I have never lived anywhere with carpets before so I really am out of my depth here.

Fortunately the house has only a paved back yard, not a muddy square like the current house so whilst I am not looking forwards to the vacuuming and carpet shampooing and I AM looking forwards to things not being so muddy!

What carpet cleaners and vacuum cleaners do people recommend, and also, I REALLY love the idea of the multi purpose steam mops (yes ive been sucked in by the info-mercials on telly, the kind you can take the handle and floor attachment off and have a hand held steamer as well).

Any wisdom on those - this house has a laminate hallway, vinyl kitchen floor and carpet everywhere else!

Can't you just rip the carpets out? That was the one thing we made sure to do before moving into this house, wise from the previous house. (When we moved into the previous house, apart from the general hassle, we didn't know that the carpets had been treated with anti stain treatment and that made the dogs itch like mad. ) We only have a carpet in one room now and that's the bedroom, and we have had enough now and will be taking it out. I DO have a steam cleaner, the type that is meant to do everything (it's brand new as well, new model, not cheap) and the one thing it absolutely does NOT do is clean the bedroom carpet. It just makes it stink! (As it leaves it warm and wet.) And that's despite the fact there NEVER are muddy paws in there. Two dogs sleep in there at night, but they never go in with wet or dirty paws, yet the carpet still get dirty. I have a go at it with the steam cleaner every Friday as that is my floor cleaning day but really it's not making any difference whatsoever.  The carpet washers that you put shampoo in are better -but I've not found them as good as the adverts either.

Hi, we live in a house with cream carpets everywhere and don't have a problem. Wash your dogs feet when they come in and hey presto. Daisy is used to it now and does not fuss at all. :)

^^^^^ditto that goldmali ^^^^

Rip the carpets out, I also regret getting them in the bedrooms when hard floors would have been more practical and definitely more hygenic.  Handheld steamers are fine for hard surfaces but I also found that it just left me with a warm, wet carpet.  I have the synthetic thick carpets that can be cleaned with bleach and I get them regularly shampooed by the man with the big machine but they still look grubby in contrast to the hard floors that went down at the same time.

edited to say daisysmum got in between lol

I love my carpets, and hate hard slippery floors, so I'd say get a Dyson or a Henry and you'll have no problems. :-)

We have both hard floors and carpets and the carpet gets my vote every time.

A good hoover and you have cracked it and We get them a shampoo when needed.

> Any wisdom on those

A good supply of Acclaim and give the place a blasting before you move in!

I absolutely hate carpets, and in rented places they're a nightmare. Usually cheapest of the cheap, and therefore not very hard-wearing, and some landlords in my experience use that as a way to keep some of your deposit back no matter how well you look after them :(

In this day & age, laminate is the most sensible thing to have in rental homes as it suits people with allergies and is much easier to replace/maintain.

I originally had a Meili Cat and Dog which I was very happy with until I got a Dyson, you would not believe the amount of c££p that came out of what I thought was a clean rug, Dyson for me every time.

I'm about to move into rented accommodation and this was one thing which put me off a few homes. Carpet everywhere downstairs is a nightmare and the thought of the dogs killing it in winter, if its not yours then its no fun at all i'd imagine... We have carpets now and I hate them, Dyson's are ok, but would much prefer a Miele cat/dog.. Won't ever put a steamer on carpet unless a professional is doing it..

> I'm about to move into rented accommodation and this was one thing which put me off a few homes. Carpet everywhere downstairs is a nightmare and the thought of the dogs killing it in winter, if its not yours then its no fun at all i'd imagine...

That's exactly it :(
In the flat I lived in before I had dogs, the carpet was so cheap & nasty that it was worn out in the hallways and entrances to rooms in about a year just from human traffic. I also had a bedside lamp fall over and the heat of the bulb melted a circle in the carpet.... I had some furniture delivered and a leg of a chair snagged the carpet, making it unravel like knitting down to the nylon weave below. I was there for 5 years and the landlord would not accept it as fair wear & tear.

The other side of the coin is if the landlord has put in decent carpets then you still spend all your time trying to look after them but if you don't have a decent hoover and/or can't afford a professional cleaner, they'll still try to sting you when you leave.

I've experienced both and now I wouldn't look at a place with carpets to rent. Although beggars can't be choosers, I would be prepared to lie and say I have an allergy to dust mites. You wouldn't believe the energy, stress, sweat, blood and tears I have put into looking after someone else's carpets that they would never live with themselves, over the years..... what a waste of time it was too.

