The thing I dislike most about floating floors, from an end user's point of view, is that I personally don't like walking on the stuff and some installations can be noisy. Then, from a professional's point of view, there can be moisture related problems with some of them post install. There are some new products in the marketplace which address those concerns, although I don't know much about them.

You might look into a quality sheet vinyl or an LVT tile (sometimes referred to as "luxury vinyl tile" and by some as "laminated vinyl tile"). Some sheet vinyl or similar sheet non-pvc sheet products can be installed without adhesive; gravity is what holds them in place.

You are wise to start early to learn all you can about the many available flooring options. I am sure my colleagues will come in with some recommendations for you.

Is there a reason you aren't considering hardwood?

AnnKH:

Everything I've been told for the care and maintenance of wood floors tells me to stay away, plus also the price for wood is out of my budget

Tile is almost always going to be youre most expensive floor install. While you may find there are a lot of so called tilers out there that skip many of the technical points of an installation and mislead homeowners with sq ft pricing deals..... When done properly and with an decent quailty tile material and proper preperation and materials. We are averaging aprox $20-30/sq ft for a finished tile floor from demo, to PROPER prep to meeting TCNA/ANSI specifications. to sealing grouting and replacing basebaords/materials and finally.....Being able to offer a wrrty.............always ask about deflection, prep, Industry standards, wrrty's and request A Finished total project cost to get a real figure in an estimate....-best

Carpet hides some of the worst subfloors on the planet. This makes installing new flooring a challenge. And as Tundra has pointed out, tile should be the most expensive option out there.

Technically you can add concrete floors to anything you want - if you have boat loads of money and time to do it - anything is possible. So concrete on a second level (assuming this level is wood framed) is possible but with a budget that can't afford hardwood, we can assume you can't afford finished concrete over a "bad" carpeted substrate.

A floating floor (of any type) is going to be your fastest remedy. But the stuff that was sitting under your carpet will have to be dealt with. If it is flat and level, then we are fine to work with any floating floor you desire.

A "permanent" floor (nailed/glued/stapled/cleated/mortared/etc) is a different story. What lays under carpet is often not good enough to be left in place for a permanent floor.

Good luck. A floating floor should do just fine in your situation. And if you wanted concrete, then a tile floor isn't any different. Both are hard on the feet and can be quite loud.