced my carpeting with bamboo flooring. It looks really good and I too hate the manufactured, fake grey shit that's builder's choice. Ugh.

Why is it any of your business what she does with her own house?

I do like w2w carpet in the bedroom.

Tasteful people have always preferred wood floors. Wall-to-wall carpeting only if the floor needs to be covered due to poor quality or damage, or as noted, in bedrooms.

Carpets

R13, I know someone who has lived in an old house, the same house for the past 30+ years. Their bathroom has carpeting! I have never seen another house with this monstrosity. Why the fuck would people think that's a good idea?

[quote]I like hardwood floors. Unfortunately, these days I keep seeing floors covered with ugly grey laminate. UGLY!

The grey laminate is everywhere now. If you look at any new or recently updated houses, it’s there.

Why is carpeting more acceptable in a bedroom?

Live at the beach. In the tropics. Porcelain tiles with chindi area rugs.

[quote] I have a rug and vacuum weekly. Its filthy dirty each time and the rug is in a low traffic area. NO CARPET!

If the rug were not there, then your floor would also be "filthy dirty." Unless it's a low-quality rug that is losing a lot of fibers every time you vacuum.

My furnace filter is always dramatically cleaner since getting rid of carpet. So much less dust and dirt in the air.

This thread makes me break out in hives.

W-2-W carpeting coincided with "acoustically improved" cottage cheese (often asbestos) crap that was sprayed on ceilings. Both signaled "new and modern" in the aesthetics of the 50s and 60s. When I was a kid we were sold wall to wall SHAG carpeting that was like an orange overgrown lawn... it came with silly plastic rakes that you were to rake the rug.... getting the tines of the rake caught in the long loops of orange shag.... supposed digging up the twigs and mudballs and oily droppings and dog danger and and and.... it was traumatizing.

The cottage cheese ceilings similarly would get their little asbestos peaks covered with dust and grime.... in our current home it was quite a chore to remove the cottage cheese all over our craftsman home. Who ever thought it was a good idea?

Fortunately, the zeitgeist changes, and sometimes for the better.

Take your shoes off at the door. Don't track your dog shit in my home. Appreciate the hickory hardwood floors and the Kilim, Anatolian, Isfahan, and Balouch rugs.

OP, you're about 35 years late with this post. Carpeting went out the way of wallpaper a long long time ago. Why? Because people don't cover up beautiful wood floors like the did in 1960. The tudor house I grew up in, which is now 100 years old, was covered in wallpaper and carpets when we lived there in the 1960s and 70s. Now - it's paint and the oak floors with area rugs,

R16, that grey laminate is HIDEOUS.

Unbelievable that so many found it acceptable.

In my previous home (in a cooler climate), I had white wool carpet throughout the place (except kitchen and baths). The house was cleaned weekly, the carpet was shampooed regularly and I never wore outside shoes inside my house. After twelve years, the carpet still looked new. I have asthma, but never has an issue the carpet causing me problems.

[quote] Why is carpeting more acceptable in a bedroom?

Much more limited foot traffic and generally no traffic directly from outside and no moisture. It’s possible to avoid walking on it with shoes.

[quote] Have "people with asthma" ever heard of a vacuum cleaner?

Vacuum cleaners can never get all of it. Carpets are a health hazard.

R36, bedrooms typically only get significant foot traffic from one or two people, probably not wearing shoes. And there is no eating or drinking. And they are often on a second floor or a somewhat remote location relative to the living areas. So they can stay cleaner.

Also, as already mentioned, if it’s just a moderately sized rectangle the cost of replacing it periodically isn’t a huge deterrent. I’ve seen people do wall to wall sisal or sea grass, maybe with smaller area rugs as accents. In the right space, it looks good and can make a bedroom feel much less cluttered that areas rugs in a dark floor. But I can understand some people not being willing to make an exception for bedrooms.

[quote] Their bathroom has carpeting! I have never seen another house with this monstrosity. Why the fuck would people think that's a good idea?

You’ll see that in 70s magazines. Gross.

[quote] Why is carpeting more acceptable in a bedroom?

