Hi ritevibe, It seems that many of your worries are to do with the ongoing maintenance and wear that will inevitably come from renting your property out. Timber would quite obviously look amazing in your space, though the damage and maintenance could be restrictive. Have you investigated timber look 'parquet' tiles? Being porcelain, you are not going to find anything more durable and long lasting. It is definitely worth a look at what's available in this material, I will attach some images for your reference and a link to give you a starting point. (http://www.houzz.com.au/projects/683682/par-ker-timber-parquet-porcelain-tiles) In such an environment, I think cost effectiveness would probably be better understood over the life of the floor, as vinyls and floorboards are going to require significant amounts of maintenance, are going to cop a bit of a beating and are not going to last as long as tile. If you want more info I am happy to help out, Best of luck!

I love a good wool carpet and wouldn't have anything else. Colour choice would depend on the effect you want in your room, the lighting and what colours you have in furniture and furnishings. There are not a huge range of colour choices but a cream or light tan should compliment your bricks nicely and not restrict your other colour choices. Don't be afraid to use pale colours in wool, I have had both light and dark colours and find the light colours show less fluff and dirt and are easier to keep clean.

I have a lighter carpet now and 3 grandkids that I look after. It's been down 4 years and needs replacing. I had a similar darker carpet and it was down 11 years and survived teenagers and their friends. If you have kids I would go darker every time.

I have chosen Signature Carpets "Harlow- Creighton" 65 oz carpet with a pile length of 16mm.Half of the carpet was laid before x-mas and not finished. I took a sample of the laid carpet to the showroom to compare with the sample there and the colour was different. I have now taken the showroom sample home to compare what had been laid on the floor and found that the showroom sample had the same length of fibre, but had a mush plusher feel to it and felt very much dense.I am currently walking on the unfinished Creigton carpet and have footmarks everywhere I go, to the point of toe-marks(bare feet) still imprinted on the carpet the next day! I have now compared a sample of Harlow Creighton laid at my property and Luxcloud Florian(very much cheaper) and apart from the pile height there is no difference. Both of them are tracking very badly and look awful, especially compared to the denser showroom sample. I get the impression that there is either a problem with the wrong carpet delivered from the carpet importer or maybe the more expensive carpet ordered by me was substituted with the cheaper Luxcloud Florian. The third scenario is that there is no difference in density between the cheaper and more expensive carpet and only the height is different. However, this still does not explain why the sample from the showroom seems to be much denser and does not track very much. A sales rep from the carpet importer is coming on Monday. Is there anybody who had a similar experience and who could give me some advice? The importers sales rep is coming in a few days and I just want as much info as possible.