What’s the best floor choice for a conservatory?

Traditionally, conservatories were created to offer homeowners more sunlight, but today, they are used for a wide range of activities, from dining and working to reading, relaxing and keeping indoor plants. Depending on how you use your conservatory and your preferred look and feel, different floors may be better suited to this part of your property.

In the next passages, we’ll take a look at some different flooring choices, and the reasons they’re worth considering.

Carpet

Wall-to-wall carpeting can give your conservatory a relaxing and cosy feel. If you’re planning to use your space for unwinding with a little luxury, carpet can provide you with a comfortable environment with plenty of colour choices to pick from. For the most part, homeowners tend to opt for neutral tones that can provide a clean and modern appearance.

Always ensure the conservatory carpet you select has colourfast properties to ensure it doesn’t fade when exposed to sunshine over the warmer months of the year. For the best results, moving your furniture around periodically is also a wise move. Carpets may not be the best choice if your conservatory is adjacent to your kitchen, however, where spilled water or leaking appliances could cause lasting damage.

Laminate

Laminate flooring is an exceptional choice for a conservatory if you’re looking for a solution that’s simple to care for. Many conservatories lead out to garden areas, which can mean mud and grass get brought back indoors from time to time. Easy to clean, laminate is perfect for such situations, and it’s also cost-effective compared to the natural stone or wooden floorboards it’s made to emulate. As it’s so simple to maintain, it’s also an excellent choice if you wish to dine in your conservatory.

Luxury vinyl tile (LVT)

Luxury vinyl tiling can provide a smart and stylish floor for your conservatory, ensuring it has a contemporary look and feel. Completely waterproof, it’s also an easy floor choice to clean, and it can cope well with spillages from watering plants if you use your conservatory for sun-loving flora. Like laminate, LVT can resemble materials like timber and stone, and it comes at a fraction of the price of naturally sourced flooring.

Solid wood

Hardwood flooring is not an ideal match for conservatories. The conditions encountered by glass panelled rooms can often cause damage to real wood floors, with the timber boards contracting and expanding under sudden changes in temperature. If you have your heart set on a wooden floor in your conservatory, you might find engineered boards a possibility worth looking into. While you should always take advice from a flooring specialist prior to committing to a purchase, engineered boards are far better at coping with fluctuating temperatures than their solid wood counterparts.

Unlike hardwood, engineered boards feature a multi-layer construction that creates a stability not found in natural timber. While the topmost layer features a solid wood, those added beneath limit the movement of the natural wood that can be caused by alterations in temperature.

Overall, the best choice for a conservatory floor depends on the use and location of the room and personal taste.

How can you tell when your carpeting needs updating?

There’s no doubt that carpets can add a luxury look and feel to properties, along with providing additional comfort levels unavailable from other floor coverings. However, even if cared for diligently, these sought-after qualities can become reversed in time, leaving carpets less pleasant to walk on and appearing dull and worn.

Whether you have carpeting in your office reception or within the rooms of your home, when this happens, it’s probably time for an upgrade. Read on for some of the most common indicators that it’s high time you replaced your carpets.

Worn areas

If, despite your best efforts with your vacuum cleaner’s brush attachment to fluff it up, your carpet has become flattened or frayed, it’s probably time to start shopping for samples. You’ll find that some carpeted areas suffer from more human traffic than others, leading to excessive wear. In business premises, this may be foyers where guests are greeted, while in homes, it tends to be hallways, staircases and family rooms. In such spaces, you’ll likely find the carpets need replacing more regularly than in areas used less frequently, like boardrooms and bedrooms.

If you’re set on using carpeting for rooms that see a heavy footfall, invest in a hardwearing option or accept that you’ll be replacing it more frequently, and choose a more cost-effective option you can afford to replace.

Colour fading

Although many carpets manufactured today are increasingly designed to be colourfast, rooms that see a lot of sunlight can take a hit. Carpeted areas that are not shaded by furniture and are exposed to UV rays through windows can begin to fade over time, making them lose their lustre. This is a clear sign that your carpet is ready for a replacement.

Easy-to-spot stains

From spilled coffee in the office to pet mess and children’s paints and pens in the home, carpets will often have to contend with accidents. Dirt tramped in from outside can also make a negative impression, particularly in the entrances and exits of rooms. Over a long period of time, all these little stains that were once barely noticeable will begin to add up, ruining the aesthetic appearance of your carpeting. While some stains can be removed or hidden with furniture, when you run out of options, consider brand-new carpeting.

