When we built our home a few years ago, it was with one main goal…
carpet-free.
Our house is a carpetLESS zone.
After years and years and years and years of extracting hairballs from carpet fibers I became hairball intolerant.
And then we had kids.
And then crushed cereal, sippy cup drippings, baby puke, peanut butter cracker remnants, and pea gravel tag-a-longs joined the cat gifts.
And then I devoted a portion of each day to scrubbing furry floors in hopes to return the carpet to an ever-dulling shade of beige. And I don’t even LIKE beige.
Fun times.
Solid surface flooring was the answer.
Concrete, wood, tile, linoleum, fiber floor – I embrace you.
Hairball? No problem! Let me get a paper towel!
Toddler vomit? Not a big deal! Let me get a wet washcloth.
Park pine bark? Who cares? Let me get a broom.
And a set of earplugs.
Earplugs?
Yes, because cleanliness comes with a price.
A home sans-carpet is a home void of sound deadening fiber.
A cough in the night echoes through the halls…
*COUGH*
*COUGH*
*cough*
Footsteps on the second floor sound like a herd of angry elephants.
Three boys fighting sound like…
three boys fighting to the third power as broadcast in THX.
*insert impressive THX testing music here*
It is like going to an elementary school band concert in the fall. You sit there smiling in a crowded auditorium whispering behind your program until the festivities begin. The music starts and you inwardly cringe under your smile, but when the sound bounces again at you from the back wall mingling with the out of kilter notes blasting from the stage you want to cover your ears in horror and run for the nearest auditorium double door…but you can’t. You have to sit there. And smile.
And that is what I am doing at home.
I am trying to enjoy my clean floors over all that noise...
{ 38 comments… read them below or add one }
We are in the process of ripping all the carpet out of our house. I know the noise will be more, but I can not handle the stains and the insanity of carpet any longer!!!
Oh, I hear ya.
Wood is less loud than tile. But LAMINATE is excruciatingly loud and that is what is in this house we are in now. (Renting because a move to go to law school is on the horizon). The dogs toenails? Ah Lawsie Mercy. It makes us nuts!
We have some carpeting…my husband wants it gone but I am not ready for the clatter!
The noise is worth it. Carpet sucks. Period. And? I can use my floor steamer on the laminate so that makes it fun to clean. It’s a win-win.
We’ve got an old house with hardwood throughout. I am a huge fan of area rugs – inexpensive, disposable area rugs.
We thought about going carpet less but due to my excessive allergies it is not an option. I have to have a filter in the house and carpet is the only way to go. So our hallways are wood and tile, the kitchen is wood, but the bedrooms and living room are carpet. It makes it a half and half trade off.
Wear lot of socks maybe it won’t be so noisy!
I think the noise would be worth it, but we have carpet in all, but 2 rooms, so what do I know?
It’s all I can do not to rip this carpet up! I LOVE vinyl! Not so posh, trendy, or cushy but wow is it ever practical.
I know exactly what you mean! I chose to have a 20 foot great room with hardwood floors and the second story opens up to it. Sometimes I just sit and cry, why why did I do this!!! Then the children and dog go out to play and I love it again.
Oh I hear ya though… I am so ready for all my carpet to just disappear! I have it upstairs, but not down… I do have a big ‘ol rug in the living room though… I think that helps some… but it still gets gunk stuck in it!
That is so funny! We replaced the biohazard/toxic waste stained carpet in our family room with a lovely hardwood floor. Ny husband and three kids are so DAMN loud in there now, I can hardly stand to be in the family room with my family!!!
But I’ll take the ease of cleaning over the carpet noise damper any day. Puke, dog crap, spilled juice, mud, dropped pudding…everything comes right up!
Carpet’s nasty.
We have hardwood floors and it’s a pain in the arse to keep them clean but then you know: said floor is clean.
with carpet you never know. especially if it’s someone elses carpet.
(i should probably just stop now…)
All aboard!
We are trying to find a floor that will go with our walnut wood and natural stone floors that are already in our living room and hallway.
I would love concrete!
Hating carpet…
Well, at least when you yell at your kids you know they can really hear you.
We have laminate everywhere but the bedrooms–that takes care of the cold floor, loud midnight coughing problem.
Our offices have epoxied (is that a word?) cement floors. Imagaine heels clicking on that all day. Deafening. And annoying.
It makes me feel better to know that there is a down side to the hard surface floors that I have been coveting for a while, now. I’ll think of you when I clean barf/feces/grossness out of my carpet from now on.
I loathe carpeting. I’d rather have clean floors and wear ear plugs. I’m with you.
Hubs keeps trying to get me to put in carpeting. I’m not sure I can stomach it…but in this house it may be necessary.
I LOVE the THX music, and I always crank it up!!
We’re about 3/4 of the way through being completely carpet-free in our house. In fact, since we’re supposed to get another 6-8 inches of snow (yawn), so we will be carpet-free by the end of the weekend.
I have an adhd child, a crazy toddler, a cat, a cracked out kitten, and a large dog…AND LAMINATES!! I can hardly enjoy the clean with all the noise. I am thinking of investing in ear plugs.
Have you considered carpeting the walls? You wouldn’t have to scrub or vacuum them, and they would absorb so much sound. Best of both worlds.
Not to mention, mad stylish!
(PS Blog bling for you here.
Oh how I’d love to be rid of my nasty carpet. I didn’t think about the noise factor. Hmmm, I guess it would be a toss up.
We have carpet and our house is still loud as hell. I would have to live in ear plugs all the time if we took out the carpet.
Sigh…this is what keeps me from tearing out my craptastic carpet with my bare hands and putting down hard floors. I’d have to make Rosie wear socks, ’cause her nails clicking on the kitchen linoleum drives me batsnot crazy.
Carpet disgusts me on many many levels
Vodka won’t make the noise go away, but it will make you not care about it.
I tore out the minimal carpet in our house 11 yrs ago. There is linoleum over plywood and hard wood flooring on the first floor and pine flooring on the second floor. It is definately louder in the rooms that we renovated and replaced the plaster and lath strips with drywall. We had to insulate the interionr walls and first floor ciling to cut down on the noise traveling throughout the house.
Mine play with those Tech Deck toys. On the counter is loud enuf. I would be in the nuthouse if they played with these on the floor.
oh, my, our last house had the worst squeaky floors and all we did was nail through the carpet everytime we heard a new squeak…I should have worn a tool belt, I used the hammer so much…sheesh
Not to mention that in carpet-less houses, there is nothing to anchor the cat hair and dust to the ground. So it floats all over and you end up breathing cat hair. But it is SO MUCH easier to clean!
We love our carpetless life, but we also love our childfree life…
Carpets provide a home for all sorts of microscopic life that I’m content not to have to wonder about.
We have wood floors pretty much throughout the downstairs. In the living room which can get quite cold during the winter, we have what I refer to as a “disposable carpet.” This is an 8′ X 10′ berber or at present, groovy shag, from Lowes that costs no more that $150.00. Give it two – three years and throw it away. When the steam cleaner can’t fix it, it goes to carpet heaven. It’s not green but it makes me sane.
carpet is the devil’s handiwork.
of course, loud echoey houses are the devil’s playground.
but at least it’s clean.
Kinda helps to amplify the sounds of low-battery smoke alarms in the middle of the night, doesn’t it?
Happy Monday!
I gave you an award today.
Come on over and check it out!
I never thought about this! I’ve wanted to go carpet-free except for my bedroom and POSSIBLY other bedrooms for a long time. The noise factor didn’t occur tome at all. Hmmm….