What you put on your floors varies according to personal preference, but there are some useful things to be remembered when choosing what to do. Flats on upper floors should have carpet, otherwise you are being very mean to your neighbours below (carpet is even specified in many leases, precisely for this reason). If you have allergies, it is often possible to have carpet if you want it, as long as you buy a top quality Allergy Foundation approved hoover with a special filter (usually known as a HEPA filter) and use it frequently. You will need to put down rugs in areas of particular wear and tear, in order to avoid re-carpeting every few years. Annual use of a wet/dry vacuum cleaner can help remove deeply ingrained dirt from the fibres and ensure your carpet lasts a great deal longer as well, plus it can be extremely satisfying to see how much truly yucky stuff can be extracted from them (you may well laugh, but we all do it). If you prefer laminate flooring, consider whether it will seem cold and unwelcoming in the winter. If so, try rugs, but make sure they have non-slip webbing placed underneath. Real wood flooring can be off the scale of stylish, but extremely expensive. If you have inherited it, make sure people remove stiletto shoes when coming through the door (not like one of our friends, who inadvertently gave our innocent cherrywood floor a ‘distressed’ finish with her heels. We have just about forgiven her, but only just. The floor hasn’t, though). Ceramic flooring benefits from having heating installed underneath it, but again, may be too expensive to consider compared to putting down a decent piece of linoleum in kitchens and bathrooms.
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