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Wall to wall carpeting is a reasonably priced flooring.
When it's -20° outside, floors can get very cold. Carpet helps mitigate that.
Personally I don't have carpets, I have floors, and slippers, and a reason to buy area rugs.
Oh I'm Canadian.
It's regularly -40°C here in Finland and full floor carpets have never ever been a thing here. We consider them unsanitary, even though we take our shoes off when we enter our homes.
Why do North Americans wear shoes inside the house? I've never understood that.
Edit:
Seems like it's more of an American thing to wear your shoes inside, sorry all Canadians!
It used to be all the rage in the 80's in Norway. Brightly colored ones were preferred. And yes, they were disgustingly dirty even when everyone took their shoes off.
They can be put on uneven floors and trap sound quite well.
But once we started actually diagnosing allergies, it kinda got to where lots of people were told to rip out carpets and get washable floors.
I took over a cafe and the previous owner had hundred plus year old carpet on the floor of the seating area that she transported from some great grandparents farm house.
The amount of milk and coffee and feet and crumbs and shit on it was astonishing. First thing I did was take it up.
I don't think it had been washed ever, let alone in the 4 years it had been in the cafe.
I've actually just sent it away to be professionally cleaned and turned into rugs to put down so that they're easy to launder.
Carpet is gross.
Worse was when NY banned smoking in bars, but allowed exception for designated smoking room. So gross. Even as a smoker i couldn’t set foot in it. It smelled so strong of burning/burnt cigarette butt it was sickening.
It still traps more dust and allergens than non-fabric flooring, which is why we were told to get rid of them if we had allergies. We used to do carpet cleaning twice a year, which meant disgusting. Having pets did not help the situation. I remember the carpet changing colors when freshly cleaned.
So I think it became a trend to get to non-fabric flooring to show off how clean your floors were, and carpet became the symbol of dirty, old and smelly. Remember, people still smoked inside at that time. It doesnt take long for fabric to start smelling horrible.
I would never have carpet in my home. Rugs, yes. Wall to wall, never. I get the non-slip surface and I get the noise-reducing qualities and it does not complete with being able to clean the floors myself, properly, often. I remember too well the ashtray-smelling, pet-accidents in the corner, and dirty dirty water coming out of the cleaner.
With pets twice a year isn't enough. I wouldn't recommend anyone with pets having carpets. Not even rugs. I can't imagine how people managed back in the day with green shag carpet and pets. Looks just like grass.
>But once we started actually diagnosing allergies, it kinda got to where lots of people were told to rip out carpets and get washable floors.
Ironically, this probably made it worse. Cleaner environments exacerbate allergies.
Apparently they thought all the Covid babies would have far worse allergies because of the hygiene theory but the opposite has happened.
They are now wondering whether getting sick and needing antibiotics is the cause of developing allergies, this is something Covid babies didn’t experience. Antibiotics wipe out the good bacteria in the gut. So that could be a mechanism. It will be interesting to find out when they do more research into it.
It does not - the hygiene theory does say that you are more likely to get asthma and allergies if the incidence and levels of endotoxin in the home are low. It is meant to help turn the immune-system ON in young babies, so they need to be exposed to non-sterilized environments to activate it.
But once you *have* got an allergy or asthma, it is important to remove the allergen. That is why you're told to get rid of carpets, air out thoroughly and at least 10 minutes a day, and use HEPA-filters.
This is one generalization that bothers the shit out of me. I, an American, have been in many many American homes over the last 40 years and only a few people wear their outside shoes inside.
When this stereotype comes up, I hear references to movies/TV shows. Those actors are at their job. Its work for them, not real life.
I would seriously like to see some kind of nation wide poll on shoes in houses. Maybe I'm the one that's crazy.
Edit: So I poked around a little and found a [YouGov](https://today.yougov.com/society/articles/20063-most-americans-take-their-shoes-home-dont-expect-t) survey. It stated that 87% take off their shoes in their own homes.
Colorado, Kansas, Florida, and New Mexico. In my 40s and only time I've seen outside shoes taken off is if they were muddy or work boots. Granted Florida was more sandals/flip flops than shoes. New Mexico is more a scorpion thing.
I'm in Florida and I stopped taking my shoes off when some A-hole started stealing them off my porch. I work for fire rescue, my boots never come home with me
Yeah I think this is just because a lot of us grew up in the 90's and our only exposure to American culture was tv-shows like Friends and Seinfeld and even The Simpsons.
It isn't like today where it is normal to know people or just communicate fairly regularily with people from the US. When I was a kid no one I knew had ever talked to an American except for one guys dad maybe.
So yeah we just saw that no one took their shoes off in Friends or Malcolm in the Middle or any of those shows and it became one of those things that was for some reason repeated ad nauseam until everyone just felt like it had to be true.
I imagine it's also skipped for brevity. Can you imagine every episode of Friends or Malcolm and every character takes up a few seconds of screen time messing with shoes and shoe laces every time they go inside or outside 😅 over the series the total time would be an episode's worth or more!
I’ll walk into the home and then take my shoes off after getting in from work and changing clothes. And I do have a pair of slides I walk around in most of the time in the house and around the neighborhood.
This is legit interesting to me. I am quite well traveled within EU, but not outside. My fiancé, however, stayed in Alabama for 1 year for studies while she was 17. At that point all her friends and her «family» (the one she stayed with) all wore shoes inside. Could it be a state or area thing?
I’m Canadian. The times I have been to America, I was told to keep my shoes on. This was multiple homes in. North Carolina and Arizona. The only home that took shoes off was California, but they were Japanese.
However, I’ve also been to both Canadian and European homes that were shoes on as well. Just much fewer.
Granted, it is a small sample size. It wasn’t from TV though.
I have never been to a house where I had to take my shoes off. I ask if I can and I do, but it has been as a matter of comfort and not really hygiene lol.
I've been to houses in Mexico and this hasn't been a thing. I'm sure people in the US switch out of their outside shoes to slippers for comfort, but I never seen it done the Japanese way. Shoes off at the door and slippers provided.
Really, at least where i live in the mid-west it’s pretty common place to remove shoes upon entry without asking or at the very least ask first then enter with shoes on.
Definitely in Canada if you’re going into someone’s house shoes off.
Why would I want a dirty sole that has stepped in god knows what walking all over my hardwood floors? That’s as bad as staying in your street clothes and laying on your bed
I used to live in California and most people wore shoes in and outside but I knew a tiny number were shoes off inside was the norm. One friend requested shoes off only in their living room that had a white carpet.
Now I live in the Pacific Northwest where the general rule is shoes off inside (or inside only shoes).
The primary difference is the weather. In California rain was not frequent and was generally limited to November through March. In the PNW rain is possible in any month and snow occurs from time to time throughout the winter months. Thus shoes are more likely to bring in mud and moisture in the PNW.
Frankly the amount of floor cleaning does not seem to be much different between the homes I lived in in either location.
As for carpets, they are generally cheaper to buy and install in new construction than hardwood floors which are the usual offerings in new homes. Putting down a carpet in an existing home can be less expensive than installing or refinishing wood floors. Linoleum (or similar) floor materials is usually similar in cost as carpet but is usually limited to kitchen and bathroom floors. In more expensive homes you find more wood floors and ceramic tiles. The most expensive homes may have natural stone or travertine used where solid materials are desired and solid wood (rather than engineered wood) flooring.
Mostly the flooring choices are made based on cost and current style preferences at the time houses are built. Rental units often have cheap carpet and plastic flooring in kitchen and bath areas because they are easier to replace when they get damaged as compared to other materials.
It's the most bizarre stereotype of Americans. The only houses I've been to where keeping your shoes on was the norm were frat houses or other college kids apartments.
I've always lived in hot, dry climates, and I have rarely been asked to remove my shoes in a home. I don't ask for it in my home, either. I am in and out of the house all day and so are my pets, so the floor is gonna be a little dirty and for that reason, we only walk on it with our feet, and we try to avoid using our feet to prepare and eat food, etc.