If it's laminate then at least I can put my own rugs and carpets down if I want to.

Never really had a problem with carpets, but wet/dirty dogs aren't allowed out of the kitchen :)

Having said that, all carpets get dirty to a greater/lesser extent whether you have dogs or not :) :) We haven't put carpet downstairs in our current house as it is just easier to give tiles/wood floors a quick wash over then you know that they are clean :) :) Bedrooms have to have carpet tho' :) :)

Am I the only one who has had to put down carpets for their dogs? I like wooden floors but find them cold and the dogs don't cope well, feet don't grip, they ricochet off walls & furniture and cornering is a nightmare! A good hoover, the odd clean and they're fine .

> I like wooden floors but find them cold and the dogs don't cope well, feet don't grip, they ricochet off walls & furniture and cornering is a nightmare!

We have underfloor heating so cold isn't a problem :) I did worry that our 13 year old would find the floors slippery, but he manages fine on our wooden floors :) We are going to carpet the stairs as the bare wood is noisy when I creep downstairs in the morning to make a cup of tea (daren't wake OH :) ) and, although Bramble can manage them, I do worry that he might slip one day - he still insists on running up them :)

I like wooden floors but find them cold and the dogs don't cope well, feet don't grip, they ricochet off walls & furniture and cornering is a nightmare! A good hoover, the odd clean and they're fine .

That's kind of assuming you never have a puppy, never have an old dog getting incontinent, never have anyone throw up and never have muddy paws. (Oh, and never have a little git of a male Papillon being used at stud once and then deciding he has to cock his leg indoors ALL the time afterwards.) No vacuum will cope with any of that. ;) I have lino everywhere, it's nice and warm, washes really easily, vacuuming it takes no time whatsoever, and nobody slips on it either. And EVERYONE thinks it is real wood!! My mum once asked if I wasn't going to put rugs on my bare wood floors, and a friend asked if any puppy puddles didn't drip in between the gaps in the wood LOL.

>That's kind of assuming you never have a puppy, never have an old dog getting incontinent,

It's also assuming that you never have an old dog who finds walking difficult, or a young active dog who slides and damages its joints, or even an elderly parent with balance difficulties ...

> It's also assuming that you never have an old dog who finds walking difficult, or a young active dog who slides and damages its joints, or even an elderly parent with balance difficulties ...

As I have discovered to my cost over the last few decades of renting, there is plenty of cheap disposable carpet material out there - and non-slip vinyl - if you need to lay something over a decent basic floor.

> That's kind of assuming you never have a puppy, never have an old dog getting incontinent, never have anyone throw up and never have muddy paws.

Your assumptions are wrong, yes to all of them including big feet and low slung underparts.  It's just that I prefer the certainty they will not slip as they move around the house.

>It's just that I prefer the certainty they will not slip as they move around the house.

Ditto.

There's no real right or wrong answer for flooring - just whatever suits you and your lifestyle best or whichever you prefer.  Some houses or architectural styles also dictate appropriate coverings too.  I've had slate, carpet, victorian boards, cork, lino, natural stone, tiles and even painted concrete - all has it's advantages and disadvantages for kids, dogs, bare feet and mud!

I'm currently looking at getting a carpet cleaner and I'm debating between a VAX V-125 All Terrain which says it offers 'unbeatable multi-surface cleaning for homes with a mix of carpets and sealed hard floors'.  The other option is a Bissell Proheat 2x.  Bissell gets the thumbs up from CD'ers BUT fairly poor online reviews whereas the VAX gets very good all round praise from a variety of online sources.  I'm still thinking...

We have a mix of hard and soft floor coverings downstairs but the dogs remain in the kitchen and utility rooms until dry.  I use washable Turtle mats/runners at the back door to prevent mud coming inside and to avoid the dogs skidding on re-entry (quite why they feel the need to launch themselves over the threshold at 60 mph I've no idea!).  I also keep youngsters on wipe clean floors til they can be trusted but the odd accident is reasonably easy to clean.  Our carpets are pretty old though and I'm not too precious, but with years of kids and dogs I'm way more relaxed than I used to be :).  I also have large rugs in high traffic areas that are more forgiving of the odd muddy paw print or hair cloud

You don't say if the house you are moving into is rented - so I'm not sure if you can change the flooring to suit you but either way I'd wait until you get there before worrying about cleaning.  A friend of mine rented a house for a few years and she asked for permission to remove the cream carpet and replace with something of her choosing - she stored the original carpet to reinstall when she moved out but the landlord declined saying he liked her flooring better and offered to reimburse some of her expenses!

