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First let say that I don’t have problems with allergies.
I have wood/tile but I remember my parents having carpet when I was younger and I had no problem with it. It felt nice to walk on and you could just get down in the floor to relax, watch tv or wrestle with a sibling.
I think my parent’s carpet was used 15 years before it was too worn out to be saved (we were pretty rough on it). At that rate, a person buying a home at 40 is probably only looking at maybe 2 replacements. Therefore, it’s probably no more expensive than refinishing hardwoods every 15 years.
I’m one that tends to walk around the house a lot cleaning, or when I’m talking on the phone, thinking, etc and I can certainly feel a little more stress on my joints/back. If I play basketball or work out I definitely feel the hard surfaces working against me.
Here’s another thing I notice - unless I’ve just finished sweeping/vacuuming/mopping the wood floor, I never really feel it’s clean enough for me to lay on. Whatever little dirt is on a hard surface, you can feel it and it seems like it sticks to you. I’m not sure why but carpet doesn’t really have that feeling unless the owner is just filthy.
With wood I’m worried about scratches - with carpet it never entered my mind. Need to move the couch - just drag it out to wherever you need it. Drop a metal tool, knife or even a 20 lb dumbbell? Who cares.
Yes, you can buy rugs for wood but then you basically have carpet to keep clean. And a large area rug plus pad is very expensive...maybe half the price of new wall-to-wall carpet for a room. So with refinishing/rugs, are you really saving much money with wood?
Anyway, maybe I need guidance here. Why do I not love my wood floors as much as it seems I should love them? One thing I do like is being able to clean spills and know that it’s all gone instead of wondering if some of it is still deep down in the carpet. But again, even this annoyance can’t be avoided with wood covered by rugs.
Last edited by eddiehaskell; 12-12-2017 at 11:40 PM..
Oh...and while I’m at it, what about the clicking and clomping you hear with people walking on hard surfaces? What about falls for older folks? If you’re a 1-2 year old, would you rather spend a few years banging around on padded carpet or wood?
I prefer wood over carpet. The only carpet in my primary residence is in the master and the guest bedrooms. My winter house in Arizona is all tile, no carpet.
Having recently moved from a mostly carpeted house to one that is mostly bamboo or tile (except bedrooms), I notice the tradeoffs quite a bit. First, I like the look and idea of wood floors but this is the first one I've lived in continuously.
Both houses were well insulated, not drafty, and on dug foundations, not concrete slabs, but the carpeted floors were warmer in winter (and we are talking single digits at night in winter here). The wood floors always seem chilly so I want to wear warmer clothing. The harder floors irritate tendonitis if I go barefoot very much. I also fuss about spills, tracking in wet from outdoors past the doormats, dents and scratches more, but soon after moving in I put felt pads under all the furniture feet to avoid damage. Every speck of dirt seems to stand out like a sore thumb on the wood floors even right after a thorough sweep. I have a dog and aviary birds. There's always visible mess. My dog isn't a huge year round shedder, but I am constantly noticing/sweeping/vacuuming up hair. Yes, I know the same amount of hair/dirt and debris would also be on those carpets, but it wasn't nearly as noticeable. Maybe there's some OCD in my future? I also notice rattling, vibrations from furniture and decor and more noise as people walk around.
The carpeting tended to hold on to odors. When it rains every day for a week or so or its too cold to keep windows cracked, the house smells a bit musty. Softer pile shows traffic wear no matter what you do. And, once the carpet gets a stain set on it the residue seems to be there forever. Those of you with dogs know sometimes we don't find something soon enough! Oh, then there was the time my beloved dog stole a butchered moose leg from the neighbor's trash heap of a yard, dragged it through the dog door in the middle of the night, gnawed on it for a while and left the remains in the middle of the living room carpet. The stain never ever came out.
Last edited by Parnassia; 12-13-2017 at 03:50 AM..
I also recently moved from mostly carpet to all hardwood. Agreed about never feeling like it's 100% clean, although now I think about ask the dirt and dust the carpet absorbs.
The worst part is I just had a beautiful glass Christmas ornament die via hardwood floor. If an ornament fell off on the carpet, usually it was fine. Not so when it falls onto the hardwood floors.
With wood floors you can see the dirt and remove it. With carpet all the dirt is there, you just don't see it.
I think that carpet is fine if you take the time to maintain it. If you've got a good vacuum and vacuum often, treat spills immediately, have the carpet professionally cleaned occassionally by a company with a strong enough vacuum to get the soap and water out, your carpet will last and be clean enough.
I've got dogs. For me, I want to be able to see the mess and clean it instead of having it soak into the carpet pad. Dog hair is easier to clean off of hard floor than it is to get it out of carpet.
Plus side for carpet, especially if there is good pad under it, is that it is nice under foot. I don't think it takes any more maintenance. I vacuum the carpet, I sweep the wood floor. Both need spills cleaned up immediately.
I prefer to sit or lie on hard-surfaced floors because they are cleaner than carpet. It is easy to keep a hard floor very clean, and impossible to keep a carpet really clean, especially with more time. Dirt gets ground into the fibers. Even shampooing doesn’t get it that clean—just less dirty than before.
If I need padding, I put a pad on the hard floor before sitting or lying down. Problem solved, and the pad itself can easily be cleaned as needed. Small rugs would do the same; some can be machine washed.
Even if your household is shoes-off-indoors, carpet gets nasty from soaking up odors of stinky feet and socks. With hard floors, dampmop then wipe dry and it’s gone.
Carpet is filthy and disgusting and cannot be cleaned. Those rug cleaners do not clean it. The filth oozes down into the padding and there is nothing you can do. Removing it for cleaning or replacement is a major issue. You have to take up all the furniture, pull up the tack strips, remove the padding, etc. Removing an area rug - you roll it up. Many rooms do nor have or need an area rug.
Wood is far more healthy. If you have an area rug and it gets dog poop or something, you can pull it out and have it cleaned in a machine, or replace it, or just pull it out. They do not need to cost all that much.
As far as the clicking and clomping, we ask people to remove their shoes, or if that is inappropriate, just live with it. Removing shoes is better. Those spiked high heel shoes destroy carpet or hardwood.
For our rooms that involve more mess/dirty (kitchen and dining room and some hallways) we use smaller cheap area rugs, we have several sets so it is easy to cycle them through. Some of them can be tossed into the washing machine. The only padding is a thin rubberized sheet that holds the rug in place and keeps any liquid spills from soaking the wood beneath.
With liquid spills, on carpet- the carpet remains wet and grows mold. With hard wood you either wipe it up, or if it is in the area rug, you can put the rug out not he sun to dry replace it if necessary etc. There is not permanent pocket of liquid trapped below the rug or even below the padding. Sometimes when you pull up old carpeting, you find trapped fluids have rotter out the wood beneath. Always you find all kinds of mold, mildew and really gross slimy effluvia. It is flat ut disgusting.
We have always had carpet in the living room and bedrooms, tile in the bathrooms, and wood everywhere else. I prefer carpet in our living room/bedrooms because we don't wear shoes in the house so we really value the comfort/warmth of carpet on our feet (plus we don't get it very dirty that way). We have a toddler, and carpet is so nice for him. It's soft, cozy, and is a soft landing surface. If you like carpet, get it and don't worry about what's trendy or what other people like.
Is carpet really THAT dirty (to the point of being a health hazard) if it is vacuumed regularly and shampooed every so often (good cleaner can be bought for $400)? We never had a problem growing up. No rotted wood under the carpet, no mold.
Besides, most people cover 70% of their hardwoods with rugs. Doesn’t that mean you are basically maintaining carpet and hardwoods?
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