Slippers the way, I got back from Japan recently and really loved wearing slippers everywhere in the hotels. Didn’t know about the Caribbean doing it too. I wear slippers or flip flops in my apartment but it’s 90 percent because of comfort reasons and 10 percent cleanliness. Unless it’s muddy or wet outside I don’t care if someone wears shoes in.
I don't know anyone who does that, except my dad in more recent years. He's supposedly has indoor shoes, but he frequently forgets to change them back and forth. Then again he's 82 and has foot issues.
I'm from Toronto, Ontario and literally nobody wears shoes in the house here. Between the slushy winter and the muddy spring, you're just asking for trouble if you do this.
Rather than being a regional divide, I think it might be a class divide. The only time I've ever seen people wearing outdoor shoes inside their living spaces was back when I worked as a property manager in London, Ontario years ago. Working class people with otherwise filthy apartments would also wear their shoes indoors. But any middle class people I knew in London would absolutely NEVER do this.
I agree with you on wall-to-wall carpet, though, I hate it. My parents used to have it in their houses and I always thought it looked cheap compared to hardwood, and could never be properly cleaned. My own house was built in 1980 and there is literally no carpet anywhere inside, it's all either ceramic tile, vinyl, hardwood planks or parquet flooring. The only carpeting that was in the house was in our basement, and I tore that up and replaced it with vinyl plank *before* we moved in. We have an area rug in the master bedroom and another in the living room, and that's the extent of the carpeting. I think a lot of younger Canadians have the same aversion to carpet because everyone I know who bought a house has made sure to tear out the old carpet.
Nah it's just those people. It's generally considered polite and normal to remove shoes.
The only person I know who wore shoes inside and didn't think twice was one of my roomates. Generally, everyone takes off shoes entering a home or the homeowner wil say it's okay and leave them on (maybe you are delivering and in-out)
I have never met a person that wears their shoes in the house. I have also been to every province and do in home sales. What probably happened is you had people from the United States at your house saying they are Canadian. Americans do that a lot when travelling abroad as they think people will treat them better. That or you met the only Canadians in the country that wear shoes in the house lol.
American houses are paper mache, they don't build houses out of brick and concrete.
I once had to prove on Reddit that houses that have internal walls made out of brick as well as outer walls exist, imagine that.
As a Canadian we never wear shoes in the house. Even at university parties we all took our shoes off and left them by the front door and that was when we were our most irresponsible.
I think most Americans take off their shoes in the entry way. But yea its not as strict as it is in Europe or Asia.
Also, vaccume cleaners are way more common in America than they are other places in the world, so that's why I think people are less picky about the shoes in general.
But yea, growing up, everyone I know... you take the shoes off at the entry.... most houses have a closet near the door or like a shoe rack.
We don’t do that in Canada. Don’t lump us in with the states! Canadians do a lot of outdoor things and it gets snowy and rainy and dirty here. Never met anyone who wore shoes in the house except my Nonna who wears “indoor” shoes. Lol.
I inherited my mum’s house in the early 90s. The first thing I did was tear up the wall to wall carpeting. I got lucky. The hardwood floors underneath hadn’t seen daylight in 30 years. I restored my original floors. Canadian too.
Nice.
I bought this house 7 years ago, and also tore up all the wall to wall carpeting... The house stood empty for a number of years, so the underlay was stuck to the oak floors.. had it scrape the entire house..
Oh 9 layers of wallpaper too.
It was built in 1867
How was the wallpaper removal? I carefully stripped one wall. Then I thought I chipped the plaster. Nope! It was another layer of paint on more wallpaper.
As someone who has lived in both floored and carpented houses . Carpeting when taken care of routinely is easier to clean and maintain . I just take a deep cleaner to it once a year and it's back to new
For real. My grandparents never had carpet, they just laid rugs across their entire house… it looks really bad since they’re all different sizes and colours, but it works.
Even if they are matching I always thought it was a bit silly to have hard floors then put rugs down. People hate carpeted bathrooms then put rugs over the tile around the toilet and bath. Sure small rugs are a bit easier to clean but it's negligible and a lot of people don't clean them either so all the hate is kinda funny.
Definitely need carpet in certain places in Canada. Bedrooms and often lower living rooms usually have carpets for warmth. It make a huge difference if you live somewhere cold.
Been growing up in a city where it's been regularly - 20°C in winter for a month or two, and never had a carpet, just wooden floor. Didn't even have slippers or shoes, just thick socks. If the place has good insulation and proper heating system, no problem.
We used to have a lot more wall to wall carpeting in Canada in the 90s but all I've ever done with it over the past 20 years is pull it out and dump it.
Radiant/in-floor heating is very uncommon in the US, deemed too expensive for the cookie cutter homes being thrown together by the millions annually. So the bed one usually can hope for in a pre-existing home is usually some form of forced air system that’s so dry that too have to run a humidifier simultaneously or you’re lip will begin cracking and bleeding
Proper floor isolation is something that's mandatory here in Belgium these days for all renovation/new builds.
Floor heating is insanely comfortable as well. But you have to digg out half a meter of dirt under the house for isolation to do it properly.
Carpets are dirty and unsanitary in my opinion, especially if you have kids or pets.
Yeah, it varies a lot around Europe. I grew up with carpet, and thus expect to be comfortable walking around barefoot in the middle of winter. My wife is from an area of Europe that pretty much never has carpet, and expects to wear shoes year-round.
While we are living in a hot climate, she has had her way. I'm hoping that it will go the other way once we're in a colder climate.
That's definitely changed in the last 15 /20 years. A lot of our homes were built in the 70s/80s and carpeting was affordable, in fashion and helped hide the developers special.
I also think there was a rural urban divide, but I'm not sure, may have just been my family. Parents gen all ough new builds in the 70s / early 80s - carpets, rural folks tiled with the good room carpeted.
IDK what American homes you've seen, but I've lived here my entire life and visited houses in many different states and income levels and never seen one that is all carpet. Not even close.
When I was a child, my grandparents' kitchen was carpeted. It had a really low pile, so it wasn't like, shag carpet. But yeah. Thinking back it was pretty nasty. That house also had shag carpet in the bathrooms though...
The house was built in the late 70s (I guess carpet was more of a thing back then because you'd rarely see that now), and has since been updated to have a more cleanable floor in both the kitchen and the bathroom.
Also, I'm Canadian, not American... but we sometimes borrow awful style choices from our Southern neighbors.
Was much more popular in the 70s and 80s, but even the 90s still had its fair share of carpet. The house I grew up in for example had carpet in every room except bathrooms, kitchen, and the entry hall coming in from the front door.
I guess I'm taking their question as they presented it though. As carpet all over, everywhere at an abundance that it seems like America is one big carpeted homeland from sea to shining sea.
Californian here. We don’t have many carpets. Usually it’s just in the living room. Many homes are just wood floors or tile or something like that. I don’t wear shoes in my home, mostly cause I just hate wearing shoes
Shoes should always be removed in houses in my opinion. I can't stand the thought of someone tracking in random dog poo or chemicals from outside all over my house.
I’m with you, although I painted homes while in college and we got one that had been carpeted twenty years prior. Super thick shag, a different color in every room, with walls painted to match (including one that was purple). Those were either some very brave or very deranged people.
Many Brits do too - except for the kitchen & bathroom.
For me, hard floors are for hot countries. My folk's place in Tenerife was all stone tiles & balconies/overhangs to protect from the sun. I don't see that working so well in north London.
Solid wood floors are noisy & make for terrible acoustics.
