I raised 3 joeys and 2 cats on a Cavalier Bremworth pure wool carpet and never regretted it for one minute except for one colour choice. The living areas were in a deep brown which I would never recommend - as portpiro said, dark colours show every speck of fluff, dust, pet hair and anything else that comes into the house. The bedroom areas were an Arctic White and were so easy to keep clean - regular vacuuming and a deep clean annually or occasionally spot cleaning of any accidents. I had 40 years of wear from these carpets - probably won't get anything like that these days though. http://www.cavbrem.com.au/tools/products.aspx I think if you choose mid brown/grey colours in a tweed or a self pattern, you will find this does hide any stubborn marks, but with wool, I just didn't have any. I note now this firm has brought out a range of very nice looking carpet tiles. If these are easy to interchange, they could be very useful in bedrooms especially where only a small area of flooring gets wear while under beds and furniture stays pristine. I also found when replacing my carpet recently that nylons and synthetics were not necessarily that much cheaper than wool but although they are more stain proof, they do build up static electricity that will attract dirt and make the carpet much harder to clean. This is one carpet from their Turkestan range that I really liked for durability

Just read your post again... Wool does 'fluff' a lot ... Staircase may be a 'high traffic area' - do you want carpet on it? (Without it could also be higher noise though) We have carpet upstairs (wool in lounge and synthetic in hall and bedrooms with wooden floor in kitchen separating carpets). Also just wooden floor for staircase and downstairs. I'm amazed at how much dust gathers on stairs, but easier to sweep clean than to vacuum)... Definitely recommend keeping some offcut pieces to use as mats ... Reduces dirt of rest of carpet. The carpet shops can get them trimmed/'edging' and you can attach some plastic 'non slip' backing.

Hi me me EC Group are a small Australian mill that were previously known as Edwardstown Carpets. They have traditionally made a good product. The carpet you are looking at is a BCF solution dyed nylon. This means that the fibre is a Bulk Continuous Fibre (ie a continuous length) nylon that has had the colour mixed into it while the nylon was still a liquid (and not applied afterwards). It gives it a much greater resistance to staining and soiling (be aware that it has no separate stain treatment) and means that it also resists fading in direct sunlight very well. As far as the durability of it is concerned, the ratings have evolved to a two tier level of Extra Heavy Duty now, being a 5 and a 6 star. Avenue is a 5 star which is reflected in its' light commercial rating. Being a 25oz I would say it would be a good performer for bedrooms and living areas but will tend to flatten down in doorways, stairs or passages. Without knowing the areas intended we would probably suggest also looking at the Stoney River which is similar but a slightly heavier pile weight and a 6 star rating. Being a solution dyed nylon means it also responds well to being steam cleaned which tends to make it 'bloom' again. Cheers

Hi Kezzle This is a bit intricate but it should make sense... The flooring industry has tried to move across from lineal metres (lm) to square metres. Normally carpet is 3.66m wide (12ft). It sounds horrendous to buy a 4m wide (15ft) carpet at $390 lm, but if you express it as $97 sqm it's not so bad. Nevertheless, the flooring industry buys it from the suppliers in lineal metres and calculates the quantities in lm also. The trick is to balance the number of joins vs the wastage when deciding the layout. There is also a little trick in the trade where they crimp the quantity but that is for another day... There are two ways of laying the carpet upstairs. The first way is front to back of the house ie 'down' the room in eg bed 1 as shown below. This way will mean you will have a join in bedroom 3 and two in the passage, 1 being in the line of the wir doorway and the other in the line of the bed 3 cupboard. Here is a rough mud map... I can't quite make out the measurements very well, so I have written down the assumed numbers in lineal (length) metres. You can change these if incorrect. In the games room, you will have 1 join which you can't avoid due to the size of the room. This will require around 22.9 lineal metres of carpet.... and at $97.5sqm it should be costing you about $8930. Alternatively if you were paying $9,600 then the real cost of the carpet is $105 sqm.... just like Dr Retro (and there is the trick) If you turn it around the other way, you will have more joins and could do it for around 21.5-22.5lm depending on how many pieces are used in joins... I would go into the shop and ask them to show you how they are installing it.... then crunch the numbers yourself... There are about 3 or 4 ways this can be done so the above is just one... Cheers