Unpleasant odours

When you start to sense that no matter how many times you shampoo it, your carpet still smells musty and stale, you should replace it. Unwanted smells can have an adverse effect on those visiting your place of business and home, and they also make for an unpleasant living or working environment for those who use these carpeted areas.

Once installed, to ensure you get the most out of your all-new carpet, make sure you vacuum it regularly and attend to any spills and stains instantly. A professional cleaning is also a wise idea periodically to ensure your carpet doesn’t get clogged up with unwanted dust and dirt that may age it prematurely.

Finally, consider adding floor mats for the areas where your old carpet became worn to save your new carpet from the same fate.

Hand-woven carpet completed after three years

In 2018, carpet weavers started working on a carpet in Qabala, Azerbaijan. This was one of the region’s largest hand woven carpets, measuring four-by-six square metres and weighing 57.2 kilograms. These types of carpets usually take months to complete, but this one wasn’t finished until July 2021.

The main reason why the Pirabadil-style carpet took so long was because of the Covid-19 pandemic, which meant that no one could work on the carpet for about a year. The carpet had to be protected during this period to stop visits from the local moth population, and it was only resumed in April 2021.

The carpets made in Qabala are flat weave with traditional patterns featuring shapes that resemble the number five and the letter “S”. These are said to represent dragons that, according to ancient lore, protect the home from extreme weather. Other geometric forms in the design are symbols of birds, animals and humans.

When people order carpets for Chester and North Wales rooms, they don’t have to wait three years for them to be made, nor do they have to pay thousands for a carpet that takes many weavers a long time to produce. Modern carpets are made using machinery that quickly makes carpets without sacrificing quality.

Most carpet manufacturers are in full production following the easing of the virus lockdown.

If you like the historic patterns found in hand-woven carpets, there are many attractive traditional designs available, or alongside more contemporary designs.

When is it time to replace carpets in rented properties?

The responsibility for replacing carpets in North Wales rented properties is usually the landlord's. If you are a tenant, how often should you expect the carpets to be replaced?

There is no UK law that governs carpet replacements, but generally, landlords will consider replacing carpets every five years. Of course, the timing of carpet replacements depends on a number of factors, such as the quality of the carpet and its usage. Expect a good quality carpet to last at least ten years, but a cheap one could need replacing in three. It’s a good idea for a landlord to install a decent carpet as it can work out cheaper in the long term. Tenants paying a higher than average rent may expect good-quality flooring.

Carpets in student properties where regular parties are likely to be held will get a lot more use than those in properties occupied by single professionals.

A badly stained carpet will need a deep clean at the end of a tenancy. The tenants can be charged for the cost of this. If the carpet is worn or damaged beyond reasonable wear and tear, the tenants may be asked to pay for a replacement carpet.

At the start of a tenancy, it's a good idea for the tenants and landlord to take photos of the carpet so that its condition at the start of the tenancy can be compared to how much it has worn by the end of it.

Neighbours brighten up alleyway with carpets and artificial grass

A group of neighbours living on Bright Street in Meir, Staffordshire have decided that the street should reflect its name, and so they have transformed the alleyway between their homes with artificial grass, carpets, flowers, plants and benches.

The project started with resident Rachel Goodall, who weeded the alleyway behind her home. Her neighbours came to help her, and they then decided that the alleyway was in need of a makeover. Speaking to the Stoke Sentinel, Goodall said:

“We wanted somewhere a little bit bigger than our garden, somewhere in the sun, and something nice to look at. We did our part and then looked up and down and said ‘yeah let’s just do the rest of it’.”

Goodall added that making the alleyway look attractive has deterred anti-social behaviour in the neighbourhood. Previously, people had dumped rubbish in the alleyway, but now this has stopped as well.

The neighbours often sit out in the alley on garden chairs and benches, and they say that they’re now much better acquainted. Another resident, Carl Wilson, praised the project, saying that the alleyway was previously horrible, but it’s now a nice spot to relax in.

Most carpets in North Wales and Chester homes are not waterproof, so they’re not suitable for long-term outside use, unlike artificial grass, which is weatherproof. It’s better to use carpets inside, but you can get some carpets that are treated with a solution that makes them water resistant.