It's cozier. Walking on soft carpet in bare feet is hella better than on wood floors. I put wall to wall in 2 of 3 bedrooms.

R19 and others...

That stuff you call fake wood is worse than that - they call it LVT, for Luxury Vinyl Tile.

What a marketing campaign calling it luxury. There's nothing luxurious about vinyl that pretends to look like wood.

As others have said - it's EVERYWHERE - especially flips. And what's worse is it's always gray. Fucking gray! When will this GRAY EVERYWHERE trend end? Floors, walls, cabinets, furniture. Gray, gray, gray, gray.

R29 Bamboo flooring, and other rapid renewable timbergrass flooring products are gorgeous, but they are on the softer side, so beware with hard heeled shoes. Also, most people aren't trying to pay for materials like that when they can get cheap vinyl, laminate imitation wood. I know one idiot who used that prefab synthetic wood, but specified it to come from the EU (Germany, specifically, using 'eco-resin') for a studio for yoga and meditation center, they went to great length to defend their flooring choice, really clueless to what a ride they'd been taken on by whoever they worked with building that space.

^ this, too. Especially in cold climates.

I’m guessing the grey flooring is cheap which would be the reason why so many flipped houses have it.

I think the gray fake wood comes in a range of types and quality. Isn’t some of it sort of almost wood? Engineered wood? I think that’s worse because it wasn’t just a matter of, “Let’s just cover everything with gray laminate so it looks new and clean.”

I miss linoleum floors!

And vinyl siding.

I'm thinking about installing vinyl "wood looking" flooring in my very small kitchen because the actual wood floor gets slimy and has dents. Bad idea?

[quote] I’m guessing the grey flooring is cheap which would be the reason why so many flipped houses have it.

This. When we were selling our house in 2020 I let the general contractor decide everything about the updating, I wasn't going to live there. He had a warehouse full of the gray laminate that he said he would use. Cheap.

people like to have sex on the floor. carpet, with a pad underneath, is better for that

I watched That Certain Summer a while ago. The dad and Martin Sheen had white shag carpeting in the bathroom.

I remembered vacuuming the bathroom carpeting that my mom put down for a while when I was a teen. Also, the sliding glass shower doors were SO hard to clean, but they were the thing. A shower cutain would have been so much easier.

I'm also not a fan of porcelain tile "wood" flooring. Sure it's better than vinyl, but why try to make it look like wood?

People who like w-2-w carpeting are inclined to put those horrid covers on toilet seats. Incomprehensible.

Very bad idea, R55. Go with a material that isn’t a bad imitation of another material. It doesn’t have to be expensive.

How small is the kitchen? Can you just cover the parts that don’t look good with a machine washable area rug from IKEA?

Wall to wall carpet is now trashy. The key is tasteful area rugs as needed.

Interesting, a DYI youtuber who redid his home from top to bottom installed hardwood flooring and realized later vinyl would have been a better choice for his family, his family dog scratched up the hardwood with his nails.

R47, that is true and horrendous. There were some good things the 70s gave us--movies, music, etc.--but the decor was terrible. I can only imagine how dirty those bathroom carpets are.

A friend had his house built from the ground up a decided upon LVT for his flooring. It doesn't look bad but I was shocked to learn it wasn't that less expensive than wood. Why not just get wood??? It's not like he has kids or pets that could damage anything.

[quote]Bare wood floors = clean

Bare wood floors = poverty

This is same line of thinking that has made flip flops into culturally appropriate footwear.

Don't even get me started on the shitty centimeter thick glass shower doors that pass for bathroom decor.

[quote]The key is tasteful area rugs as needed.

And most people still screw this up. You want an area rug that appropriately cushions your foot. Now those boxey slabs of yarn that are flatter than Kelly Ripa's chest. Just because it has a fancy decoration doesn't mean it's sustainable.

Ive had large dogs and they never damaged my wood floors, even when I slacked off on trimming their nails. They sure as hell damaged some areas rugs, though (but only when they were sick, so it wasn’t their fault).

