From what we've seen, watching HGTV's Property Bros., Love It Or List It, Fixer Upper and other home remodeling programs, carpeted floors are becoming part of the Past quickly. Thing is, hard wood floors don't take the blunt of a fall like carpeted floors can/do. Then again, most of the people buying homes, and having them remodeled aren't Seniors. Wife and I both have fallen, once or twice, on the floor of our living room and bedroom. The carpet broke our fall and no injuries obtained. When we move out or our current apartment, it will be remodeled. Carpet in the living room and dining room will go and hard wood floors put in. What do you think of carpet vs. wooden floors? I'll take carpet any day!
When we bought our house, one of the first things we did was tear the carpeting out, in some rooms, four layers of it, to find beautiful hardwood floors beneath. We don't even have many rugs, but that's largely because of our cats, not that they pee on it but when one of them has to throw up, it's surely not in the litter box and is usually on the rug.
Ok, has anyone here ever fell on a hard wood floor? Anyone ever hear of bones breaking due to a fall on hard wood floor. Hard wood floors can be/are very nice looking, but if a person of our age bracket falls on one, you're definitely going to feel it! Just saying.
No, I have never fallen on a hardwood floor... or any other floor that I can recall. Why are you bothered by what type of flooring is going to be installed after you move out?
@Gloria Mitchell Very well stated! We were appalled about a month ago when we began tearing out our living room carpeting. We had had it steam cleaned when we bought the place. In 5 years, certainly the horrible layer of crud, dust mostly we think, could not have accumulated thusly; the cleaning was bogus. NO MORE CARPETING. (we now walk about on nice smooth plywood), for the time being. Frank
I think I said something about this in another post. With hard wood/tile floors, it can be rough on your heels, legs, hips and back as you get older due to a lack of buoyancy. However, I'm a bit of a clean freak and just like hard floors.
When we had carpet replaced a couple of years ago, I was appalled by the "stuff" under the old carpet. The installer said most of it was the carpet pad disintegrating. (Looked pretty yucky, though.)
@Bess Barber Do you suppose the "degree" of hardness has some affect? For example, as a Tool & Die Maker, my Dad worked all his lifetime on floors mostly made of hardwood blocks, like bricks. Some shops used concrete floors. The wood was thought to "cushion" things a bit. He once dropped a heavy piece of steel, which fell on his big toe: the nail never grew back properly. Concrete might have worsened things. Frank
I mentioned this thread to my wife, partly because she was acquainted with a Fousnaugh (@Cody Fousnaugh ) in Indiana as a youngster. Cody lived there in his youth. Anyways, she pointed out that for the elderly, carpeting and loose carpets should be "no-nos". Her Mom, having had a 2nd. hip replacement done to take care of a botched first effort, at home one or two months later, tripped by stubbing the toe of her foot in the living room carpet, fell, and broke her good hip! Sent home from physical therapy, an investigator from the hospital inspected her home, requesting all loose carpets be removed. This is, my wife says, standard procedure. I am personally skeptical that the presence of carpet vs. hard flooring reduces significantly the incidence of bone breakage from falls. Some help, no doubt, but carpet introduces it's own dangers. Frank
Something we learned with my father. He had shoes with soles similar to rubber, sort of spongy, I don't know what you call them. He would tend to drag his feet, rather than lift them up when he took steps. Those shoes would catch on the carpet, even though it was stretched tight wall to wall. OTOH, shoes with hard soles didn't catch on a carpet, but could be slippery on hardwood floors.
Carpet is great, but tends to be higher maintenance and to have a shorter life span than hard wood or laminate floors, which are also more forgiving of the inevitable "accidents" caused by pets. As my carpet has needed replacement, I've gradually transitioned to hard flooring in all rooms except bedrooms...
Just talking in general. Then again, many young people want hard wood flooring today, instead of carpet. All it can take is...….one fall on a hard wood fall, by a Senior and their opinion about hard wood floors vs. carpet can change rapidly.