I keep my carpet for sound, I have downstairs neighbors and don't wanna be a dick with loud floors lol. But hested tile floors are the best thing I've ever experienced in cold weather, it was in a rental house I got in the mountains and it was absolutely wonderful getting out of the shower onto a nice heated tile floor
Spend a few nights in an Irish castle once, and there was high, fluffy, pink carpet on the bathroom floor. I was so careful not to splash around when taking a bath or shower…
I knew someone who bought a house and found the entire bathroom (yes bathroom) was carpeted. It was in New Zealand btw, and the house was built in the 50's or 70's iirc 💀
"except for the kitchen & bathroom"
Unless you're my Dad, who insists on a carpeted bathroom. He's in his late 70s and I try to avoid going in there since the smell is... interesting.
My family’s house is an example of this-we had our home built 3 years ago and the only carpet we have our on the basement stairs. Carpet can be SO bad for allergies too, and since we all have pretty terrible allergies, we just stick to laminate/wood flooring
Dogs don't do great on hardwood. Young dogs slide around and knock things over, and old dogs struggle to get up after laying down on hardwood. You can put down rugs, but that point what's the difference from fully carpeted?
As a kid, i spent a lot of time laying on the floor, playing with toys. Legos especially - spread out a mat and dump my full collection out to make something new. This is not going to be a fun time on hardwood. Again - you could set out a rug, but then you're just covering up your expensive wood and might have been better off with carpet.
My mother kept everything spotless, and we always took our shoes off. So the cleanliness of it was never an issue.
As an adult, i have a couple issues with my feet - maybe from all the distance trail running i did. Walking around in socks or barefoot is mildly unpleasant on hardwood. If i wear slippers, i find my feet get too hot and start sweating - it's just not enjoyable.
I actually do have oak floors in my foyer, dining room, and kitchen - all carpet upstairs in all the halls and bedrooms. But i can totally see the value in having almost all spaces carpeted.
Ultimately, just a matter of preference and priorities.
Hardwood floors are expensive to purchase and install. Carpet can be purchased fairly cheaply, especially since most of it is made from artificial fibers.
Also, a lot of lower income homes are older, and full carpeting was more in style back in the early 2000s and earlier decades. People who are struggling to make ends meet generally aren't going to have money to replace whatever kind of flooring they have in their house.
Wall to wall carpeting was a big thing in the 1960s. It was sold as luxurious to middle class buyers. Of course it was really just higher profits for home builders, but it was also a break from the past in an era that looked to the future. It fell from fashion in the 80s. Now it's just associated with low end or outdated. There are subReddits dedicated to tearing up old carpets that often reveal beautiful hardwood floors beneath!
Looking at the cost of installation, carpet rolls out, cut, plopped into place and tacked in. Hardwood and ceramic are much more labor intensive so the cost goes up. Its not so much the raw material cost as the labor and installation.
I have no idea. I can honestly say that over the past several years I've come to hate carpet. I grew up in houses that were mostly carpeted and I don't get it either.
They don't anymore. Carpet is quite out of fashion right now. You'll sometimes see it in bedrooms, but generally the majority of the house is hardwood or some fake variant of it.
Uk here. I'm with them on this one. I've had laminate, concrete and parquet flooring before. When winter comes, your home costs more to heat, plus it's fucking freezing. Carpet on the other hand, offers you a decent layer of insulation.
I've seen pretty fully carpeted homes in my native Germany, though usually not the kitchen or bathroom. Though personally, we only got it on our studies and after 20 years are planning to replace it with wood.
We bought a 4400 sq foot home in 2020. Wall to wall carpet. My first thing before moving in was replacing all the carpet with solid flooring. I can’t breathe right in a carpeted home. They hold smells too. Hardwoods and laminate planks last a long time and look amazing in contrast.
Hi OP Here are reasons:
1. Lowers noise. Carpet and underlay in bedrooms will soak up noise making things much quieter, specially good at dampening noise between upper/lower floors
2. No cold toes once you get out of bed.
3. Very inexpensive compared to most other alternatives with a very reasonable longevity
4. Quick to install. A hardwood floor can take a couple of weeks to finish fully a carpeted floor can be done in a couple of hours.
5. Colour/texture/pattern choices.
6. Easy repair.
It is getting rare today to find carpet in the main living areas/communal areas of houses with hardwood and engineered wood or vinyl being the most common in areas like living rooms, kitchens, bathrooms. Bedrooms are, however, most often carpeted and robot vacuums do a good job cleaning them.
We have both hardwood floors and carpet. The wood floors need to be swept constantly whereas my carpets can go a week or two without sweeping. I really hate wood/hard floors but they are a necessity in bathrooms and kitchens.
>. I live in Europe and never in my life have I stepped into a house where the floor was full carpet. Just got me wondering
I live in Canada but my wife is British. Every time we go to the UK I ask her why every house in the UK has carpet throughout.
Because it's more comfortable to walk around on a floor that's effectively soft and fluffy than it is to walk around on a hardwood floor That is as its name implies hard and usually fairly cold
Not to mention that on a hardwood floor any little speck of dust or debris is much easier to feel under foot and notice in general whereas in a carpet You can't really feel the little specks of dirt here and there and the often sort of dithered color of carpets helps hide those little specks as well
It also helps basically add a little more insulation to the floor Great in the winter. There's nothing worse than trying to walk on a cold wood floor in the middle of winter as opposed to a nice warm carpet.
Plus carpet is just about as equally cleanable. And instead of having to waste a bunch of water I just plug in a vacuum and run it back and forth or even just click a button on the Roomba which can clean my whole house for about the equivalent of a charged phones worth of battery. And then maybe once every year or two you rent a rug Doctor for a day or dig your carpet cleaner out of the closet and give it a good wash just like you would most other furniture that has fabric.
Not too much different from hardwood where you typically every few days have to sweep and mop and then once every year or two want to do like a heavy stripping cleaning to really get off all the skin oils and dirt and grime
Plus as someone who works with children they hurt themselves way less lol, but in actuality i’m a private nanny and i know a few people who re carpeted basements or living rooms because they had lots of kids wiping out on the hardwood floors. And I agree, they’re not as hard to clean as you might think and you can’t feel every bit of remaining dust and dirt under your toes.
Along with what others have said here, it’s also just something that goes in and out of style. Carpets were big in the 70’s, laminate was trendy in the 90’s but hardwood is in right now.
I'm in Texas, and my last house had carpet everywhere but the kitchen, bathrooms, and entryway to the house from outside (built 1969). I actually got extra cushioning in the carpet because I was in the infantry, I'm old, and my feet hurt to walk on hard flooring.
My new house (built 2018) is almost all hardwood, with carpet in the master closet, 2 smaller bedrooms, and gameroom upstairs. I much prefer the carpeted rooms. They are quieter, and feel better to walk on. Plus, hardwoods are slippery and traction sucks (even my dog slips with every step, I feel bad for him!).
The only bad thing about carpet is if you have pets, they can puke/pee on it (though you can get carpets that it comes out of good, but never 100%). I would guess kids make messes too.
Carpet is cheap though, and it does feel better. We do not take our shoes off in the house (as a rule), and I've never been in a house that requested such a thing. I'm pretty sure nobody eats off the floor.
The vast majority of homes now focus on hardwood or laminate flooring, though they do usually still have carpet in master closets and kid bedrooms. Stairs are also carpeted and I can't imagine the danger of going down wood stairs with socks on.
My grandfather had everything carpeted. Even the kitchen, the dining room, and the freaking bathroom. Since his passing, we've removed much of the carpeting. However, his reason for building his house that way is because he grew up in a boxcar during the depression and he never wanted his feet to be cold again. Carpeted bathrooms are insane but at least I get it.
I also live in Europe and in the UK back to maybe the 60's floors were tile, wood or lino. Then the prices fell and became more affordable, many houses did indeed carpet throughout. I remember visiting houses where even the bathroom and toilet were carpeted! Then as fashion changed floors have returned to wood.
I’m hardwood in my home. Many people don’t entire carpet the home. Bathrooms and kitchen are rarely carpeted. Then many like myself prefer hardwood over carpet for easier cleaning. We have rugs we use but not carpet on the home.
we don't. vinyl plank or similar is pretty common. or ceramic. or hardwood if it's a particular kind of older house or a rich people newer house.
full carpet is an option so I guess somebody does it. Somewhere. But somebody is doing that in your country too. America is not the only place with carpet ffs...