Maybe the dog damaged floors were new growth pine. I’ve mostly lived in older homes but I’ve had small areas replaced with new oak floors and no issues.

R66 has spoken.

R65 Much easier maintenance.

We had a small dog that damaged a wood floor. Chihuahua. When I was a kid. Had to be left alone one day and peed on the rug, which soaked through to the floor.

The youtuber has a German Shepard, average looking size.

Also, carpets hold odors.

The thing is, if you live in an apartment or condo and there are people living under you. I have wood floors, I threw out a carpet (not wall to wall) last spring and I haven't gotten around to replacing it (in the living room). I put down a small oriental carpet for now. But without any large carpet, my footsteps are loud.

[quote]Appreciate the hickory hardwood floors and the Kilim, Anatolian, Isfahan, and Balouch rugs.

No one does hardwood flooring anymore.

So you'll be ridiculed on the way home for mixing plebian with noveau riche taste.

[quote] Appreciate the hickory hardwood floors and the Kilim, Anatolian, Isfahan, and Balouch rugs.

[italic]Mary![/italic]

You are truly piss-elegance itself.

By the way, a good way to refesh a carpet (after you vacuum or sweep it) --if you live in a cold climate in the winter--hang it outside when the temp. drops below zero. Overnight, or whatever. I imagine it kills dust mites and stuff, anyway it'll make it smell clean.

W2W carpet has good and bad points. One good point is that it hides all the dust that falls on the floor so you won't have to use a dust mop every day. One bad point is that it is an odor magnet. All the odors from cooking will settle into the carpet. If you're not interested in having your W2W carpets cleaned regularly be prepared to be talked about behind your back by people who visit you. Especially if you have pets.

So many things about the 70s still give me PTSD. My parents had a family room built onto the house, but no money remained after construction for flooring. So my father and his friend went to a local carpet store and bought a load of carpet remnants and nailed them down in little squares and rectangles in a groovy kaleidoscope of colors. Think Partridge Family school bus. This apparently was a thing at the time.

They used to put carpet on toilet seats too.

I like wood floors but I also like terrazzo, and cork, and linoleum, and I like french encaustic tiles maybe the most. They are concrete. And you can do contemporary patterns or old fashioned patterns that are somewhat akin to asian carpets. I love asian carpets but the good ones are way out of my price range and I'm by no means poor. Plus they are, after all, carpets so inherently they are dust, dirt, and germ traps.

I have the last encaustic tiles in my 100 year old apartment house in Switzerland, a rental. Everytime there is an issue the landlord and rental agent just rips out the encasutic and replaces it with hideous beige or white big square contemporary tiles. Sad. And now I have an issue becaue the concrete subflooring is crumbling here and there and some tiles are sinking.

I have encaustic tiles in two rooms in my rental apt in Cairo, too. But nobody is rennovating that building, and they are very common in arab cities.

I guess I will have to say goodbye to the encaustic. But maybe there will be a miracle.

I just had my Swiss apartment rewired. One of the last to be done in the entire neighborhood, I am told. I was very surprised and delighted that the electrician was a super old school portuguese guy who reinstalled all the chandelier mounts and sconce wiring in the apartment. i was told it would all be stripped out and I had nothing to say about it, being a renter in a what is basically a working class, lower middle class building. But he saw all my brass and bronze fixtures in place, and said they absolutely had to stay in place because everything on the market today is total crap. He even rewired one of the lustres so it could stay were it was. I guess he does work in some of the luxury buildings where they will go out of their way to preserve history. My building is protected, however, from demolition. and significant exterior changes. It's in the "heimat style".

Ok i've droned on enough.

Because social media has conditioned people to do what everyone else is doing, even more than before.

We live in a condo and have carpeting. We're considering replacing it but our HOA has very specific rules for sound insulation as others have noted. However, everything we look at the flooring options we're always compelled to look at carpets! Something about its softness and warm. We have tile in half the place and it's so cold.

Carpets must contribute to dust. I remember as a kid being in someone's house where the carpet was light blue, and in another room, where I stayed, under the bed there were light blue dust bunnies.

R53

No, they're not the same. Engineered wood floors are actually wood.

