fitted carpet

[Chocolate]

Having posted queries on some other topics and received very helpful replies - here I go again.

In the house we have just bought some rooms had carpets we just HAD to remove! Don't ask why. You can guess. We then needed to do all the scraping and clearing of foam and glue described elsewhere. The result is that we have a mixture of unlovely floorboards in some rooms(not worth sanding and painting or staining) and glue-decorated concrete in others. In addition we are still struggling with glued down, (firmly, very firmly, cough provoking and Dyson-clogging) underlay that I swear must have come straight from a sad old horse. This  itself has plastic stuck to its underside. What a nightmare.

I really wanted to put carpet down over the floorboards, but also found that in our dept. ( 46 ) it is difficult to find if not almost impossible. Where can we go for decent carpet, not the coconut woven type of post-war years that immobiliers love, and also underlay? If necessary we would fit it ourselves, but would prefer not. The concrete floors could be tiled, but again we don't know where to buy at a reasonable price here. Some of these floors are bedroom floors and I am slowly coming to realise that it is quite normal to tile a bedroom floor, indeed a bonus in these scorching days. But what happens when winter comes? Aren't they cold? We couldn't fit underfloor heating due to the nature of the building. This then begs the question of where to buy what we used to call carpet squares, (or oblongs) to go on the tiled floors? Conforama isn't our style, (we looked at theirs),and we cannot afford antique. Where do we get, who sells modern wool and synthetic or pure wool rugs/carpets in or near 46?

Sorry so long winded but am getting frustrated and depressed trying to get simple things organised and ourselves comfortable. All advice will be gratefully received.

[Athene]

[quote]Having posted queries on some other topics and received very helpful replies - here I go again. In the house we have just bought some rooms had carpets we just HAD to remove! Don't ask why. You can g...[/quote]

Hi Chocolate,
I am not sure exactly where your department is but you can get a good selection of carpets in Leroy Merlin. They also have rugs that you would like. They are not cheap but they compare favourably with what we could get in England. We have bought carpeting there and the glue to stick it down!
My other advice is to try E-Bay as a friend of ours bought a lovely, antique rug for £50 and then paid one of these carrier guys to bring it down to
SW France - £60 but the overall price of £110 was not excessive when you see the rug she has managed to get! If you can't find a carrier coming out, you could always post a letter here and see if someone could squeeze it into their car/van!
Good luck with it!

[Chocolate]

Thank you Athene. We are in 46. Do we have a Leroy Martin within driving distance from here please? We will drive up to 2 hours away before we flag! Who are they? What are they? Where do I look in our brand new yellow pages? Sorry to be so dim, but still getting to grips with so many things!

[Chocolate]

Sorry! Me again. We are in the Lot dept. not far from Cahors.

[Jacks]

Just to get back to cleaning tiles again, we have a Vax Bubble Wash and Dry, it washes and then dries the tiles, it's brilliant. We bought it in England and it cost about £50.00.

 

[Athene]

[quote]Thank you Athene. We are in 46. Do we have a Leroy Martin within driving distance from here please? We will drive up to 2 hours away before we flag! Who are they? What are they? Where do I look in our...[/quote]

Hi Chocolate!

Leroy Merlin are huge DIY stores - sort of B and Q on steroids. They will be in your nearest large town. There is one in Bergerac, Bordeaux etc. I am not sure where you are near!

[Lapaix]

Is there a Leroy Marlin anywhere near St Hilaire du Harcouet / Mortain area in dept 50? Lynda

[Chocolate]

Thanks Athene again. We stayed for 5 months near Bergerac this winter before we bought this house. If only we had known that we should have been preparing for a visit to Leroy Merlin! Will chase up this contact as soon as we have sorted some other things out here. There is soooooo much to do to our neglected house that we don't know which thing to attack when! Must get underfoot sorted soon and also a woodburner too.

Jacks - the Vax bubble washer sounds great for washing tiles. Can it be bought in France do you know? We are over here permanently and don't expect to visit GB soon, and anyway I don't think Flybe would let us cart one onto the plane. I have a Numatic (called 'George' by the makers, honestly) but it is really only suitable for shampooing carpets. Nostalgia. Yes carpets can be filthy fluffy things, but ooooh, underfoot in the winter getting out of bed they are ace.

Thanks everyone for advice given.

 

 

[Athene]

[quote]Thanks Athene again. We stayed for 5 months near Bergerac this winter before we bought this house. If only we had known that we should have been preparing for a visit to Leroy Merlin! Will chase up th...[/quote]

My advice is fit tiles and buy fluffy slippers!

