Alternative to carpeted living room

mrcheez

Have had enough of carpet in my living room (getting dirty when food/wine dropped on it, or eaten by moths) so looking for ideas on what to replace it with.

Basically it has to be easy to clean (door leading out to garden joins directly onto living room), preferably comfortable to walk on barefoot without completely freezing, and very durable (it's a high traffic room that sits between front door and kitchen/rear garden + will get wet when walking in from garden on wet days + furniture may get dragged around on it).

Thinking either tile, or perhaps polished dyed concrete? Could use a few rugs thrown randomly on it for walking barefoot.

Also needs to be about same thickness as the carpet + underlay (I guess about 10mm?)

Hardwood probably isn't good as floor will get wet when walking in from garden, also it would probably scratch?

Not keen on laminate for same reasons.

KFiddles

I've seen some new wood laminates with 20 year guarantees and thinking of going that route myself.

professore

Hardwood will scratch eventually but you can sand and polish it again periodically, and unless you are pouring buckets of water on it every day a small bit of water isn't an issue. We have one and love it. Feels great underfoot. Also we have a light coloured one (oak), and any marks or scratches add to it's character. Was going to go for a walnut one but glad I didn't now.

jlm29

What about some kind of vinyl? I wouldn't have thought about it, but I recently came across an amtico stockist- their stuff is fab, though quite pricey. They have plenty variety. I liked the ones that had a wood floor look. I think there's a 20 yr guarantee.,
If I had the budget, that's how I would go for my sitting room.

DaisyD2

I bought wood effect tile for my bathroom to see what it would look like down & I love it.

I went for lightest color as it was an ensuite but would love to get the whole downstairs done in the medium shade.

If I had one hesitation its that I don't like seeing grout, if I could afford to I would go the overlap tile route but then I have only seen that in marble & don't like marble veins.

jlm29

DaisyD2 wrote: »

I bought wood effect tile for my bathroom to see what it would look like down & I love it.

I went for lightest color as it was an ensuite but would love to get the whole downstairs done in the medium shade.

If I had one hesitation its that I don't like seeing grout, if I could afford to I would go the overlap tile route but then I have only seen that in marble & don't like marble veins.

I have wood effect tiles in my kitchen, but they are cold. I can understand why op wouldn't want them in a living area!

mrcheez

DaisyD2 wrote: »

I bought wood effect tile for my bathroom to see what it would look like down & I love it.

I went for lightest color as it was an ensuite but would love to get the whole downstairs done in the medium shade.

If I had one hesitation its that I don't like seeing grout, if I could afford to I would go the overlap tile route but then I have only seen that in marble & don't like marble veins.

I wonder is it possible to get dark-coloured grout?

Read up on marble, used to have it in our house in Saudi and loved the cool feeling there, but might be a bit cold in Ireland.

Also I think marble scratches pretty easily.

I forgot to mention I'll be bring wet bikes through the area as well, in order to park them in garden shed, so the floor will get pretty mucky in winter. Would love it to be a surface i can just mop up and leave to dry.

mrcheez

What are the downsides of polished concrete?

bbsrs

mrcheez wrote: »

Have had enough of carpet in my living room (getting dirty when food/wine dropped on it, or eaten by moths) so looking for ideas on what to replace it with.

Basically it has to be easy to clean (door leading out to garden joins directly onto living room), preferably comfortable to walk on barefoot without completely freezing, and very durable (it's a high traffic room that sits between front door and kitchen/rear garden + will get wet when walking in from garden on wet days + furniture may get dragged around on it).

Thinking either tile, or perhaps polished dyed concrete? Could use a few rugs thrown randomly on it for walking barefoot.

Also needs to be about same thickness as the carpet + underlay (I guess about 10mm?)

Hardwood probably isn't good as floor will get wet when walking in from garden, also it would probably scratch?

Not keen on laminate for same reasons.

What's under your carpet at the moment? Concrete or softwood timber floor on batons?

mrcheez

Concrete, sorry should have mentioned

Reading more about concrete, some really nice faux wood effects, or you can go totally psychedelic with the colours

http://www.houzz.com/photos/138053/Knot-On-Call-eclectic-patio-raleigh


What's concrete like in winter to walk on? Any recommendations on specialists in Dublin?

KFiddles

The problem with colored concrete is that if it gets damaged you can't fix it.

mrcheez

The wood effect one might be better if I could get it, as it's in sections, so if you had to dig up an area you could probably redo it again seamlessly.

bbsrs

Put in underfloor heating then polish the concrete and you can add different coloured pebbles to the floor when it's poured . Nice to look at and nice to walk on.

mrcheez

Don't really want to bother with underfloor heating. My kitchen has tiles and I can walk on those in winter so I don't think it's really that big of a deal.

The area is only 20m squared too (square space), so should be fairly inexpensive.