Floor covering options and rough cost estimates

I'm on the verge of signing contracts for my first home in Sutherland Shire, Sydney. This will be a family home for a long time, so not intending to rent it out unless armageddon comes and I lose my job etc.

Fortunately the main lounge room and dining are nice polished timber floorboards. Scratched but liveable. Kitchen is lino but in good condition. The staircase, small rumpus room, hallway and three bedrooms all have old, well worn carpet though.

I won't have a lot of cash after the deposit is paid but my son is super allergic to dustmites and got symptoms visiting the house with me today to measure things. I'm thinking this should be my priority and everything else can go in the 'nice to have' bucket for a few years down the track when finance isn't so tight.

I started looking online at costs for new carpet and floating timber floors but it's hard to get any indications without having someone come out and do a measure and quote, which won't be possible until settlement ~6 weeks away. I'd rather do some research and look at materials beforehand so I can arrange the replacement before we move all the furniture in.

Any suggestions on best materials and cost effective methods? How realistic is self installation for someone not handy. I've painted bedrooms and drilled a couple of holes in walls and that's it.

In all the houses I looked at I didn't see any laminates that looked realistic, although maybe there were great laminates I just assumed were floorboards when I looked at them.
We all prefer the low care requirements for floating floorboards but I've heard carpets are cheaper.
Under the carpet is support timber and plywood type stuff over the top.

Any rules of thumb for pricing? The total sqm of the three bedrooms and rumpus is about 56.8sqm but not sure about the stairs and the short hallway.

 

Is carpet OK for a child who is super allergic to dust mites?

I would have thought it wasn't a good idea.

What does the child's medical specialist say?

 

Give carpet a big miss for alergy sufferers. Timberlook vinyl planks are good. Forget DIY'ing them if you are not handy.

Congrats on the purchase.

 

If you want budget friendly then vinyl is the way to go. If you can get it 3 or 4m wide on a roll then the cutting and joining is minimal but I'd still get it laid.

Some Bunnings do laying Senso Lifestyle 3m Wide Newport Pecan Vinyl Sheet Flooring

 

It would be a bad solution for more than the first year or so so I doubt it's worth considering. Even if its 1/3 the cost I'd have to replace it infinitely faster.

 

Thanks. If it all comes off it will be a great win. Dream house/location on the compromise budget so fingers crossed.

This flooring could be a good option as the bedrooms are very dark currently (West Facing so they've sheltered them under a huge upstairs deck) so it wouldn't stand out as much as it would in the bright living areas. Trip to Bunnings might be in order this evening.

 

Great suggestion. I hadn't thought about vinyl as I assumed it would look tacky but then I remembered how dark the bedrooms are so it probably won't be noticeable. Especially this timberlook stuff.

 

Have to say I was surprised at the quality of what was on offer at Bunnings relatively cheaply! Thanks for the recommendations. Definitely going to ditch the carpet as soon as I move in then. Amazing the difference in realism though some of the more expensive product looked incredibly fake, something you wouldn't want to buy online without taking a good look in real life I'd say.

 

Vinyl has come a long way and although it's still vinyl it can be attractive, hardwearing and budget friendly. The upside is that it's not nearly as fussy as laminate flooring about getting wet and is therefore very very practical.

It's also easy to remove in the future should you be able to afford a better flooring

 

As this is going to be a long term home - do you really need to lay something immediately. Can you just strip the carpet and fittings back to the chipboard underneath, and live with the chipboard until you can afford to get what you really want?

If the surface of the chipboard is a problem with dust, it can be sealed easily with floor sealer and a roller - and if you do a rough job, it's going to be eventually covered anyhow.

I've lived with chipboard floors many times before - and will be doing so again in around 6 months while I get around to choosing and laying a floating timber floor.

 

We

have vinyl very similiar to the senso product at Bunnings in an IP with the tenant having a large dog. After 2 years it still looks brand new. The tenant loves the fact it's very easy to clean.

 

I had lined up enough free floating timber floorboards on gumtree (remove yourself) to cover at least the downstairs bedrooms and hall but unfortunately the sale fell through last minute for other reasons (the building inspection came back clean and the subsequent pest inspection highlighted severe structural issues that the first inspection should have picked up, anyone peeking under the house should have picked up really, geez) so back to the drawing board. Good to know the options as I find most houses have carpet so its going to be a recurring issue while I'm looking.

 

The house that is meant to be will find you ... just meet it halfway by keeping your eyes open