[Jacks]

Hi Chocolate

The vax is on www.vax.co.uk/v005.asp. I don't know if you can buy in France and the website says they only deliver to the UK. Hope this helps.

Jacks

 

[Will]

[quote]Is there a Leroy Marlin anywhere near St Hilaire du Harcouet / Mortain area in dept 50? Lynda

The nearest is probably Caen.

Also consider Saint-Maclou. I know there is one of those in Caen too.

But if you want carpet, go to Casseau Decor at Desertines, just to the south of St-Hilaire, over the border into 53.

Never seen any Vaxes in France, the nearest is probably a nettoyeur vapeur, not quite the same thing but ours cleans tiles - and carpets - pretty well (we have a Vax too, in England).

[Lapaix]

Will to the rescue, as usual!  Actually, we took your advise about the place in Desertines a few weeks ago.  When the carpet eventually arrived, it was the wrong one!  However, we were desperate to have one laid, as we were expecting visitors, so we went with it.  Once down, we we liked it, but when my husband went into the shop the next day, the manageress said that she realised she had ordered the wrong one when it was delivered, but hoped that we wouldn't notice!  Only enquired about Leroy Merlin because so many people mention it as being a great DIY place, and I would hate to miss out on anything! Lynda

[suein56]

Hi

re Leroy Merlin if you go to: www.leroymerlin.fr then click about ½ way down on the RHS of the opening page : 'trouver un magasin' and put in your postcode - RM hopefully finds the nearest store to you.

Beware though, if you do not have a pop-up stopper,  the site does have pop-ups.

Pretty good selection of carpets, carpet tiles etc available.

Sue

 

 

[Teamedup]

Personally I wouldn't go out of my way to go to a le roy merlin and I would have to to get to one. The one closest to me is around 60-70k away is no bigger, and perhaps smaller than most of the other brico stores.

[Athene]

[quote]Personally I wouldn't go out of my way to go to a le roy merlin and I would have to to get to one. The one closest to me is around 60-70k away is no bigger, and perhaps smaller than most of the other ...[/quote]

It depends on the size - as with a lot of things in life - size does matter!

We go to the Leroy Merlin in Bordeaux and it is a massive store! We have found it really good for things like tiles. We were going to buy some tiles in England that we had found that were £35 square metre and we found the same tile in Leroy's for £10! So we bought enough for our purpose and then everytime we to-ed and fro-ed from France, we took as much as the estate would carry! We have just finished laying them and they are superb! We also bought door handles and they were cheaper too!

[Bannon]

Just bought and laid carpet tile from Leroy Merlin - best thing we ever did. Good price, piece of **** to put down, and so much easier than carpert as the stone walls in our bedroom are not straight or the room square. The price we paid for really good quality tiles was the same as for that thin foam backed stuff on a roll that ALWAYS sticks on the floor when you try and take it up. Had about 6 tiles and lots of bits left over so any spills we might get just means lifting and replacing the tile. Looks nice as well after having just a chipboard floor and rugs up there for 2 years!

 

[opas]

Personaly would go for the tiles/wooden floor and slippers as Athern(sp) said.....so much easier to keep clean when you are as busy as I am

PS definatly tiles if you get cramp in the night, nowt like a cold surface to put your foot on to cure leg cramps.

Mrs o

[Athene]

[quote]Personaly would go for the tiles/wooden floor and slippers as Athern(sp) said.....so much easier to keep clean when you are as busy as I am PS definatly tiles if you get cramp in the night, nowt lik...[/quote]

I think this stomping around on a cold surface to cure leg cramps is a Northern remedy! It is one my mother always subscribed to! My husband, a cheeky Cockney, had never heard of it! However he tried it when writhing with pain the other night and discovered that it does work! Maybe we should start a thread about old fashioned remedies?

[Chocolate]

Thanks everyone for all your help. The carpet tiles sound a brilliant idea for the wooden tatty floorboards with sheets of hardboard under. Have used them in England when at wits end, and have bought both cheap and expensive rubberbacked ones which were heavier and really stayed put. Also as someone pointed out, they can be lifted if damaged, and as one area in addition to be done is an upper mezzanine which has 2 Velux windows and lots of strong sunshine which will fade textiles, carpet tiles are a really good answer. Though not my first choice, it is probably as good as it will get over here. We have chosen to come after all.

As for the rest, Athene has given good advice I think and I am now about to scout around for hard floor tiles.

Does this fun ever end I wonder? Onward and upward, (or is it downwards to the floor?)