[quote]Engineered wood flooring is a multi-layered product made of a real wood veneer top layer bonded to a plywood core. This construction method creates a stable and durable flooring option that closely resembles solid hardwood. The top layer, or wear layer, is made from high-quality wood species such as oak, maple, or exotic hardwoods, while the core layers typically consist of less expensive plywood or high-density fiberboard.

[quote]Short for luxury vinyl tile, LVT is designed to replicate hard surface flooring materials such as stone or wood, yet provide many more practical benefits. Available in planks or tiles, LVT uses a realistic photographic print film and a clear vinyl layer....

Sounds lovely r80.

[quote]No one does hardwood flooring anymore.

False

When I was a kid my parents bought this huge house from a Catholic family who had several chikldren. The house was immaculate with carpet EVERYWHERE.....even in the Kitchen!!?% and the carpet color was White. My siblings and I destroyed that kitchen carpet within a month maybe two and my parents replaced it with porcelain tile. I always think bwck to the craziness of the white kitchen carpeting.

Because, OP, tastes change.

The bare floors get dusty and dirty, too. You have to stay on top of cleaning them, just as you need to vacuum the rugs.

R86 I kept waiting to read how their being Catholic was pertinent.

Vaccuuming a rug is a hell of a lot easier than cleaning a wood floor.

washing a wood floor is a hell of a lot easier than washing carpet.

[quote] If you're not interested in having your W2W carpets cleaned regularly be prepared to be talked about behind your back by people who visit you.

[quote][R86] I kept waiting to read how their being Catholic was pertinent.

The white carpet was immaculate, like the Virgin Mary.

R90 If you walk on the floor at all, you have to clean it like you clean the kitchen floor or any other floor, so it's frequent. And vacuuming is easier than than. Washing the rug is not something you do every other week.

*than that.

W2W carpeting was popular at the time it came into vogue not only for aesthetic reasons but for comfort. Most houses, even newly built ones, weren’t well insulated and central heating via oil furnace was expensive and not yet perfected. W2W carpeting was not only seen as modern, but as a warmer, insulating feature of a home. No need for shoes or socks in your house, you had warm carpeting.

I prefer hardwood and rugs, but then the question for our tasteful friends is: furniture all off the rug? all in the rug? or the most daring furniture half on and half off the rug?

These questions alone probably explain why people these days are all rug or all hardwood!

Almost a hundred replies to something that everyone, including the OP, already knew. Slow news day.

I have to say, a carpet is warmer than a hardwood (or other) floor.

Only tacky trash would have carpet in their homes.

It's tacky and dated.

People who have carpet, usually old tired people and trashy trailer dwellers because it's cheap, should be shot on sight, no carpet is clean, shampoo it and it gets worse, most monkeys wet it too deep and then comes more mold, all carpet has mold, tell yourself whatever. Your house smells like Cheryl's pussy meat.

I used to like wood floors before I realized how dirty they always look and that’s what Swiffers were made for. Just moving all the mess around. Hard floors make a lot of noise and make your house echo-y.

TACKAAAAY!

Don't assume there's wood under those carpets. In many mid-century homes, remove the carpets and you get to interact with asbestos-filled 1940s-1950s tile. Then you have the fun of asbestos abatement!

You have to vacuum a carpet AND steam clean it. That's a pain in the ass.

I don’t understand the argument that it’s easier to vacuum a carpet than wash a wood floor. That’s apples to oranges. A vacuumed wood floor is going to be cleaner than a vacuumed carpet and a freshly washed wood floor is going to be much cleaner than a vaccumed carpet or a freshly shampooed carpet. And carpet shampooing is much harder than washing a floor.

I don’t wash my wood floors that frequently, I just vacuum them.

You shouldn't wash floors often, it's bad for the wood. Regular vacuuming is fine, mopping once a month or as needed.

^^^^wood floors

How old are you OP? Wall-to-wall carpets have been out for the last 30 years with some rare exceptions like bedrooms where, on occasion, people still use them. They're filthy dirt and bug collectors, expensive and hard to maintain. I haven't seen a single renovation for the last three decades where carpets were used to cover hardwood floors.

