Flooring Options for our Dream House

Word of warning about tiles. I bought the tiles for my hall from B&Q [similar thing happened with some tiles my daughter bought from Homebase]. Even though they were all together and appeared to have the same code number on the pack they were all different dates and batches. The tiler said he couldn't use them as the colour and size wouldn't match up; even if the tiles were a fraction out size wise it would cause a problem. I had assumed that B&Q would be much cheaper than a specialist tile shop. However, when I took the tiles back I went to a tile shop next door and bought some much better tiles, all with the same batch number and they were also cheaper. I'm not knocking B&Q in general but, when it comes to tiles I will never go there again; ditto Homebase.

I also have ceramic tiles in my kitchen, which was newly installed six months ago. It was a big bone of contention with us, as I did not want them, I favoured a tile effect laminate, but DH insisted. He dismissed my concerns over dropping things on them as 'silly'. They were very expensive. Well, GS, who is a helpful little soul, carried the lunch plates through from the dining room and one if the sharp pointed table knives slipped off a plate, fell on its point and we now have a small round hole in one of the tiles. Fortunately it hasn't cracked, but it is there and my eye goes to it constantly. I dropped the lid of a casserole dish on the kitchen floor and it shattered into so many pieces we were still finding them after several rounds with the vacuum cleaner. With the laminate we had before, I doubt that would have happened.

My kitchen has cream ceramic tiles and, while they look great, I am quite scared of them since I slipped on a wet patch and fell. Sould have wiped my feet more carefully, probably, but still....the conservatory / dining room, and the bathrooms have been re-covered in flooring - looks like tiles but isn't - with a textured finish. Watch out, kitchen!

Phoned up the guy who fitted carpets for me years ago and he's still working and is quite happy to move the piano! Just got to start clearing stuff out of cupboards etc now.

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The carpet fitters I use insist on an empty room before they start work, DH and I have nearly crippled ourselves shifting the piano and large cabinets.

I used to work for a firm of specialist carpet cleaners and repairers and also supplied new carpets. I ran the admin for several teams of fitters. We used to ask people what furniture was in their rooms and it was not unusual to turn up and find they'd been economical with the truth to say the least, but it was to their disadvantage as we charged fitting by the hour in most cases, and the job just took longer and cost more. It's not often that carpet fitters have the luxury of working in empty rooms.

I did think about getting rid of the piano; it isn't a particularly good one and my daughter [who used to play it] has a better one of her own now. But it think my little grandaughter might like tinkering about on it when she's older...my own kids loved doing so when they visited people with pianos, which is why I bought one.

Tegan there are specialist firms of piano movers who will move pianos from one room to another. The have a special trolley and a two man team made it look very easy when we had ours moved. Google Piano Movers and find one for your area. John Lewis charged us £30 per room for moving the furniture, but they don't do pianos.

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Not long after we moved into our house, we had all the downstairs carpets removed and some very good German laminate flooring put down. They did half the room, then moved my upright piano ( which has those nylon gliding castor cups under the castors so is very easy to move) onto that half, did the other half and moved the piano back again. It seemed to be no effort and didn't harm or mark the the floor. A grand might be a different proposition! The castor cups were quite expensive, but it does make moving the piano about a doddle.

Maybe put an advert in a local shop asking for 'muscle' on the day for a couple of hours. My sister had to co-ordinate moving in, having windows removed and fitted with new ones and the piano going through the empty frames as well as new carpet, all on the same day. She booked one extra man for the afternoon, which could perhaps be rather expensive. I stayed out of the way and unpacked the kitchen! It went, carpet out of removed window, vacuum, new carpets down, piano in, man go home, new window in.

I'm going to have tiles in my hallway as I find it gets very grubby with walking the dog in and out. I do need the whole house recarpeting and I have saved up the money to do it, but I've got so much furniture and junk I don't know where to start. I assume that carpet fitters will also move furniture [at a cost] but what do I do with the piano in the living room etc?

We put Karndean in our new kitchen extension two years ago and I'd recommend it. It looks like new and is so easy to care for. We chose the Karndean over Amtico for price and because we preferred the Karndean parquet look.

Tiles in the bathroom but with underfloor heating. The stairs and bedrooms were carpeted about 5 years ago so won't need replacing for a while yet. We had wooden oak floors in the hall and front room 7 years ago, fantastic. The other sitting room has just been laid with a click n fix laminate which has some kind of oak photo stuff as the top layer.

Have fun choosing

I have Amtico in kitchen and bathrooms but carpets in lounges and bedrooms and up the stairs.

We had our tiles removed too. They went in the great kitchen re-jig of 2007. Have lovely warm cushion floor tiles now. Even the most fragile of things bounce, I love it.

Cushion floor for me too. I once dropped a bottle of tomato ketchup on a red quarry tile floor. Cleaning it up was a nightmare. Shards of glass everywhere. Cushion floor is more forgiving, easy to clean and warm to the feet too. Yes, they bounce!

I had my tiles lifted , involved a kango hammer and many bad words , and have cushionfloor now , easy to stand and walk on and cleans up well . It is a lot warmer too and thhings bounce

I don't care, I just love my tiled kitchen floors and always have one put in, they last for ever. I do drop things occasionally but I still think it's worth having tiles. No worry about burns or wearing through lino.

We put down a modern pattern of parquet tiles in light oak too, downstairs, it looks lovely and is so easy to keep clean.

I did have the stairs carpeted, I chose a stripe that goes up the stairs as it doesn't show the debris. Upstairs is carpeted to minimise noise, although I would like to have wood really. the upstairs bathroom is wood, the downstairs is tiles. Not slippery ones though, they have a rough surface and in some areas there are lots of little ones like large mosaic that provide extra grip.

Outside - have a look at the Stonemarket website. We have just bought a load of stuff from them, and the price includes delivery. The slabs are nice and thick and were the best value and quality that we could find.

www.stonemarket.co.uk/

I love my tiled kitchen floor, but lve just dropped a Pyrex jug!!

They shatter into a million pieces!

Mind you it is the first time I've ever dropped anything. x

DD has Karndean - excellent stuff. Good looking and bomb proof!

Bamboo.

We have Karndean flooring downstairs, there was no way we could afford real wood. It has been excellent, easy to keep clean and very hard wearing. It has been down for eleven years now and is still as good as new.