Carpet vs hard flooring: choosing room by room

Warmth, comfort and noise

Carpet wins comfortably on all three. A carpet and underlay together provide meaningful thermal insulation — typically 1.5–2.5 tog — which in an older, poorly insulated property makes a noticeable difference to how a room feels. Hard floors conduct heat away from your feet, which is why they read as cold even at the same air temperature.

On noise, the difference is dramatic. Carpet absorbs impact sound at source; hard floors transmit it. In a flat or a Victorian conversion with timber floors, a hard floor on an upper level will be audible downstairs unless a proper acoustic underlay is fitted. Many leases in London flats specifically require carpet or an acoustic build-up above ground floor for exactly this reason.

Underfoot comfort matters more than people expect in bedrooms. Getting out of bed onto carpet in January is a different experience to getting out onto vinyl, and it is the main reason we still fit carpet in most bedrooms even in otherwise hard-floored houses.

Durability, cleaning and allergies

Hard flooring wins on durability and cleaning. A good LVT or engineered wood floor will outlast two or three carpets in a hallway. Spills wipe off, mud sweeps up, and there is no matting or crushing in traffic lanes — the flattening that makes a hallway carpet look tired long before it is worn out.

The allergy argument is more nuanced than usually presented. Carpet traps allergens, which means they are not circulating in the air, but it also means they need removing by thorough regular vacuuming. Hard floors do not trap anything, but dust is easily disturbed back into the air. For most allergy sufferers, hard flooring plus frequent damp mopping is the better combination, mainly because it is easier to be consistent with.

Modern solution-dyed nylon and polypropylene carpets can be cleaned with dilute bleach without losing colour, which has closed much of the hygiene gap for households with pets or young children.

Cost over time

Upfront, carpet is usually cheaper: £35–£65 per square metre supplied and fitted for a good domestic carpet with quality underlay, against £45–£75 for LVT and £55–£110 for engineered wood.

Over fifteen years the picture reverses in high-traffic areas. A hall and stair carpet in a family home typically needs replacing every 6–8 years; LVT in the same hall will still be presentable at 15. In bedrooms, where wear is minimal, carpet easily lasts 12–15 years and the cost comparison stays in its favour.

That difference is the basis for the standard recommendation: hard flooring downstairs and in circulation areas, carpet in bedrooms. It puts each material where its cost-per-year is lowest.

• Carpet fitted: £35–£65 / m² · lasts 6–8 years in halls, 12–15 in bedrooms
• LVT fitted: £45–£75 / m² · lasts 15–20 years with a 0.55mm wear layer
• Engineered wood fitted: £55–£110 / m² · lasts 25+ years and can be refinished

Room-by-room recommendations

Hallway and stairs: hard flooring in the hall, carpet on the stairs. The hall takes the mud and the footfall; carpeted stairs are quieter, safer underfoot and much easier to fit well than hard treads.

Living room: either works. Hard flooring with large rugs is the current preference and is more practical with children and pets; carpet is warmer and quieter and still the right answer in a first-floor flat.

Bedrooms: carpet, in almost every case. Low traffic, high comfort value, and the acoustic benefit matters most where you sleep.

Kitchen, bathroom, utility: hard flooring only, and waterproof at that. Carpet in a bathroom is a hygiene problem regardless of the product.

Home office and loft rooms: hard flooring if you use a desk chair with castors — a chair mat over carpet is always an ugly compromise.

Resale and letting considerations

Buyers in South East London consistently respond well to hard flooring on the ground floor and carpet upstairs. It reads as current, it photographs well, and it signals a house that has been maintained. Fully carpeted ground floors, particularly in kitchens or dining areas, tend to date a property.

For landlords the calculation is different again. Carpet in a rental needs replacing at roughly every second tenancy change and is an inspection flashpoint; LVT throughout is more expensive initially but eliminates most end-of-tenancy disputes and typically pays back within two tenancies.

Whichever you choose, consistency of flooring across sightlines matters more to how a house feels than the material itself. Three different floor finishes visible from one doorway will always look worse than one good one.