We have hardwood on main floor. Carpet on stairs and on bedroom level. Vinyl laminate in basement. I love carpet underfoot in bedrooms

I think carpet in kids room is a great way to save money, we did the exact same!

Wall to wall carpet in a kids room is not so great when your kid is prone to projectile vomiting ... luckily he outgrew that phase at around 2 years old, but I was so glad I could lift up the area rug over the hardwood floor and really clean the rug and the floor.

I prefer hardwood for children. For cleaning I think it’s easier, but more importantly for us our kids play a lot in their room; building train tracks, stacking blocks, driving cars etc and when we had carpet nothing of that worked well, everything would fall over. On the hardwood they can easily play and we have a large rug for ‘softness’ that they can roll up and put away if they need a lot of floor space.

All great ideas for us to think over, I am really over making all these decisions.

All great ideas for us to think over, I am really over making all these decisions.

All great ideas for us to think over, I am really over making all these decisions.

Not knowing how much you really need to save and where else you have already reduced your budget, I would look elsewhere to save a couple of thousand dollars.

That could be as simple as not installing a backsplash in the kitchen for right now. Or doing some of the landscaping later.

I would carpet without a second thought. Carpet dampens sound, insulates against cold feet, and cushions falls. When our kids wanted to build elaborate lego sets, or blocks, trains, etc. we just pulled out a big plastic board from under one of the beds; and they used that as their base. It really isn't that fun to kneel or lay on a hard, cold floor to play games, toys, etc. with friends. We lived in a climate with cold winters, so YMMV.

Refinishing floors is a huge undertaking as all furniture needs to be removed and it isn't something you will want to do or spend the money on in just a few years.

Personally I would elect to cut the money out from something else and get the hardwood floors. Carpet just get dirty so easily and it just takes one little accident and the stomach flu to create a real mess. It also holds a lot of dust and is an issue with allergies. It is soft to walk/crawl around on while playing, but it also is hard to build anything that you want to remain stable and carpet fibers tend to get stuck in doll toes and matchbox car wheels. A rug that covers part of the floor that leaves floor space to play as well works much better and if the rug gets damaged it is easy to take out and clean or replace. We've gone with cheaper rugs for my daughters room although it was wool it is now 12 years old and still looks like new, however she just got a new synthetic one because she fell in love with it and it does look more grown up. Ie not hot pink and lime green anymore.

Carpet holds so much dirt and dust. And pet hair. And crumbs. And god only knows what else. Do hardwood/lvp and area rugs.

"Carpet holds so much dirt and dust. And pet hair. And crumbs. And god only knows what else"

They have this wonderful invention called a vacuum. It sucks all that stuff up from the carpet. How much dirt, dust, pet hair, dried up liquid and crumbs are in the seams of hardwood floors where a vacuum or mop can not get to and never will. Think of when you pull out your stove. What it looks like with all that icky stuff that falls between the seam of the stove and counter.

There is both pros and cons to both hardwood and carpet. It doesn't make one better than the other.

Yeah and no matter how many times you vacuum the carpet there still seems to be more to come out and the same goes for rugs. However when I vacuum my hardwood floors I go over it once and it is all gone.

I thought that vacuums sucked up all the stuff that fell on carpets ... until I did my own carpet removal and saw how much does not get sucked up! Have never chosen wall to wall carpet after that!

Lolol - yeah the "wonderful invention" does do that - sort of. As I and others have experienced, they don't get it all. After having pulled out carpeting in our house and seen what was left behind by vacuuming (and I have both a Dyson and a Miele - so it's not from lack of equipment), it's gross. ETA: What can get held in the seams between hardwood floorboards is no comparison to what is left in the carpet. Plus, if you have that large of seams (which I would hope in only in winter?) you can clean them out with a crevice tool on that good ol' "wonderful invention".