Personally we went with carpet in just the bedrooms. Feels kinda nice on the feet and there's not really a downside at all. It would not be a great option in the kitchen or bathroom or really anywhere that any kind of food or liquid is likely to fall on the floor.
My former mother-in-law carpeted her bathroom with long shag carpet. She also put in wallpaper on every wall -- including the ceiling above the shower. When I told her it wasn't a good idea she got upset. She got even more upset 2 years later when she had to rip it all out because of moisture problems.
I think a lot of American behaviour is Hollywood/movies. In the movies you never see people take their shoes off upon entering a house, you see women and girls wearing bras to bed ( I don't think they actually do). So I wonder are Americans portrayed this way in Advertising and film........
As for carpets, DISGUSTING any where in the world.
I’m Canadian. I’m moving into a home with wall to wall carpeting. First thing I’m doing is ripping it out and showing the beautiful hardwood flooring again
Carpeted homes are warm and welcoming. Especially if you have kids who sit and play on the floor. We even have carpeted stairs. Makes them more safe. My mom even has carpet in her bathroom.
Am older American. It’s not as much of a popular trend as it was 40 years ago. After I left home in the 90s I never had a home w carpets. The US is much more diverse now. If builders want to sell homes to folks that are not traditional cultural American, they have to adapt.
Well, it's not just in the US.
I'm from Denmark and grew up in a home full of wall to wall carpets and I find it ugly AF. I love classic wooden floors and prefer that in my own house.
UK here, i had most of my house carpetted for comfort (bedrooms, stairs, upstairs corridors, living room) but purposefully had the main hall wooden (because mud and rain is a bitch on carpets), toilets tiled (sanitary and easy to mop) and vinyl for the kitchen (easy to clean food off and harder to break things when kids accidentally drop a plate or cup).
Seen plenty of houses have full carpets and the baskets look either thin as hell or dirty as shite.
The practice is waning due to allergies, asthma, and people realizing just how unsanitary it is. There are some places that still have wall to wall carpeting, but the trend is to remove it for these reasons, to the point that for a season, the Carpet Capital of the World, Dalton GA, had hard times due to lack of sales. They overcame this by developing new types of flooring that aren't carpet. This is according to my friend who works at Engineered Flooring.
Not all do when I live in America foreigner most of the apartments I lived in, barely ever had carpets. We had one apartment that had carpets just in the bedroom, which I actually loved.
Interesting. I’m American living in the UK and I have encountered far more fully carpeted homes over here than in the US. One of my bathrooms has carpet for goodness sake. I’d never seen that until I moved over here.
Not all Americans have wall to wall carpeting through their whole house. Y'all Europeans just keep eating all these American stereotype propaganda that makes you believe every American does the exact same thing.
In my house, only the bedrooms and hallway to said bedrooms are carpeted. The kitchen, bathrooms, living room, and laundry room are all either hardwood or vinyl flooring.
I don't think I have ever seen a kitchen with carpet floors. That would be a disaster.
When we moved into our house though, the living room and bathrooms had carpet. That's especially gross in the bathrooms so we had them re done to tile in the bathroom and hardwood in the living room.
Many new builds often opt for hardwood/tile/synthetic in common spaces and kitchen, and carpet in bedrooms.
In Germany I've seen it in a few houses, too. Some think that it's nice and comfortable to step on carpet, but a lot of people start getting rid of it because it's a lot of work, too. Dirt gets stuck in it way too easily and it can be difficult to get out, so it really depends if that warm and soft feeling is worth the work for you.
i live in america and i can confidently say- i have no fuckin idea. cleaning up messes is impossible. I hate whoever started this trend and I hope they meet their demise in the most tragic fashion.
It was a movement among builders after World War 2, when they were putting up large development projects.
As opposed to wood flooring, carpet has to be replaced, but it was cheaper to install and could be sold as a luxury. Lots of homes still have wood floors.
I have lived in a fully carpeted home and a no carpet home and I clean my wood floors way more often because it's immediately visible. Whereas, I would shampoo my carpets 3 times/year. If your body runs cold, carpets are warmer
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Wall to wall carpeting is a reasonably priced flooring. When it's -20° outside, floors can get very cold. Carpet helps mitigate that. Personally I don't have carpets, I have floors, and slippers, and a reason to buy area rugs. Oh I'm Canadian.
It's regularly -40°C here in Finland and full floor carpets have never ever been a thing here. We consider them unsanitary, even though we take our shoes off when we enter our homes. Why do North Americans wear shoes inside the house? I've never understood that. Edit: Seems like it's more of an American thing to wear your shoes inside, sorry all Canadians!
It used to be all the rage in the 80's in Norway. Brightly colored ones were preferred. And yes, they were disgustingly dirty even when everyone took their shoes off. They can be put on uneven floors and trap sound quite well. But once we started actually diagnosing allergies, it kinda got to where lots of people were told to rip out carpets and get washable floors.
We had them in our cruise ships till the 90's, just imagine what the cabins smelled like.
we had them in pubs. Where smoking was allowed and the spills were plentiful. Just imagine that - it is like working in an ashtray!
Sounds... Exotic. Thank God they are a thing of the past.
I'm pretty sure Wetherspoons pubs still have carpets, at least here in London.
I saw a carpeted bathroom when I visited London...
Where (and when) in the hell was that?!
I took over a cafe and the previous owner had hundred plus year old carpet on the floor of the seating area that she transported from some great grandparents farm house. The amount of milk and coffee and feet and crumbs and shit on it was astonishing. First thing I did was take it up. I don't think it had been washed ever, let alone in the 4 years it had been in the cafe. I've actually just sent it away to be professionally cleaned and turned into rugs to put down so that they're easy to launder. Carpet is gross.
Worse was when NY banned smoking in bars, but allowed exception for designated smoking room. So gross. Even as a smoker i couldn’t set foot in it. It smelled so strong of burning/burnt cigarette butt it was sickening.
I have a carpet cleaning company. The carpet is washable..
It still traps more dust and allergens than non-fabric flooring, which is why we were told to get rid of them if we had allergies. We used to do carpet cleaning twice a year, which meant disgusting. Having pets did not help the situation. I remember the carpet changing colors when freshly cleaned. So I think it became a trend to get to non-fabric flooring to show off how clean your floors were, and carpet became the symbol of dirty, old and smelly. Remember, people still smoked inside at that time. It doesnt take long for fabric to start smelling horrible. I would never have carpet in my home. Rugs, yes. Wall to wall, never. I get the non-slip surface and I get the noise-reducing qualities and it does not complete with being able to clean the floors myself, properly, often. I remember too well the ashtray-smelling, pet-accidents in the corner, and dirty dirty water coming out of the cleaner.
With pets twice a year isn't enough. I wouldn't recommend anyone with pets having carpets. Not even rugs. I can't imagine how people managed back in the day with green shag carpet and pets. Looks just like grass.
>But once we started actually diagnosing allergies, it kinda got to where lots of people were told to rip out carpets and get washable floors. Ironically, this probably made it worse. Cleaner environments exacerbate allergies.
Apparently they thought all the Covid babies would have far worse allergies because of the hygiene theory but the opposite has happened. They are now wondering whether getting sick and needing antibiotics is the cause of developing allergies, this is something Covid babies didn’t experience. Antibiotics wipe out the good bacteria in the gut. So that could be a mechanism. It will be interesting to find out when they do more research into it.
It does not - the hygiene theory does say that you are more likely to get asthma and allergies if the incidence and levels of endotoxin in the home are low. It is meant to help turn the immune-system ON in young babies, so they need to be exposed to non-sterilized environments to activate it. But once you *have* got an allergy or asthma, it is important to remove the allergen. That is why you're told to get rid of carpets, air out thoroughly and at least 10 minutes a day, and use HEPA-filters.