> It's also assuming that you never have an old dog who finds walking difficult, or a young active dog who slides and damages its joints, or even an elderly parent with balance difficulties ...

Area rugs! :-)

We used to have a cream carpet, as our dog got older he used to leave drips of wee all over the place (not puddles, just single drops here & there). We didn't notice at first until we started seeing dirty spots all over the carpet, a tiny wet drop of wee would get dust/dirt stuck into it and very soon our carpet looked spotted - yuk.

Rather than constantly cleaning the carpet we got laminate put down. The dog coped fine, even in his old age when he could no longer safely get on the sofa or manage stairs, he had no problem walking on the laminate.
When we got Buster (as a pup) we put large rugs & runners all around to stop him slipping/sliding (rugs can be cleaned and died/aired outside). We probably kept them down for about 18 months, then they all got binned. Even with 2 fusing front elbows and the grace of a bull-in-a-china-shop, he has no slipping problems. He demonstrated this evening that he can still even jump & spin in circles at top speed without slipping on the laminate  :-D

I am buying the house from my sister, but with all the other more important stuff we need I can't afford to get the flooring replaced straight away, or I would have Karndean or Rhino downstairs!

Annoyingly I can't shut dogs in the kitchen either as there is just an arch and not a door through to the hall and the walls are not suitable to screw or pressure fit a baby gate to (as my current house has double gates, one above the other from kitchen to hall).

On the plus side though the carpets are a paler shade than I would like, they are also probably 15 to 20 years old so they do need replacing and I won't feel too upset when the dogs inevitably trash them.

Fortunately as I say, the back yard is paved so hopefully no muddy paws, and we can exit for walks via the back yard too. Hopefully in time (not too much!) my Dad is going to build us a sun-room on the back (other properties in the area have done this) which will provide me a space to let dogs dry off without wrecking the house (this is part of the deal, my sister is actually buying another property in the area that I originally saw first... grr.. which has a sun-room). I am definitely not washing paws several times a day, 20 paws!

I have had a trundle round various sites... Bissell carpet cleaners seem pretty good, whats the verdict on those?

For vacuums.. I don't like Dyson uprights, too heavy (unless newer models have improved that aspect), and not hugely impressed with the lifespan of those friends have had (and they have all had animal specific ones too, though the people I am thinking of also have GSD's, labradors etc).

None of my dogs are heavy shedders but they DO shed, and tend to shed fairly fine long fluff, as opposed to some breeds who shed short sharp hairs (labradors! lol), not sure if that makes a difference to the style of vacuum cleaner.

Right now we have a Vax Luna cylinder thing that is quite old, but having all hard floors/boards, we sweep more than we vacuum, and then mop (oh who am I kidding, we don't do a right lot of either unless someone is coming round!).

Marianne - I've been considering putting a wood effect lino through the living areas of the house, could you tell me which type/brand you've used, please?
Thanks

I also have a long fine haired breed and in recent years have had 2 dysons and a 'hoover'   One Dyson lasted 4yrs, the other one 1 year and the hoover...about 4 mths :-(

After extensive canvassing of opinions and readiong reviews, have now got a henry extra (only £130 compared to £300 for a dyson) and, so far, touch wood, it is great (3mths in).  Good suction, doesn't need emptied every day and it is dead easy to 'de hair' it (the 'pet' tool is very open plan and the long hairs get wrapped round it - designed that way - and you simply snip them out, nothing to unscrew or dismantle)  

We have got a cream carpet in the lounge along with 4 dogs, 2 cats and 2 kids (and a OH who constantly forgets to take off shoes) and. so long the vacuums were working well, they kept on top of the dirt.  We tend to hire the carpet cleaners you get from b&q etc in the spring to lift the more stubborn winter grime out and they work well but yes, the carpets do stink for a few days whilst drying out! 

In saying that, as soon as we get the cash together we are intending changing over to wooden floors/karndean for the lounge and hall (kitchen already tiled)...dogs spend all their time on the sofa so don't have to worry about them lying on cold wood ;-)  Will be putting runners down at the doorway to try to trap mud/wet and for shoes to get dumped on.

Good luck with the new house....we moved in to this house nearly 2 yrs ago and are only now just finishing the decorating...oops!

