Help with flooring for childminding

[krisclarke]

Hi there,

My wife is due to start childminding soon. We are worried about what the correct flooring should be. We currently have tiles (as part of a kitchen dining area - litchen will be saparated by a barrier), but don't know if we'll need to change them, and what to.

We would ideally like to put down oak to match our hallway, but is this acceptable?, our other alternatives are laminate and vinyl, or keeping the tiles.

Any advice would be great.

ALso, do radiators need to be covererd?

Kristian

[Vickster]

Hi.

Our kitchen has tiles, breafast room has floorboards, play room has carpet, lounge has floorboards and hallway has wooden flooring, I have never had a problem. As long as you can control the temperature of your radiators, you don't need covers.

Vicky

[sweets]

you can have whatever flooring you like, if the children are crawling and playing on a tiled floor then it can be cold so you could maybe get some of the foam jigsaw mats to pop down during the day, this would make it safer when it comes to falling over too!

i dont have radiator covers, you just need to make sure they are not too hot to touch for the littlies.

[Chimps Childminding]

Hi.

Our kitchen has tiles, breafast room has floorboards, play room has carpet, lounge has floorboards and hallway has wooden flooring, I have never had a problem. As long as you can control the temperature of your radiators, you don't need covers.

Vicky

I agree!! I have laminate in my dining room (used as main playroom) with a large rug just to make it cosier! Kitchen has laminate as does hall, lounge (used mainly for quiet time, reading, tv etc) has carpet. None of my radiators have covers except the one at the bottom on the stairs and thats only so I have somewhere to put phone etc :rolleyes:

[debratina]

i have vinyl all downstairs. i have the livingroom/dinnind room done in april and its the best thing i have done. no more stained carpet and no creepy crawlies :)

[candy cat]

whatever you like as long as it's safe,clean etc.....you will need to do risk assessments when using that room ie slippy? etc :)

[Mollymop]

As others have said it is fine to have whatever flooring you like. If you are concerned about the children slipping on the tiles, make sure you dod a risk assessment about how to eliminate slipping hazards such as water/spillages/paper.
You could buy a rug for any babies to lay/sit on if you have a wooden/laminate floor in your lounge, etc.
regarding radiator covers, it is up to you if you want to use them. I haven't got any I jsut keep my radiators down low so they don't burn. Children ussually learn that if the rad is hot not to touch it

[appleblossom]

I have Amtico flooring through my hallway and playroom. It is a kind of very tough vinyl but it is laid in strips like laminate instead of from a roll like vinyl. It looks like laminate but is warmer and isn't noisy like laminate. I just mop it.
I have vinyl in the kitchen and carpet in the lounge. As pushchairs are wheeled in and out of the hall I also have a long runner mat where the pushchairs stand so the floor doesn't get too dirty and wet in bad weather.

[marleymoo]

you can have anything you like in your room, just remember to risk assess each room.