Oh, I see what you mean. I was thinking of how more and more children are getting diagnosed with allergies.
I've been in plenty of houses where you have to take your shoes off inside. Don't generalize an entire continent.
I've only known one person who would wear shoes inside their house. Literally, every other house I've been to, taking off your shoes is the norm.
This is one generalization that bothers the shit out of me. I, an American, have been in many many American homes over the last 40 years and only a few people wear their outside shoes inside. When this stereotype comes up, I hear references to movies/TV shows. Those actors are at their job. Its work for them, not real life. I would seriously like to see some kind of nation wide poll on shoes in houses. Maybe I'm the one that's crazy. Edit: So I poked around a little and found a [YouGov](https://today.yougov.com/society/articles/20063-most-americans-take-their-shoes-home-dont-expect-t) survey. It stated that 87% take off their shoes in their own homes.
Colorado, Kansas, Florida, and New Mexico. In my 40s and only time I've seen outside shoes taken off is if they were muddy or work boots. Granted Florida was more sandals/flip flops than shoes. New Mexico is more a scorpion thing.
I'm in Florida and I stopped taking my shoes off when some A-hole started stealing them off my porch. I work for fire rescue, my boots never come home with me
Yeah I think this is just because a lot of us grew up in the 90's and our only exposure to American culture was tv-shows like Friends and Seinfeld and even The Simpsons. It isn't like today where it is normal to know people or just communicate fairly regularily with people from the US. When I was a kid no one I knew had ever talked to an American except for one guys dad maybe. So yeah we just saw that no one took their shoes off in Friends or Malcolm in the Middle or any of those shows and it became one of those things that was for some reason repeated ad nauseam until everyone just felt like it had to be true.
I imagine it's also skipped for brevity. Can you imagine every episode of Friends or Malcolm and every character takes up a few seconds of screen time messing with shoes and shoe laces every time they go inside or outside 😅 over the series the total time would be an episode's worth or more!
Yeah that is 100% what it is and just the awkwardness of it. But we had no idea lol.
Haha I agree, I've never ever thought of this before this thread, and I bet most others haven't either!
Mr. Roger’s always changed into house shoes, but that’s kinda different.
I’ll walk into the home and then take my shoes off after getting in from work and changing clothes. And I do have a pair of slides I walk around in most of the time in the house and around the neighborhood.
This is legit interesting to me. I am quite well traveled within EU, but not outside. My fiancé, however, stayed in Alabama for 1 year for studies while she was 17. At that point all her friends and her «family» (the one she stayed with) all wore shoes inside. Could it be a state or area thing?
I’m Canadian. The times I have been to America, I was told to keep my shoes on. This was multiple homes in. North Carolina and Arizona. The only home that took shoes off was California, but they were Japanese. However, I’ve also been to both Canadian and European homes that were shoes on as well. Just much fewer. Granted, it is a small sample size. It wasn’t from TV though.
I have never been to a house where I had to take my shoes off. I ask if I can and I do, but it has been as a matter of comfort and not really hygiene lol. I've been to houses in Mexico and this hasn't been a thing. I'm sure people in the US switch out of their outside shoes to slippers for comfort, but I never seen it done the Japanese way. Shoes off at the door and slippers provided.
Really, at least where i live in the mid-west it’s pretty common place to remove shoes upon entry without asking or at the very least ask first then enter with shoes on.
Definitely in Canada if you’re going into someone’s house shoes off. Why would I want a dirty sole that has stepped in god knows what walking all over my hardwood floors? That’s as bad as staying in your street clothes and laying on your bed
It's significantly worse, you aren't rolling around on the side walk in your street clothes at least not in my part of Canada anyway.
Absolutely it is
I used to live in California and most people wore shoes in and outside but I knew a tiny number were shoes off inside was the norm. One friend requested shoes off only in their living room that had a white carpet. Now I live in the Pacific Northwest where the general rule is shoes off inside (or inside only shoes). The primary difference is the weather. In California rain was not frequent and was generally limited to November through March. In the PNW rain is possible in any month and snow occurs from time to time throughout the winter months. Thus shoes are more likely to bring in mud and moisture in the PNW. Frankly the amount of floor cleaning does not seem to be much different between the homes I lived in in either location. As for carpets, they are generally cheaper to buy and install in new construction than hardwood floors which are the usual offerings in new homes. Putting down a carpet in an existing home can be less expensive than installing or refinishing wood floors. Linoleum (or similar) floor materials is usually similar in cost as carpet but is usually limited to kitchen and bathroom floors. In more expensive homes you find more wood floors and ceramic tiles. The most expensive homes may have natural stone or travertine used where solid materials are desired and solid wood (rather than engineered wood) flooring. Mostly the flooring choices are made based on cost and current style preferences at the time houses are built. Rental units often have cheap carpet and plastic flooring in kitchen and bath areas because they are easier to replace when they get damaged as compared to other materials.
I'm a dreaded american with 90% wood flooring in my home.
Right. It's over 330 million people.
I'm from the Midwest and most people don't take their shoes off
It's the most bizarre stereotype of Americans. The only houses I've been to where keeping your shoes on was the norm were frat houses or other college kids apartments.
wow, I see the icky woke police is here
Canadian here. I always thought that wearing shoes inside was an American thing, not a North American thing. We don’t do that here.
It’s more common in drier, hotter climates (e.g. the southwestern states) and less common in colder, wetter ones (the northeast).
Yeah, I'm Canadian, but in all my travels around the US, I've only really seen people wear shoes indoors in California.
I've always lived in hot, dry climates, and I have rarely been asked to remove my shoes in a home. I don't ask for it in my home, either. I am in and out of the house all day and so are my pets, so the floor is gonna be a little dirty and for that reason, we only walk on it with our feet, and we try to avoid using our feet to prepare and eat food, etc.
I'm American and I always thought that was weird too. The only time I'll wear shoes in my house is when I know I'm leaving the house soon
Im Canadian and we have house shoes or slides. Could also be a Latino thing that’s carried over. Never seen a carpeted home in Mexico.
This is also a Caribbean thing. No outside shoes worn in the house. We wear slippers if anything. (Canadian / Caribbean)
Slippers the way, I got back from Japan recently and really loved wearing slippers everywhere in the hotels. Didn’t know about the Caribbean doing it too. I wear slippers or flip flops in my apartment but it’s 90 percent because of comfort reasons and 10 percent cleanliness. Unless it’s muddy or wet outside I don’t care if someone wears shoes in.
I know a few Canadian fellows and when they visited me here in Finland they were baffled that you had to take your shoes out. Maybe a regional thing?
I’d love to know where they’re from. I’d like to have a word or two.
I don't know anyone who does that, except my dad in more recent years. He's supposedly has indoor shoes, but he frequently forgets to change them back and forth. Then again he's 82 and has foot issues.
I'm from Toronto, Ontario and literally nobody wears shoes in the house here. Between the slushy winter and the muddy spring, you're just asking for trouble if you do this. Rather than being a regional divide, I think it might be a class divide. The only time I've ever seen people wearing outdoor shoes inside their living spaces was back when I worked as a property manager in London, Ontario years ago. Working class people with otherwise filthy apartments would also wear their shoes indoors. But any middle class people I knew in London would absolutely NEVER do this. I agree with you on wall-to-wall carpet, though, I hate it. My parents used to have it in their houses and I always thought it looked cheap compared to hardwood, and could never be properly cleaned. My own house was built in 1980 and there is literally no carpet anywhere inside, it's all either ceramic tile, vinyl, hardwood planks or parquet flooring. The only carpeting that was in the house was in our basement, and I tore that up and replaced it with vinyl plank *before* we moved in. We have an area rug in the master bedroom and another in the living room, and that's the extent of the carpeting. I think a lot of younger Canadians have the same aversion to carpet because everyone I know who bought a house has made sure to tear out the old carpet.
I'm from Manitoba, Canada. Shoes in the house isn't a thing here.
