Alternatives to carpet

[Jill Chivers]

hiya all and happy friday

we're looking at buying a unit in maroubra (beachside suburb in sydney) that needs major cosmetic renovations, including floor coverings. We've put down carpet in other investment units and it tends to show wear & tear really quickly.... Anyone got any experience with alternatives to carpet? Be interested in all ideas.

jill

[geoffw]

Sounds like not a very good carpet if it wears so quickly. I've been told DHA use one particular type of carpet for colour & wear- but I'm not sure what type it is.

If the place has floorboards, many people like to sand and polish the floorboards. That's not my taste- but they are popular. My r/e agent says that tenants tend though to prefer carpet in bedrooms.

I have one property which has floor tiles throughout. It makes the place seem a little colder, but cleaning them is easy.

We made the mistake of putting carpet in our family room. That got too dirty too quickly- so we put in vinyl tiles. I like them. They look good, they wear well, and they're more tolrant of dropped plates than ceramic tiles.

[Desto]

Jill,

As a long time tenant in the past, I have also seen carpets that were totally new when I moved in, but deteriorated so quickly that they looked worn out within 3 months.

When I built my home 5 years ago, I did a lot of research on floor coverings. This meant lots of talking to flooring experts, like the ones you'd find in places like Anderson's Capets, Carpet Call etc.

If you explain to them that you need hard wearing carpet, they will provide you with a range of options.

In the end I decided to go for floating timber floor in corridor and kitchen area ( would have covered the entire house but for the cost!) and hard wearing carpets in bedrooms.

5 years down the track, and the carpets have admirably withstood 3 people and 3 dogs. The fake timber floor is great too :-)

Talk to the flooring experts for advice. It'll be worth it.

Desto.