> It's also assuming that you never have an old dog who finds walking difficult, or a young active dog who slides and damages its joints, or even an elderly parent with balance difficulties

We have a huge mat that we bought from Ebay some months ago (someone on here recommended them) which we have to put down in the hall to protect the wood if we have lots of people coming and going, furniture moving etc etc. We can put this down in the hall if Bramble starts to find things difficult :) We have a mat beside the bed so he can jump of without going splat :) (We have horrible slippery laminate in our bedroom ATM - can't wait to replace it with carpet). Our dogs spend most of the day in the kitchen/garden room (or garden) where there are tiles which aren't slippery.

> we moved in to this house nearly 2 yrs ago and are only now just finishing the decorating...oops

That's good going by our standards :)

And by mine - I have lived here since 2002..... and I bought it in early 2009....

Still not decorated!

See now I am a HUGE fan of vinyl - and I cannot stand wood/laminate/carpet on the floors.  Carpet is just a nightmare with a big group of dogs, laminate we had in my old house and Tia hated it, always sliding around and she had wood in her house before, so developed a habit of going backwards rather than risk turning and slipping, which she continues here with non-slip vinyl.

It was only cheap stuff but it's brilliant - no joins for moisture to get through; non-slip for everyone (me included!); and it has insulating properties even without underlay - my floors are concrete and before I laid the new vinyl in the kitchen it was bare for a few months.  The difference in temperature after it was down was huge - ideal for me as me and Remy both feel the cold horribly.  And that's without underlay - everything was done very cheap :-P With it it would be much better.

The only problem I've had is damp - with no joins of course if moisture does get under it (which can only happen right at the edge) then the whole thing has to come up and dry thoroughly, and I've had damp problems here.  But that is very specific to this house - things like incontinent dogs (which Soli is) aren't a problem because they don't press their bum to the wall to leak lol!

I have pale fawn carpets ( antelope colour in the brochure!) and despite every effort to keep them clean, they are starting to look tired.

I have a leaky old boxer who needs a carpet free zone yet she would have terrible wheel spin on hard floors...tricky so Im struggling on for her.
Plus my living room is huge and the chasey games would be dangerous on a hard floor.

I really need to move but I wont buy a house from a dog owner with carpets..too many dormant critter eggs :-(

I have carpets on my stairs and a small one in my bedroom and no where else. the dogs cope fine, whaen I see how dirty the other floors get I am gald that I have washable floors. much cleaner.

Hi,

I have carpets everywhere except the kitchen and bathrooms and always have done and it causes no bother. I hoover every day with a dyson pets (not the ball type-I dont think they are as good having used one at work) and every couple of months (less in summer) I shampoo the carpets with a vax. As long as you do them on a good drying day with the windows open for the day to let the air through I don't have any wet carpet smells at all. If my dogs come back from a walk or the beach particularly muddy or sandy they all get hosed and dried outside before coming in but other than that I dont do much else with them. I have one dog who has a fear of slippery floors so we have never had an option of anything else and have to have runners across the kitchen so he can use the back door (which has to be cleaned the same as a carpet anyway!)

> xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Hi,<br /><br />I have carpets everywhere except the kitchen and bathrooms and always have done and it causes no bother. I hoover every day with a dyson pets (not the ball type-I dont think they are as good having used one at work) and every couple of months (less in summer) I shampoo the carpets with a vax. As long as you do them on a good drying day with the windows open for the day to let the air through I don't have any wet carpet smells at all. If my dogs come back from a walk or the beach particularly muddy or sandy they all get hosed and dried outside before coming in but other than that I dont do much else with them. I have one dog who has a fear of slippery floors so we have never had an option of anything else and have to have runners across the kitchen so he can use the back door (which has to be cleaned the same as a carpet anyway!)

I could have written your post mcmanigan!!  :)  :)

Carpet in bedrooms (where dogs don't go) and stairs, and laminate covered by large non slip mats in high traffic areas downstairs.  Kitchen is fully tiled, so that is where dogs stay until house trained.

LOL at all posts :)

I think what it comes down to is there is no perfect answer :) Just depends to a certain extent whether your home is a home for humans plus dogs or vice versa :) :) I'm afraid that my house is a house for humans and I make some concessions for dogs where possible :) :) Everybody has their own views/priorities, so each has to decide what works best for them :) :) Interesting discussions as, I am sure, everyone can pick up a few ideas :) :)

not specifically for you Daisy but just following on...