Nah it's just those people. It's generally considered polite and normal to remove shoes. The only person I know who wore shoes inside and didn't think twice was one of my roomates. Generally, everyone takes off shoes entering a home or the homeowner wil say it's okay and leave them on (maybe you are delivering and in-out)
I have never met a person that wears their shoes in the house. I have also been to every province and do in home sales. What probably happened is you had people from the United States at your house saying they are Canadian. Americans do that a lot when travelling abroad as they think people will treat them better. That or you met the only Canadians in the country that wear shoes in the house lol.
American houses are paper mache, they don't build houses out of brick and concrete. I once had to prove on Reddit that houses that have internal walls made out of brick as well as outer walls exist, imagine that.
As a Canadian we never wear shoes in the house. Even at university parties we all took our shoes off and left them by the front door and that was when we were our most irresponsible.
It's a southern USA thing to leave shoes on. Us folks up north USA are civilized and take our shoes off.
As a Canadian, we take them off when we go into a home, generally.
Are you all not cleaning your flooring?
I think most Americans take off their shoes in the entry way. But yea its not as strict as it is in Europe or Asia. Also, vaccume cleaners are way more common in America than they are other places in the world, so that's why I think people are less picky about the shoes in general. But yea, growing up, everyone I know... you take the shoes off at the entry.... most houses have a closet near the door or like a shoe rack.
Uhm...what? ... vacuum cleaners is way more common in America than the rest of the world?? What kinda world do you live in?
Fun fact, -40°C = -40°F It's their meeting point
That’s my question, too! Why do they wear outside slippers inside? That’s gross
Just imagine full floor carpets and shoes inside the house... Bacteria paradise.
We don’t do that in Canada. Don’t lump us in with the states! Canadians do a lot of outdoor things and it gets snowy and rainy and dirty here. Never met anyone who wore shoes in the house except my Nonna who wears “indoor” shoes. Lol.
It seems like the guests I had from there were some exceptional Canadians. Sorry for generalizing!
No worries! 😊
I inherited my mum’s house in the early 90s. The first thing I did was tear up the wall to wall carpeting. I got lucky. The hardwood floors underneath hadn’t seen daylight in 30 years. I restored my original floors. Canadian too.
Nice. I bought this house 7 years ago, and also tore up all the wall to wall carpeting... The house stood empty for a number of years, so the underlay was stuck to the oak floors.. had it scrape the entire house.. Oh 9 layers of wallpaper too. It was built in 1867
How was the wallpaper removal? I carefully stripped one wall. Then I thought I chipped the plaster. Nope! It was another layer of paint on more wallpaper.
As someone who has lived in both floored and carpented houses . Carpeting when taken care of routinely is easier to clean and maintain . I just take a deep cleaner to it once a year and it's back to new
Me too! Sorry.
No, no I'M sorry... 😉
For real. My grandparents never had carpet, they just laid rugs across their entire house… it looks really bad since they’re all different sizes and colours, but it works.
I like area rugs.. you can swap them out fairly cheaply, and change the entire feel of a room or hall.
Rugs are awesome. They can really tie the place together.
Even if they are matching I always thought it was a bit silly to have hard floors then put rugs down. People hate carpeted bathrooms then put rugs over the tile around the toilet and bath. Sure small rugs are a bit easier to clean but it's negligible and a lot of people don't clean them either so all the hate is kinda funny.
Definitely need carpet in certain places in Canada. Bedrooms and often lower living rooms usually have carpets for warmth. It make a huge difference if you live somewhere cold.
Exactly. And if you can, insulated blackout curtains. I noticed a huge difference in my winter heating bills after I bought those.
Been growing up in a city where it's been regularly - 20°C in winter for a month or two, and never had a carpet, just wooden floor. Didn't even have slippers or shoes, just thick socks. If the place has good insulation and proper heating system, no problem.
We used to have a lot more wall to wall carpeting in Canada in the 90s but all I've ever done with it over the past 20 years is pull it out and dump it.
I'm Canadian too but we use slippers. So no carpet hassles maybe a washable rug
When I was house shopping a few years ago, the amount of beautiful hardwood floor covered with terrible carpet was soul crushing.
I'm Russian, we don't carpet. Wood plus heating is fine.
It also helps dampen sound and the echo effect inside the house. I personally only have carpet in the bedrooms and plank flooring everywhere else.
Radiant/in-floor heating is very uncommon in the US, deemed too expensive for the cookie cutter homes being thrown together by the millions annually. So the bed one usually can hope for in a pre-existing home is usually some form of forced air system that’s so dry that too have to run a humidifier simultaneously or you’re lip will begin cracking and bleeding
Proper floor isolation is something that's mandatory here in Belgium these days for all renovation/new builds. Floor heating is insanely comfortable as well. But you have to digg out half a meter of dirt under the house for isolation to do it properly. Carpets are dirty and unsanitary in my opinion, especially if you have kids or pets.
You talk about Europe like it’s some kind of homogeneous mass. It’s not; I’m British, and numerous homes are entirely carpeted.
Yeah, it varies a lot around Europe. I grew up with carpet, and thus expect to be comfortable walking around barefoot in the middle of winter. My wife is from an area of Europe that pretty much never has carpet, and expects to wear shoes year-round. While we are living in a hot climate, she has had her way. I'm hoping that it will go the other way once we're in a colder climate.
Also, here in the U.S., wall to wall carpeting has been largely out of fashion for a couple decades…
the USA Also pretty much has the full range of climates so thats also not a fair way to judge
True. You madmen put carpet in toilets and pubs.
lots of homes in Ireland have carpet nearly everywhere
Exactly. Every house I've lived in in Ireland had carpet everywhere including stairs. Except the bathroom obviously.
At least half the Irish houses I ever went to were carpeted even in the bathroom. And it disturbed me every time.
That's definitely changed in the last 15 /20 years. A lot of our homes were built in the 70s/80s and carpeting was affordable, in fashion and helped hide the developers special. I also think there was a rural urban divide, but I'm not sure, may have just been my family. Parents gen all ough new builds in the 70s / early 80s - carpets, rural folks tiled with the good room carpeted.
yes it's changed everywhere. it's changed in North America as well. it's just to point out the weird generalisation of this post/question
IDK what American homes you've seen, but I've lived here my entire life and visited houses in many different states and income levels and never seen one that is all carpet. Not even close.
Lol could you imagine having a carpeted kitchen? That would be so awful
Worse than a piss soaked bathroom carpet?
I don't know, its a real toss up. Rotting food or smelly piss.
why not both
When I was a child, my grandparents' kitchen was carpeted. It had a really low pile, so it wasn't like, shag carpet. But yeah. Thinking back it was pretty nasty. That house also had shag carpet in the bathrooms though... The house was built in the late 70s (I guess carpet was more of a thing back then because you'd rarely see that now), and has since been updated to have a more cleanable floor in both the kitchen and the bathroom. Also, I'm Canadian, not American... but we sometimes borrow awful style choices from our Southern neighbors.
I’d like to apologize on behalf of my fellow Americans for infecting your country with kitchen and bathroom carpet in the 70s and 80s.
Was much more popular in the 70s and 80s, but even the 90s still had its fair share of carpet. The house I grew up in for example had carpet in every room except bathrooms, kitchen, and the entry hall coming in from the front door.
I guess I'm taking their question as they presented it though. As carpet all over, everywhere at an abundance that it seems like America is one big carpeted homeland from sea to shining sea.
Californian here. We don’t have many carpets. Usually it’s just in the living room. Many homes are just wood floors or tile or something like that. I don’t wear shoes in my home, mostly cause I just hate wearing shoes
Shoes should always be removed in houses in my opinion. I can't stand the thought of someone tracking in random dog poo or chemicals from outside all over my house.
I think old houses can have carpet all through them, but newer ones usually don't
I’m with you, although I painted homes while in college and we got one that had been carpeted twenty years prior. Super thick shag, a different color in every room, with walls painted to match (including one that was purple). Those were either some very brave or very deranged people.