Even many hotels now are switching to wood floors in the rooms.

R98 People these days are lucky to have homes.

I'm not dead set against wall-to-wall carpeting, it can work well in some settings. Because I like only historic buildings with their stone or tile or hardwood floors, I don't think I would ever add fitted carpeting.

In Spain carpeting and rugs are typically considered suspect, for hygienic reasons -- vacuuming is not enough in a Spanish house, the floors must be mopped and sanitized frequently. This works fine as most floors are tile, or in more recent construction, that nasty wood-effect ceramic tile.

Many historic houses in the UK have fitted carpets on the upper floors, often because the more modest period houses have lesser grade wood on the upper levels. The lesser quality wood on the upper levels can exhibit warping, drafty gaps, and rough surfaces all of which can affect comfort. It also creates a more uniform appearance for the floor and I can understand the appeal in bedrooms in many respects. There can be something comfortable about carpeting in bedrooms, depending on the type and quality, even if most fitted carpeting is just manky.

I think Roombas and automated vacuums also have contributed to ousting the old taste for wall-to-wall, which to me seems very old-fashioned, from my mother's and grandmother's eras -- along with glass curtains and multiple layers of blinds and 'drapes' on windows, and not lagging too far behind antimacassars.

[quote]multiple layers of blinds and 'drapes' on windows,

This is going to make the eldergays declare war on me but I agree. It is very old-fashioned and "grandma" taste.

You don't vacuum a hard wood floor.

You mop on regular biweekly basis. You're not going to destroy the floors if you know how to mop correctly and have the right solution.

I know NO ONE who vacuums a hardwood floor.

^ That is nasty and whack. All you do is turn off the rollers and put it on "non-carpet" mode.

My little flying saucer-like robot vacuums my hard wood floor.

Of course you vacuum a wood floor. With the brush (not the roller) feature. Vacuuming preserves a wood floor better than mopping and 'solutions' as it removes dirt that can abrade the surface. Sweeping and/or cleaning with a mop should be done with some care and with minimal frequency.

R112 I don't like a lot of draperies, but when I drive past houses at night and see into the houses, see the people and what they're watching on their big screen TVs, it still seems odd to me. When people had drapes and curtains they had privacy, and they wanted privacy.

Also with the colors and kinds of furniture (patterned, chinz) and rugs people used to have, they used to get faded by bright sunlight.

I always thought they were disgjsting, OP. A big NO for mwah!

Sorry I misspelt it! It’s “discusting.”

I miss when people had high thresholds to keep the straw in. You had to change it out for fresh every month or so but it sure was good for absorbing rodent pee.

[quote]Sweeping and/or cleaning with a mop should be done with some care and with minimal frequency.

Vacuuming scrapes your hardwood floors as well.

Mopping with a nice finish preserves the floor and makes it sparkle. Simply vacuuming doesn't add luster to your floors. Presentation is key.

Joan Crawford went to the mat on this one and she was right. No one wants shitty looking floors.

Hate carpeting. I got rid of all of mine and replaced it with hardwood floors a few years ago, and it was a great decision. Carpet just seems so dated and tacky.

Low pile carpeting in the bathroom and kitchen is good for reducing the chances of an elderly person’s slipping and falling.

Who cares if elderly slip, go to a home if you can't stand up without slipping, what a fucking nanny and straight cun thing to say.

OP the only carpet you should have is a good quality rug.

I vacuum wood flours. And I mop them. I use weak wood soap with a microfibre mop that isn't sopping wet. It always removes a lot of dirt and city grime that I can't necessarily see before I mop.

R117 Nobody should have a large TV in their living room, and even less above the fireplace. So tacky.

^^oh shut up

Hi R113, I just vacuumed my hardwood floors today.

If a vacuum cleaner damages your hardwood floor, your wood is too far down on the Janka scale. Nothing under 1300 lbf.

