I think anything you buy to put on TOP of the carpet will cost more than wood laminate being put in. DH and I just put laminate on my shop floor -- an 8x16 room, for $150.00. If you can't do it yourself, it would cost a lot more. I bought a large plastic "thing" that goes under office chairs for my sewing room and just that one about 3x5 was $40.00. And those things are NOT good for a sewing room -- trust me. If anything does fall on it, it rolls off onto the carpet! If I had the energy I'd take everything out of the sewing room and put in laminate.