Wanted to know how people have coped going from carpet to vinyl....

It's something that we are considering...and there's a pretty good deal on the moment
in Carpet Right for a vinyl called Prestige with a 10 year guarantee. The good deal finishes
at close of play Wednesday...

Now I have to convince the other half that changing from carpet might actually be a good idea...

Have 5 nutty Boxers ageing from almost 10 1/2 years to 4 years old.
We've had the odd accident and I end up with vaxing the carpet...and not 100% that we get rid of the smell..
I also have a dust mite allergy so it would be good for me...but would it be good for my dogs
the other half thinks that they will slide on the vinyl.
I don't want to risk them getting hurt and Boxers are a bit OTT when they come charging in from outdoors
if they are playing..

Thoughts/Advice?
I can't really afford the expensive floorings like Karndean.

I don't know about vinyl, but when we moved last year, our new house has either wooden floors or some other hard surface downstairs, the only carpet is on the stairs and the upstairs. We did have carpet in the dining room but we soon got rid of that and replaced it with more wood flooring. I'd never go back to carpet - accidents are so much easier to clean up, and with all my hairy mutts, it's so much easier to vaccum or sweep all the dustballs than have them trodden into the carpet and then have to try to scrape them up with the edge of the vaccum hose!

I did this and have never regretted it -well maybe last Christmas when I had 9 Malinois pups all running around indoors and they ended up managing to get a corner up and chewed a big piece of the flooring in the hall.........but that of course is rather extreme circumstances! It is not particularly slippery, the tiles in the kitchen are FAR slippier, and believe me, I have dogs and cats charging around on it a LOT! (As we have a long hall I often practice things like obedience recalls in it if the weather is bad.) I wash it every Friday. Puppy puddles are easily wiped clean and muddy pawprints also. I will never, ever consider carpets again, and I don't know if I'd trust any wooden flooring considering we do have pups now and then and also have a lot of water bowls around -with some very sloppy drinkers!

My mum once asked me if I wasn't going to put some rugs on my bare wood floors -she hadn't realised it wasn't wood at all. A friend asked if puppy puddles didn't seep through the cracks in the wood, so another one who didn't even realise! I deliberately chose pattern that makes it look like it in fact is laminate. We did buy from Carpet Right.

With all the rain we've had recently my back garden is like a bog, and the mud is then brought into the house. It is so much easier to just mop the floors. :-D Wouldn't go back to carpets if someone offered to pay for them ;-)

I've got six of the nutty boxer things and will be having the living room done after Crimbo with anything BUT carpet!  Got tiles in the utility room, kitchen and hall and I'm seriously considering the same for the room.  You can put rugs down to make it look 'homely' and if they get trashed (wee'd, poohed or sicked on :-)) chuck them out and get another one. If I can get a good deal on some Karndean I'll try that instead but if the worst comes to the worst, it's tiles for me :-)

same here as Lindylou, but then we prob share same rain! I would not go back to carpets. when I see the grit & dirt that I wash off the hard floors and think that could have been in a carpet! no more smelly carpets for me.

Hi,

I recently posted re vinyl. I am just awaiting a back garden to be 'done' which is then going to be followed by living room and hall laid to vinly.

Am interested in the Carpetright deal - I have an internet site all lined up for a vinyl delivery, but might re-look at the Carpetright deals.

I have had vinyl well and truly recommended by a lovely lady/moderator on this site :-) ... carpet I have and is completely bonkers with 6 collies and pups, when they are on the ground, if you look at previous posts you'll see why I've discounted Karndean (COST, COST, COST).

Laminate ... what do you do when wees and poos happen? Well, guess you lift up and re-lay 'cause with young dogs in the house it's inevitable.

I haven't yet changed carpet to vinyl but I am SOOOOOO looking forward to it :-) ... Mind, I am making sure I go for a non-slip vinyl with 6 border collies ... the oldest of which is just 7 years :-)

I put vinyl in my kitchen a couple of years ago. It was fab for the dogs, not as slippery as the laminate that was there previously and really warm under foot. A friend even thought it was real tiles.

I was so pleased I've had the hallway done with one that looks like natural wood (and it's very realistic) and also two of the bathrooms.

It's a good price, wears well, easy to clean, warm underfoot, fairly non-slip, pretty realistic looking and I don't know why I didn't do it sooner!

We've done Son's room with vinyl, he's asthmatic and we considered Laminate, but find it very noisy downstairs, upstairs would have been worse!

It's been down a few weeks now and have to say, we're very pleased.   We covered floorboards with ply first as they were terribly old and squeaky/uneven, and then put down the vinyl.   It's warmer than laminate, quieter, less slippy - actually non-slip and it looks great!   We chose one that is very convincingly 'old oak floorboards'   

Planning to replace our old bedroom carpet before Christmas with the same and wishing we hadn't bothered with Laminate in the living room.   It's great, but Bedlingtons rampaging around cause a lot of noise and they do tend to enjoy the slide, they've learned that if they get some speed up they can have great fun    And when the one slams down a Bone -    it's like a gun going off!

Dancer - please could you recommend the make/style/manufacturer of the vinyl that has been so successful for you.
Thank you :)

It was from Carpet Right, unfortunately I can't remember exactly what it was called.

The one in my kitchen is an asymetric tile effect and was from their most expensive range (really thick - took 2 people to carry it in and lay it). The one in the hallway was from the next range down (because I liked the pattern), that's the one that looks like natural wooden planks.

For the bathroom ones, I just went for patterns that I liked. The one where I bath the dogs has a sort of stone/tile pattern in natural colours, I think these were from their mid price range.

I bought them when they had one of their 'sales'.

Good luck.

Best thing I ever did was going from carpet to vinyl :-)

Unfortunately I may have to go back soon albeit temporarily, on account of Tia's weakening legs (she can be a bit apprehensive about turning round on vinyl even though it's non slip, so sets herself up to fall over sometimes) but I will take it up as soon as I can again!

The only problem I've had has been bad fitting - but that's because I fitted it badly myself :-P

I got my kitchen from a local cheapie shop, and the lounge and hallway from ebay because I couldn't find an offcut at the cheapy shop in a pattern I liked (I have a lovely warm herringbone pattern in the lounge, nothing else would have worked quite as well).  The kitchen floor was perfect though.

Thanks for that, Dancer :)
I might just pop in to Carpet Right tomorrow - they seem to have another sale on

The Carpet Right sale ends on Wednesday at the end of the day.

I'm still working on the other half and took my Dad in to see it today.
Again he thinks that the dogs shouldn't slip on it (and it is also marketed as anti-slip too)

We shall see..if not I'll just have to keep on at him and get it the next time around in a sale..

The two best ranges seem to be Prestige and then the most expensive is the Goliath and that's thicker than the prestige and has a 15 year guarantee where as the prestige is a 10 year guarantee.

I went into my local CarpetRight for advice re vinyl with a doggie household. I was told to avoid the squishy cushionfloor vinyls - basically if you can squash them between fingers then no good for dogs as claws will indent/rip it. The Tarkett Goliath was recommended (top of range) as was the cheapest (can't remember name) with everything else in between, in their shop, being discounted.

Worth mentioning to them.

Am interested to hear how you get on. My hall & living room are going vinyl soon - as soon as back garden sorted!

Well I might get my wish but will have to pay for it myself lol...