Looking to buy a carpet I know many of you will suggest a form of hard flooring but I would like carpet and my biggest worry is staining.  I fancy an earthy brown one it is pretty expensive for me 80% wool 20% nylon. I have always had a patterned carpet wool and nylon and if the dogs have been sick, which is the worry I have,  I have managed to remove the yellow stain but I am worried about plain.  On the other hand has anyone any experience of manmade fibre carpets?  Thanks Joany

I had wooden flooring until I moved here 4.5years ago.. and for the 1st 2years here, I had the horrible carpet which was left with the house, while trying to decide on flooring... In the end I decided to go for really cheap plain brown carpet.  My thinking was, that if it needed replaced then £100 was not something I was going to cry over, but £700/800 would be..

It has been down now for 2.5years, and is possibly one of the best buys I have made... I bought it online and delivery was £30, total cost for carpeting living room (15' x 14') AND hallway (4' x 18') was £145 :-)  

and there are 16dogs in this house :-O

Any messes from pups, spills and sick are washed normally and then soaked with simple solution.. no stains or water marks ...

Wow Kayc I would like one of those! Have you any idea what your carpet is made from? Thanks Joany

Its wholly man-made fibre.. I will try and find the website for you... I had it bookmarked but my laptop required resetting back to factory settings a while back and I lost all my favourites.

M parents have always bought fairly cheap carpeting but people have always thought it's quite expensive because they last forever, not like other people's thousand pound spends!!  We always ensure that the material is flat and doesn't have a curl in the fibre where claws can be caught etc.

Same as kayc, having a house full of dogs, I go for cheap, and if it's ruined, not such a headache to replace.

Did my last replacement at £200 for a little living room, so waiting for the link to be posted myself!  :-)

I do tend to go for mottled colours, as stains are far less apparent on them.

don't get a beige carpet like i did although it look nice for about three hours its a nightmare to clean and it leaves water marks we are now getting a wooden floor I can't wait to see it go.  I feel like the whole room looks dirty because of the satined carpet!

Laugh if you will...... but I decided to put down a wood floor and have a turtle mat for the front door and got a large piece of rubber backed vet bed made from part wool and part synthetic fibres to act as large mats. Dogs love it and it is so cheap I can throw them away and replace them when I want to change them. A local company will wash them if I decide to keep them longer than a year or two. Usually when they are too old/smelly I cut them in half, or quarters, then wash them in my machine and use them in the car, so the dogs have layers of vet bed to lie on when we are travelling.

When I was looking for carpet for the bedrooms in my house the person I spoke to was trying to sell me a totally manmade carpet and described it is being cleanable by bleach, indestructable and was basically a form of plastic. 

I ended up getting a man made carpet for upstairs and although haven't had the nerve to clean it with bleach it has been shampood lots of times after the dog smuggled bones and stained rawhide chews upstairs (on cream carpets!) and still looks great.  I still wouldn't have carpet in a room used by the dogs though but each to their own.

> I will try and find the website for you

Have been carpet shopping today as a matter of fact.... ... I am sick of splashing cash out on carpet but don't like hard flooring in the lounge so I would like to have the address too for a gander.. ;-) Thanx

finally found the site

http://www.welchmillcarpets.co.uk/display/carpet_range.asp?reqPage=1

The carpet I have is The Turbo range, the close up photos look mottled, but they are self coloured.. I have the brown in the living room and hallway, and was pleased with it, and bought lilac for the bedroom.. :)

Their service is excellent, they told me around 14days for delivery, which I was happy with, and they phoned me 3 days after placing the order, to set delivery time for following day :-)

I now have Karndean but did have beige 'piddleproof' carpet from these people down for 9 years with dogs and puppies on it before it needed replacing.
http://www.ollertonhalldiscountcarpets.co.uk/stainres.shtml

I have just ordered some samples from both those sites. had not really thought about manmade as an alternative and at those prices If they look good and are not static and stay that way it could well be a better idea. thanks

I had something that resembled the Welchmill in a rented flat - a berber type nylon carpet, It was a nightmare, I moved a piece of furniture and something caught a loop, it unravelled like granny's knitting, row after row for several inches or more, down to the plastic underweave. No disguising that when the landlord inspected.

Not saying Welch is the same.... but like an earlier poster - avoid anything berber/ looped - cat or dog claw caught could do the same. While I was there a bedside light fell onto the floor and the heat from the bulb melted a circle into it before I knew. Cheap carpets are the bane of renters' lives - until the law was change about deposits a while back, I could have had my whole deposit withheld just for the unravelling, which in fact occurred while moving in!

The welchmill is not looped.. it is a tufted cut. does not catch, if fact nothing to catch on to.. has a reasonable pile, enough to make it look half decent and not cheap..

I remember those looped nylon carpets they were a nightmare..

> I remember those looped nylon carpets they were a nightmare..

Mmm yes.... Foam backed too! lol
My one was pink.... I have half a suspicion my furniture was rebelling....

kayc and Westcoat

Thankyou very much.. I have requested some samples.
DD is after a rug for her new house which has wood flooring so she says "thank you" too.

Thanks everyone for your advice. Joany

Got my samples today !