My preference is for hard floors and I am going to be moving house soon (hopefully) and plan to have no carpets anywhere.  What are the options for putting on the stairs so they are still safe to walk on without slipping.  I currently have a mixture of slate tiles and textured Karndean but recall the salesman saying that Karndean couldn't go on the stairs.  Any thoughts or experiences?

> I currently have a mixture of slate tiles and textured Karndean but recall the salesman saying that Karndean couldn't go on the stairs.&nbsp; Any thoughts or experiences?

I must confess to liking carpet on the stairs and it does deaden the noise of large dogs thundering up and down them lol. If you really dont want to have carpet how about rubber matting just on the treads? It would help deaden any noise and be safe to walk on as well.

I don't know what you mean by rubber matting.  Are there any manufacturers you are familiar with?  My dogs don't get on the stairs.  One of them gets up at night to sleep and the other one only gets up if he sneaks up without permission or when I have tried to get him in the bath so they don't get to play on them.

We have 4 collies various coat lengths and types and we also do home boarding and can have up to 9 dogs on here at times. Luuuuuvvvv my dyson but avoid the roller ball animal Dc24 or whatever it is as useless!! They've been out to repair it umpteen times since I bought it and first was less than a month after purchase. Don't buy from comet as they are nearly impossible to get a replacement/refund from, even after contacting trading standards unless the hoover goes bang in the first 14 days they won't honour a thing!!

I have had 3 dysons now and would get another just the biggest model like I had last time, thought the change would be good,so wrong to switch models. Dyson will repair but it can take weeks literally, 3 weeks I was expected to wait. I kicked off and it was dropped to a week!! No joke in here.

We have cushion flooring downstairs a part from living room where hubby refuses, or so he thinks.The fact we are moving might have more to do with it!! Love my cushion flooring looks like wood and most people assume it is, been down over 5 years and still looks just as good as ever but was expensive stuff. Upstairs is carpet a part from bathroom  where it's cushion flooring, I live with 3 men need I say more??!! It's fab you can batter it with the hoover throw the mop around steam or wet no worries. 

I have heard the little henrys are great and next time might try one as half the price. I like the 5 year warranty with dyson and I fully intend to use it till the 5 years are up but have to say this last one was rubbish think they have replaced everything a apart from the motor in 3 years they have been out at least 6 times to fix it, and sent out umpteen parts for replacement. Obviouslyit was a friday afternoon model!!

I think one of the "Betterware"  companies had some that is designed for outside steps to prevent you slipping. Think it's possible to acheive the same result with plain rubber matting that you put in crates or vans,oh and it's used a lot at dog clubs that have slippy floors.

Just had a look on Ebay and theres a few on there that I think would do the job quite nicely for you. Sorry I cant post a link but I have not mastered the art!

> What are the options for putting on the stairs so they are still safe to walk on without slipping.

Think about the sort of things used on wooden steps in shops and commercial environments.  You can buy complete tread covers which effectively cap your step including the nose, or you can buy self adhesive tape with a gritty finish, or you can buy rubber inserts.  You can also add sand to paint for a DIY option or buy non slip paint ready made

Try looking at the sort of companies which supply and manufacture staircases for new builds.  One such co here has more info about anti-slip-strips for staircase renovations

> Think about the sort of things used on wooden steps in shops and commercial environments

!!! :) I wouldn't want my house looking like a shop or office :) :) Carpet is the only reasonable covering for stairs IMO :) :) Whatever you put on stairs, you have to look at the safety issues - it must be fixed firmly to the steps and not slip - could be a lot worse than wood otherwise :) Some things put on stairs, commercially, may not be very pleasant for bare, human feet :) :)

> Carpet is the only reasonable covering for stairs IMO

Oh yes, carpet for me too but even a cursory glance at this thread tells me there are some quite strong opposing views.  Who knew carpet v wipe clean flooring would split the CD nation :)

...and of course although one starts with Googling the commercial applications for non slip options you soon find the domestic alternatives are 'softer'

although I much prefer carpet on the stairs she mutters as she slinks off to watch last weeks edition of Grand Designs again :)

.

>Think about the sort of things used on wooden steps in shops and commercial environments.  You can buy complete tread covers which effectively cap your step including the nose, or you can buy self adhesive tape with a gritty finish, or you can buy rubber inserts.  You can also add sand to paint for a DIY option or buy non slip paint ready made

I don't want anything that looks industrial but some good ideas there thanks.