What you are seeing when you pull up old carpet is the carpet pad disintegration from friction. Yes in the old carpet pads liquid would get through. The new carpet pads liquids and solids do not penetrate thru the carpet pad

Then the pad was made of sand. And cat hair. But, yes there was deteriorated powdered carpet pad too, which is equally disgusting and something else I don't want in my lungs or my kids' lungs. Even the "new" carpet pads off gas, and that's also not something I want in my home, especially with the stain guards and crap they coat them in now. Personal preference, but clearly others' experiences and values vary.

OP, if you insist on carpet, consider squares. At least those you can remove and replace when you can't get the kiddo-ate-too-much-milk-with-too-much-pizza-too-fast vomit out of them, no matter how hard you try or what chemicals you use (because we had that happen in our basement). Or explosive dog diarrhea. Or diaper blowouts that aren't contained. Or drywall dust when your drywall guy swears he taped everything off, only the tape didn't hold and drywall dust got all over the f'ing house. That was much easier to clean up from the hardwoods than the room that still had carpeting in it...

What I saw when I pulled up old carpet were things easily identified as dirt, food and parts of humans/pets.

When we bought our current house we didn't even move in before we ripped out the carpet in the bedrooms and replaced with wood floors. The previous owners had 5 kids and dogs, so there was no way those carpets were staying, even though they "looked clean".

I guess we will agree to disagree on this subject!

OK...back to the OP's question (funny is funny until someone is looking for an answer ;-P )

I will suggest carpet in the bedrooms on ONE CONDITION:

1. The wood floors are SITE FINISHED hardwood planks that are EASY to find in 10 years.

If the build is using FACTORY FINISHED hardwood, this is a no-go for 'add ons' later. The reason: most 'man made' products (like a factory finished hardwood) are usually around for 24 MONTHS (yes...2 years...at most) and then they disappear from the manufacturing line - never to be seen or heard from again! And THAT'S when future heart breaks are GUARANTEED to happen.

@Brandie May So...are you using 3" wide solid red or white oak that is SITE FINISHED????

I would never carpet kids rooms. Vomit. Dirt. Etc. yuck. How about luxury vinyl tile?

Are the bedrooms on the 2nd floor? If so, you can't replace carpet with hardwood later on without rebuilding the stairs.

@SJ McCarthy we are using site finished 4" red oak.

The bedrooms are on the main floor, above a finished basement, for those that asked. The bedroom floors will meet a tile floor that will be in the mudroom/hallway.

Carpet is pretty gross honestly. If hard floors in bedrooms you can do rugs (even washable ones or tiles). We're doing cork.

Is 4 inch oak dimensionally stable enough? I am sure that depends on location but I expect you will have some cracks depending on the season. I would make darn sure those planks are siting in a conditioned house for at least a few days before install (and preferably longer). Which is rare for site finished because they go in before the house is conditioned often enough.

When we had a budget issue, we used hardwood in just the kid's bedroom. Not guest or owner's room. Next house, hardwood everywhere.

The reason for the hardwood was not dirt, vomit etc but chemicals. Adhesives. The site finished wood was nailed down with water based stain/poly. We felt it was better.

We did a wool carpet in his room that we have 11 years later (moved several times). Because dirt doesn't really make it up to the bedroom and vomit for us wasn't a big issue. Mostly he hit the garbage can or when young enough, stayed in the bed.

Rubber walls and floor with a drain, otherwise LVP appears to be the new affordable flooring and a viable budget alternative to carpet.

Learned by experience with dogs and kids that carpet is a temporary floor cover that must be replaced with new owners.

Put hardwood in the "kids rooms" then install carpet over it. Then in 19 years when they become "guest rooms" remove the carpet and buy some nice rugs.

For a few thousand dollars on a new build, the amount is not significant, especially if you're mortgaging the house for 15-30 years. Put in the hardwood, and you keep your options open. You can install carpet if you want, or not. But you always have the option of having a beautiful hardwood floor which will last many decades, and can be refinished if need be.

Much as I hate carpet, it is a lovely cozy play surface when they are little.....and if it saves the budget, so be it.