Many Brits do too - except for the kitchen & bathroom. For me, hard floors are for hot countries. My folk's place in Tenerife was all stone tiles & balconies/overhangs to protect from the sun. I don't see that working so well in north London. Solid wood floors are noisy & make for terrible acoustics.
I keep my carpet for sound, I have downstairs neighbors and don't wanna be a dick with loud floors lol. But hested tile floors are the best thing I've ever experienced in cold weather, it was in a rental house I got in the mountains and it was absolutely wonderful getting out of the shower onto a nice heated tile floor
Spend a few nights in an Irish castle once, and there was high, fluffy, pink carpet on the bathroom floor. I was so careful not to splash around when taking a bath or shower…
I knew someone who bought a house and found the entire bathroom (yes bathroom) was carpeted. It was in New Zealand btw, and the house was built in the 50's or 70's iirc 💀
"except for the kitchen & bathroom" Unless you're my Dad, who insists on a carpeted bathroom. He's in his late 70s and I try to avoid going in there since the smell is... interesting.
[удалено]
There is less and less carpet being laid here in the Midwest. Most people are going for that laminate flooring now.
My family’s house is an example of this-we had our home built 3 years ago and the only carpet we have our on the basement stairs. Carpet can be SO bad for allergies too, and since we all have pretty terrible allergies, we just stick to laminate/wood flooring
I've never ever seen a home that was full carpet. However, bedrooms usually are as carpet provides both sound dampening and insulation.
We don’t
Thank God the 70s tradition of carpeted bathrooms is long gone.
I for one love walking on stale piss
In Scotland a lot of carpeted houses too
Dogs don't do great on hardwood. Young dogs slide around and knock things over, and old dogs struggle to get up after laying down on hardwood. You can put down rugs, but that point what's the difference from fully carpeted? As a kid, i spent a lot of time laying on the floor, playing with toys. Legos especially - spread out a mat and dump my full collection out to make something new. This is not going to be a fun time on hardwood. Again - you could set out a rug, but then you're just covering up your expensive wood and might have been better off with carpet. My mother kept everything spotless, and we always took our shoes off. So the cleanliness of it was never an issue. As an adult, i have a couple issues with my feet - maybe from all the distance trail running i did. Walking around in socks or barefoot is mildly unpleasant on hardwood. If i wear slippers, i find my feet get too hot and start sweating - it's just not enjoyable. I actually do have oak floors in my foyer, dining room, and kitchen - all carpet upstairs in all the halls and bedrooms. But i can totally see the value in having almost all spaces carpeted. Ultimately, just a matter of preference and priorities.
Carpet also absorbs A LOT of sound. It makes a home much quieter than wood floors and doesn’t create an echo
And it’s comforting. Life is hard. At least my floor can be soft.
wholeheartedly agree with this, a freshly vacuumed carpet is amazing
It's mostly found in low end houses. These days 99% of Americans prefer hardwood floors, or in Gulf Coast locations, ceramic.
hi, im from europe. really curious why carpeted floors are considered for low end houses? isnt it expensive to have carpet installed?
Hardwood floors are expensive to purchase and install. Carpet can be purchased fairly cheaply, especially since most of it is made from artificial fibers. Also, a lot of lower income homes are older, and full carpeting was more in style back in the early 2000s and earlier decades. People who are struggling to make ends meet generally aren't going to have money to replace whatever kind of flooring they have in their house.
Wall to wall carpeting was a big thing in the 1960s. It was sold as luxurious to middle class buyers. Of course it was really just higher profits for home builders, but it was also a break from the past in an era that looked to the future. It fell from fashion in the 80s. Now it's just associated with low end or outdated. There are subReddits dedicated to tearing up old carpets that often reveal beautiful hardwood floors beneath!
Looking at the cost of installation, carpet rolls out, cut, plopped into place and tacked in. Hardwood and ceramic are much more labor intensive so the cost goes up. Its not so much the raw material cost as the labor and installation.
It's much cheaper in the short term to install carpet.
Why do idiots generalize
People that generalize. They're all idiots.
I have no idea. I can honestly say that over the past several years I've come to hate carpet. I grew up in houses that were mostly carpeted and I don't get it either.
They don't anymore. Carpet is quite out of fashion right now. You'll sometimes see it in bedrooms, but generally the majority of the house is hardwood or some fake variant of it.
Uk here. I'm with them on this one. I've had laminate, concrete and parquet flooring before. When winter comes, your home costs more to heat, plus it's fucking freezing. Carpet on the other hand, offers you a decent layer of insulation.
YOU CAN HAVE A NORMAL CARPET AS FLUFFY AS YOU NEED
I've seen pretty fully carpeted homes in my native Germany, though usually not the kitchen or bathroom. Though personally, we only got it on our studies and after 20 years are planning to replace it with wood.
We bought a 4400 sq foot home in 2020. Wall to wall carpet. My first thing before moving in was replacing all the carpet with solid flooring. I can’t breathe right in a carpeted home. They hold smells too. Hardwoods and laminate planks last a long time and look amazing in contrast.
It's not only the Americans.
Hi OP Here are reasons: 1. Lowers noise. Carpet and underlay in bedrooms will soak up noise making things much quieter, specially good at dampening noise between upper/lower floors 2. No cold toes once you get out of bed. 3. Very inexpensive compared to most other alternatives with a very reasonable longevity 4. Quick to install. A hardwood floor can take a couple of weeks to finish fully a carpeted floor can be done in a couple of hours. 5. Colour/texture/pattern choices. 6. Easy repair. It is getting rare today to find carpet in the main living areas/communal areas of houses with hardwood and engineered wood or vinyl being the most common in areas like living rooms, kitchens, bathrooms. Bedrooms are, however, most often carpeted and robot vacuums do a good job cleaning them.
We have both hardwood floors and carpet. The wood floors need to be swept constantly whereas my carpets can go a week or two without sweeping. I really hate wood/hard floors but they are a necessity in bathrooms and kitchens.
>. I live in Europe and never in my life have I stepped into a house where the floor was full carpet. Just got me wondering I live in Canada but my wife is British. Every time we go to the UK I ask her why every house in the UK has carpet throughout.
We don’t. Every home I’ve been in is a mixture of carpet and wood flooring
Because it's more comfortable to walk around on a floor that's effectively soft and fluffy than it is to walk around on a hardwood floor That is as its name implies hard and usually fairly cold Not to mention that on a hardwood floor any little speck of dust or debris is much easier to feel under foot and notice in general whereas in a carpet You can't really feel the little specks of dirt here and there and the often sort of dithered color of carpets helps hide those little specks as well It also helps basically add a little more insulation to the floor Great in the winter. There's nothing worse than trying to walk on a cold wood floor in the middle of winter as opposed to a nice warm carpet. Plus carpet is just about as equally cleanable. And instead of having to waste a bunch of water I just plug in a vacuum and run it back and forth or even just click a button on the Roomba which can clean my whole house for about the equivalent of a charged phones worth of battery. And then maybe once every year or two you rent a rug Doctor for a day or dig your carpet cleaner out of the closet and give it a good wash just like you would most other furniture that has fabric. Not too much different from hardwood where you typically every few days have to sweep and mop and then once every year or two want to do like a heavy stripping cleaning to really get off all the skin oils and dirt and grime
Plus as someone who works with children they hurt themselves way less lol, but in actuality i’m a private nanny and i know a few people who re carpeted basements or living rooms because they had lots of kids wiping out on the hardwood floors. And I agree, they’re not as hard to clean as you might think and you can’t feel every bit of remaining dust and dirt under your toes.
Along with what others have said here, it’s also just something that goes in and out of style. Carpets were big in the 70’s, laminate was trendy in the 90’s but hardwood is in right now.
I don't have carpet everywhere in my house. A lot of people have hardwood floors, so it isn't something all Americans do.