I uncovered original hard wood oak in my living room and dining room. The rest is some early version of LVF and has to come out due to a dishwasher disaster that left me having to replace all the flooring on my first floor EXCEPT the original hardwood in the living room and dining room. I have pets (2 dogs, 1 cat) and will always have animals in my house. Should I replace the crap LVF with the same hard wood oak that is in the other two rooms?

Can you afford it?

Because penguins, sheep, robots. Gotta all follow the trends. Like all the beds in new print, TV or online ads now for furnishings or such—they no longer can look like beds, they have to resemble gray and white boxes.

I’m with R2. Cleanliness.

I love my hardwood floors, and hand knotted rugs are a must. Whenever I think they need cleaning I call a local cleaning company and they will pick up and return them a week or two later, I despise cheap machine made rugs or tufted rugs.

Some carpet advantages: I like to go barefoot & hate cold feet. Also sometimes uncarpeted floors are slippery. Wood floors are easily scratched & scarred & ruined with water spills. Indoor/outdoor carpeting can be used in family rooms, etc & is easily cleaned & doesn’t show much wear. Carpeting throughout the house ties the rooms together.

My doctor says over 50 you should have carpeting in case you fall.

R128 bought a giant TV, nailed it on top of his electric heater and thinks it looks luxurious.

If the Brits can carpet their bathrooms and carpet all around their toilets, it's good enough for the whole flat

Nope r138.

wall-to-wall carpeting is tacky, what the hell is under that stapled/glued on covering?

hard wood floors + rugs looks much better

I grew up with wall-to-wall carpeting. It was fine, but got dirty and dusty quickly. As an adult, I'm happy with bare wood floors and area rugs. Everything is cleaner.

The worst down side to hardwood floors is the creaking. We didn't realize how loud it can be until we got rid of our wall-to-wall in our bedroom.

R132, yes I can afford it. I just don't know if it is the best choice given my pet situation. The living room and dining room floors have large area rugs in them over the hardwood.

r117 I've noticed that people in wealthy areas are more prone to leaving their windows uncovered and open at night. Middle class and poor keep their windows blinds/curtains closed all the time, even during the day.

R145, when I first bought my house, there were no blinds. It felt kind of weird.I lived like that for two years.

Then I thought, screw this, and put up blinds and curtains everywhere

R145 I wasn't referring to a wealthy area. No, middle class people don't keep their windows covered all the time, and I've not noticed that in poor areas, either.

r147 Just something I've noticed. Drive down a street on a weekend day in a suburban subdivision and 90% of the houses will have the blinds or curtains closed. Obviously same at night. Do the same drive down a wealthy inner suburb and it's the exact opposite. You generally wont see tvs, but you will be able to see into the house without issue.

This

vs this

Because the suburban ones are all doing meth. Duh.

We thought we had struck oak gold when pulling up the family’s dining room W-T-W. The boards were wider than schoolroom stock and they were gold!

Then, we removed the center carpet and found that the floor had been laid with the assumption that there would be an area rug under the dining room table. The square of wood was about four foot by eight of plain old pine. My folks went back to W-T-W shortly afterwards - the echos from the living room and up the stairs was deafening.

R55, yes. Natural wood will react naturally to its environment, and in this case, dents are part of natural wear & tear. Buff the flooring rather than replacing it, if at all possible.

Another thing for all before buying, renting or building:

Before starting in on interior design and decor, remember to keep things simple regardless of budget.

Ask yourself, “have I seen this color in nature”, followed up by, “have I seen these colors near one another in nature?”

Build upon those principles when designing, and eventually ask if you have seen certain textures in nature, such as marble, wood, and then go on to shapes, patterns, etc.

This is another example as to why laminate gray flooring is so harsh. There aren’t many gray trees in nature, unless it’s the dead of winter, are there?

When choosing area rugs, which are much more appealing than wall to wall carpet, try to choose them in natural fibers, such as wool. Same with all furnishings- opt for natural fibers before synthetic ones.

I am not a fan of wall to wall carpeting, but when my sister’s children were very young she had a Berber (sp?) wall to wall in the living areas and it was quite nice. It also provided a somewhat safe surface for children playing and tumbling about.

Wall to wall is also good for seniors bedroom areas so they don’t fall at night trying to reach the bathroom.

R148, in the suburbs where I live, if the drapes/curtains are drawn, those that live there are probably out of the house or out of town. Whenever I leave the house for a few days, I close the drapes. When I'm home during the day, I open them.

I have W2W carpet throughout my 2nd floor condo. Laminate in the batrhooms and kitchen, hardwood floor in the second bedroom/home office and an area rug. I like to be the quiet upstarirs neighbor and walk around barefoot. I don't wear shoes in the house and like to watch Cosmo stretch and roll around the carpet.

The best advice my mother taught me, which I still put into use today, is that every room needs an area rug to anchor it.

My Neanderthal husband -- from Ohio, mind you -- didn't agree with me when we bought our house and we had to live without rugs for the first couple of years. After we put them in he finally saw for himself what a difference it makes.

The new wife of a friend from Tampa couldn't understand why I had "old rugs covering up these beautiful hardwood floors" when she first visited.

I didn't have the heart to tell her one of those old rugs cost my parents something like $9,000 in the 1960's. I guess Oriental rugs are rare in Florida.

R156 also don't most Floridian homes have tile?

[quote] I love my hardwood floors, and hand knotted rugs are a must.

[quote] The best advice my mother taught me, which I still put into use today, is that every room needs an area rug to anchor it.

MARY.

The only way I would have wall to wall carpeting would be in a high rise, no pets, shoes off at the door, and it would be wool.

The problem with pure wool rugs are they smell like ass when it's really humid out

Thankfully I've never lived in a humid environment.

I like concrete.

I agree with the OP. I love how every home looks like you walked into a McDonald's.

Real, hand knotted oriental rugs don’t show dirt or stains, wear like iron, and even when they start to wear out they can be charming. But I think they look awful in most structures built after latest 1950’s, latest. Maybe they would work in a super high end week designed “new old house.”

If people have examples disproving me, I’d love to see them. More casual flat weave rugs can work in mid century and modern spaces, but usually not traditional orientals.

Fine hand knotted Tibetan rugs are gorgeous in contemporary settings, especially if they have some silk woven into them. I love Odegard rugs.

The dust on wood floors really shows in the sunlight.

windows are shuttered and draped because energy is expensive. Heating and cooling.

a counter experience to the poors and windows: I was a university grad yet living in pregentrified neighbourhoods in NY in the 80s. In these, sometimes surprisingly cavernous and affordable, apartments, heat came on Nov 1 and when off in April and in deepest winter it was so cranked up we all had our windows open even during the bitterest cold snaps, and in snow storms! I found the experience very sensual.

I need privacy and worked in law enforcement. The hell with no window coverings.

It's been this way for over 20 years OP - where have you been?

The whole wall-to-wall carpet was a thing primarily due to older homes and not having modern HVAC systems. It DID make a place warmer with the old systems, particularly if you had radiator heat.

However, in the last 30-40 years with modern HVAC systems, you don't need to have it.

I like a solid floor - I still think carpet is fine for the bedrooms, although some people will fight me on that.

For anyone with pets, wall to wall carpeting is a nightmare. No matter how trained they are, they will some times have accidents.

Go hardwood floor with pet-friendly carpets, which are dirt cheap ($100-200) and look nice. I learned the hard way when my dog ruined an expensive wool carpet.

[quote] My doctor says over 50 you should have carpeting in case you fall.

At age 50? Does he suspect you drink a lot?

If you live in an apartment you have carpet.

[quote]If you live in an apartment you have carpet.

[quote]—It’s not a choice

It is a choice depending on where you live. All the world doesn't have the same rule.

I feel so unmoored in a room that doesn’t have an area rug to anchor it.

Well, be sure to place a hand-knotted rug in each room to anchor you.

R173 - very few apartments I've ever lived in had carpet, both old (100+ years) and new apartments. Most often in the bedrooms.

I will say it's a bit annoying - so many new builds are using LVP (luxury vinyl plank) right on top of the floor. You're supposed to put in soundproofing - just like with laminate or hardwood.