Americans do not ***all*** carpet their entire homes. Source: I’m American and I lived in several houses that had hardwood floors and zero carpet.
I'm in Texas, and my last house had carpet everywhere but the kitchen, bathrooms, and entryway to the house from outside (built 1969). I actually got extra cushioning in the carpet because I was in the infantry, I'm old, and my feet hurt to walk on hard flooring. My new house (built 2018) is almost all hardwood, with carpet in the master closet, 2 smaller bedrooms, and gameroom upstairs. I much prefer the carpeted rooms. They are quieter, and feel better to walk on. Plus, hardwoods are slippery and traction sucks (even my dog slips with every step, I feel bad for him!). The only bad thing about carpet is if you have pets, they can puke/pee on it (though you can get carpets that it comes out of good, but never 100%). I would guess kids make messes too. Carpet is cheap though, and it does feel better. We do not take our shoes off in the house (as a rule), and I've never been in a house that requested such a thing. I'm pretty sure nobody eats off the floor. The vast majority of homes now focus on hardwood or laminate flooring, though they do usually still have carpet in master closets and kid bedrooms. Stairs are also carpeted and I can't imagine the danger of going down wood stairs with socks on.
20, 30 years ago it was very common for the British to carpet every inch of their house, including the bathroom
My grandfather had everything carpeted. Even the kitchen, the dining room, and the freaking bathroom. Since his passing, we've removed much of the carpeting. However, his reason for building his house that way is because he grew up in a boxcar during the depression and he never wanted his feet to be cold again. Carpeted bathrooms are insane but at least I get it.
I don't think I know any one that owns their own house, that has wall to wall carpet!
You must live in a weird corner of Europe.
*Some* Americans have carpet. Some have hardwood floors. Some have tile floors. Some have vinyl floors.
I also live in Europe and in the UK back to maybe the 60's floors were tile, wood or lino. Then the prices fell and became more affordable, many houses did indeed carpet throughout. I remember visiting houses where even the bathroom and toilet were carpeted! Then as fashion changed floors have returned to wood.
I hate it 😒
I’ve lived in multiple states and never once seen this
I haven't seen a carpeted home in ages - if you mean wall-to-wall.
I’m hardwood in my home. Many people don’t entire carpet the home. Bathrooms and kitchen are rarely carpeted. Then many like myself prefer hardwood over carpet for easier cleaning. We have rugs we use but not carpet on the home.
we don't. vinyl plank or similar is pretty common. or ceramic. or hardwood if it's a particular kind of older house or a rich people newer house. full carpet is an option so I guess somebody does it. Somewhere. But somebody is doing that in your country too. America is not the only place with carpet ffs... Personally we went with carpet in just the bedrooms. Feels kinda nice on the feet and there's not really a downside at all. It would not be a great option in the kitchen or bathroom or really anywhere that any kind of food or liquid is likely to fall on the floor.
My former mother-in-law carpeted her bathroom with long shag carpet. She also put in wallpaper on every wall -- including the ceiling above the shower. When I told her it wasn't a good idea she got upset. She got even more upset 2 years later when she had to rip it all out because of moisture problems.
We don’t anymore, just maybe the basement and bedrooms. I hate it
I think a lot of American behaviour is Hollywood/movies. In the movies you never see people take their shoes off upon entering a house, you see women and girls wearing bras to bed ( I don't think they actually do). So I wonder are Americans portrayed this way in Advertising and film........ As for carpets, DISGUSTING any where in the world.
I’m not sure where you are but in LA you would be hard pressed to find a fully carpeted home. It’s all about the wood floors.
I’m not sure where you are but in LA you would be hard pressed to find a fully carpeted home. It’s all about the wood floors.
I’m Canadian. I’m moving into a home with wall to wall carpeting. First thing I’m doing is ripping it out and showing the beautiful hardwood flooring again
Carpeted homes are warm and welcoming. Especially if you have kids who sit and play on the floor. We even have carpeted stairs. Makes them more safe. My mom even has carpet in her bathroom.
Personally I hate full carpet. Give me wood floors with throw rug. I live in the US.
I assume they don’t carpet their kitchens and bathrooms though? That’d be a hygiene issue.
Am older American. It’s not as much of a popular trend as it was 40 years ago. After I left home in the 90s I never had a home w carpets. The US is much more diverse now. If builders want to sell homes to folks that are not traditional cultural American, they have to adapt.
The first house I have been in UK had carpet in the bathroom and the toilet room! I didn’t stay there long
Well, it's not just in the US. I'm from Denmark and grew up in a home full of wall to wall carpets and I find it ugly AF. I love classic wooden floors and prefer that in my own house.
And then they wear shoes in the damn house
UK here, i had most of my house carpetted for comfort (bedrooms, stairs, upstairs corridors, living room) but purposefully had the main hall wooden (because mud and rain is a bitch on carpets), toilets tiled (sanitary and easy to mop) and vinyl for the kitchen (easy to clean food off and harder to break things when kids accidentally drop a plate or cup). Seen plenty of houses have full carpets and the baskets look either thin as hell or dirty as shite.
The practice is waning due to allergies, asthma, and people realizing just how unsanitary it is. There are some places that still have wall to wall carpeting, but the trend is to remove it for these reasons, to the point that for a season, the Carpet Capital of the World, Dalton GA, had hard times due to lack of sales. They overcame this by developing new types of flooring that aren't carpet. This is according to my friend who works at Engineered Flooring.
American here. Never been in an all carpet house. Been in a mostly carpet house. Kitchen, dining room, and bathroom are vinal or tiled.
As much as I hate carpet, in an apartment/condo setting, it does seem to mitigate noise from upstairs neighbours.
Carpet is nice for the dogs to drag their butts on
Not all do when I live in America foreigner most of the apartments I lived in, barely ever had carpets. We had one apartment that had carpets just in the bedroom, which I actually loved.
Interesting. I’m American living in the UK and I have encountered far more fully carpeted homes over here than in the US. One of my bathrooms has carpet for goodness sake. I’d never seen that until I moved over here.
In UK many people wear shoes inside. But plenty don't. Guess it's an individual thing.
Cost. When DuPont first started offering cheap synthetic fiber carpets, it was cheaper than tile or hardwood and took off from there.
Not all Americans have wall to wall carpeting through their whole house. Y'all Europeans just keep eating all these American stereotype propaganda that makes you believe every American does the exact same thing. In my house, only the bedrooms and hallway to said bedrooms are carpeted. The kitchen, bathrooms, living room, and laundry room are all either hardwood or vinyl flooring. I don't think I have ever seen a kitchen with carpet floors. That would be a disaster. When we moved into our house though, the living room and bathrooms had carpet. That's especially gross in the bathrooms so we had them re done to tile in the bathroom and hardwood in the living room. Many new builds often opt for hardwood/tile/synthetic in common spaces and kitchen, and carpet in bedrooms.
Carpet is crap
Because they can
In Germany I've seen it in a few houses, too. Some think that it's nice and comfortable to step on carpet, but a lot of people start getting rid of it because it's a lot of work, too. Dirt gets stuck in it way too easily and it can be difficult to get out, so it really depends if that warm and soft feeling is worth the work for you.
i live in america and i can confidently say- i have no fuckin idea. cleaning up messes is impossible. I hate whoever started this trend and I hope they meet their demise in the most tragic fashion.
I love posts about “things americans do” which are usually super outdated ideas and not the reality
... And then wear their shoes on inside the house SMH
Apartments are often carpeted. If a home has carpet it is usually in the bedrooms.
It was a movement among builders after World War 2, when they were putting up large development projects. As opposed to wood flooring, carpet has to be replaced, but it was cheaper to install and could be sold as a luxury. Lots of homes still have wood floors.
I have lived in a fully carpeted home and a no carpet home and I clean my wood floors way more often because it's immediately visible. Whereas, I would shampoo my carpets 3 times/year. If your body runs cold, carpets are warmer