But no - and so you can hear everything in some builds. Always check that before you move in.

There's nothing 'luxury' about LVP - it's inexpensive and just vinyl strips. Luxury is a marketing term.

Fuck that. The apartment limits my LVP area to the kitchen and bathroom in this shithole of an apartment.

There was just something about having a flat with full LVP that brought out the skibbityboo in my feet. After a bad day, I’d catch a case of Billie Elliot or Breakin II - Electric Boogaloo. The difference was mostly the footwear - Lanvin tapped the best -while break dancing was more of a socks and underwear dresscode that could descend into The Pizza Boy Delivers or very bad Risky Business recreations..

With four dogs and a cat and me, LVP IS a luxury, No vomit spots, no pee spots, the Yorkie is the pee pot, not all the time, but enough not to want carpet, only matt's that can be taken outside and washed. Then no scratches to ruin it, we have commercial 22 mil wear layer, not the cheap shit. And the house doesn't stink, your house smells like carpet and old smelly people.

R178 "Are you the queer who wants to sniff my stinking shorts!?"

R179, may I ask why LVP vs. hardwood? I am the poster upthread who is asking if it is a mistake to install hardwood with pets.

Not R179, but I'm guessing: price.

I suppose if dogs pee the wood absorbs it but it just sits on LVP until you wipe it up and forget it ever happened. ?

OP one sad word: LAMINATE

Those are just as nasty R125. They almost never get cleaned unless they are being resold.

My dream house has waterproof floors with drains on one side so it all gets hosed down and washed away several times a week.

No I'm not a serial killer.

My dream bathroom is 100% tile with a drain in the middle. I take a hose and spray it down.

OP - is this the same ungrateful niece who doesn't appreciate your collection of mother's Avon bottles, doesn't like Chicken a la King, and is raising two pre-teen tramps who use tampons?

Cause she's a piece of work.

Floors get cold in winter climate areas no matter how well you heat your home, so area rugs help.

I like blue area rugs. Mean sister made me sit on red.

I WANT IT BARE

My mom did the exact same thing in our hallway R77! But I thought it was kind of cool.

Do you think he’s like dad?

Writing thread LoL

It is easier to clean bare floors and carpet just looks cheap to me. Better to have a nicer area rug if you want a soft floor.

Bare floors or bare floors and area rugs emphasize architecture and design, grounding the floor in wood, stone, tile -- usually something elemental.

Wall-to-wall carpeting emphasizes textiles and color and is visually and through texture softens the floor, degrounding it from something element to something fuzzy. It's the opposite of an architectural emphasis in that it wants to wrap everything in fabric - like someone's ancient grandparents with the bed with umpteen layers of coverings and then bedspreads (with blankets laid on top) and matching frilled edge pillow cases and dust ruffles, like the inside if a coffin.

Wall-to-wall carpet, once mod, is now associated with grannies and dust and over decoration - one step away from the Southern Belle knitted toilet paper roll cover

Wponder why everyone doesn't love wall-to-wall carpet?

Are any of you design divas going to answer my question upthread re: should I put in hardwood floors in my kitchen and foyer to match my living room and dining room? It's a center hall cololnial built in the early 60s. I have two dogs and a cat.

I would r198

r198, I would, it would feel more spacious...your eye doesn't stop and start. I hate seeing several COF, just keep it clean.

R198, as long as you’re not anal about water marks, you can use hardwood in the kitchen. Pets fling water as do people; there will be dark spots and they will appear next to protected high traffic areas.

Carpeted walls are the latest trend.

R198 As others said, having wooden floors in your kitchen that match adjacent spaces will make you house seem larger, almost subconsciously. We put new flooring in the whole house, remodeling the kitchen completely. I considered tiles for the kitchen floor (craftsman house, I thought terra cotta, or even vintage real linoleum) but we put in the same hardwood as the rest of the house. It looks warm and period. There's really little problem with water (and we've dogs too). Most wooden flooring is pre-finished, and the sealer is pretty heavy thick.

r203 that sounds nice. I love Craftsman houses!

No one wants carpeting which attracts allergens.