Redoing the dog room floor - need opinions please!

[Ursa]

We're looking at options for redoing our dog room floor and went out today to look at some different options.  We currently have carpet but that needs to go - it's too hot and too hard to keep clean. 

We're definitely pulling up the carpet but can't decide if we should put down a textured tile or stain the concrete.  Any flooring we choose needs to be easy to clean, not too slippery if it gets wet, cool enough for the dogs if they want to lay down on it and able to take the weight of 2 full grown Newfs and their crates.  Ursa - being the good girl she is - is allowed more freedom so she doesn't have to be crated.

Any thoughts?

Have to add - you should have seen the shocked expressions on the flooring sales guys' faces when we told them the size that our dogs will be! 

[Viking Lady]

Well.......... .my question is, is this their own room or one that they happily share with you humans?

[Ursa]

This room belongs just to the dogs.  It's where we keep their daytime crates and their dresser that holds the extra dog towels, collars etc.  Eventually I'd like to do more reorganization so that I can have a small grooming station set up in there as well.  Dry grooming only in that area - I'm not going to take on the herculean task of running water to their room. 

Apparently since you have to etch the smooth concrete in order to apply the stain it provides some texture.  That's a good question to ask the contractor though.  (We're not very experienced at projects like this so we decided to get some estimates from professionals!).  Patty if you could ask your co-worker about the "slippery when wet" factor, that would be great. 

I have to say that your wall and trim colors look very similar to mine.  What color tile did you go with?  It looks like a terracotta in the pics but that might just be my monitor.  How well do you think the vinyl would hold up under the strain of the crates? 

We did ask about the grout problem with ceramic tile.  We have tile in our entry, kitchen, breakfast area and bathrooms and we are seeing that it's time to steam clean and reseal the grout in the higher traffic areas. 

One more consideration - eventually the dogs will be mature enough to stay in their room without their crates so we need to make sure that the flooring is pretty much toenail proof!

[ZooCrew]

Huh, when you said stained concrete, here I was thinking of something similar to what we have at work.......... .lol.  So totally NOT!

i looked it up and I think it looks awesome!!  comes in so many patterns and varieties, very pretty.

Of course my feet are always cold so I would need alot of rugs.......... ...lol. 

[Viking Lady]

Being one that's always on a budget I was wondering if the concrete would be alot cheaper to do than putting in tile. I love concrete things. We put in concrete countertops at the restaurant and they are beautiful and functional.

[Ursa]

Wow!  You got a great price! 

Tile can be a lot more expensive - the price is determined more by the tile you pick than anything else.  From our early research we can go either way and stay within our budget. 

You'd think that the concrete would be much less expensive but it's a pretty nasty job and I'm sure that labor adds up.

[Viking Lady]

When my sister, in Tucson, added on to her house they had the concrete floor stamped and stained so it looks like tile. It's beautiful. But she does have to keep the cracks cleaned out once in a while.

[Ursa]

That travertine looks beautiful! 

Honestly my SO is leaning towards the concrete mostly because it will be easier to cover if we ever decide to sell. 

One deciding factor may be the baseboards.  We're not sure if they have to be removed and repositioned if we go with the stained concrete.  It's a little thing but enough little things and soon your little project has become a big pain in the butt!

[jesday]

Had I known we were getting two Newfs in addition to the one Chihuahua we had at the time I would have had our entire house made of stainless steel!

We looked into the stamped concrete because of all the various colors and styles. We were shocked at the cost. Maybe because it is a relatively new technology but the tile was much cheaper. I mean come on, add a little stain to the concrete while mixing, pour, set up a bit, then take big pre-formed stamps and work your way down.

Compared to the work involved as depicted by gr8dame, I couldn't fathom why the stamped concrete was so much more.

We have travertine in our master bath. Not only on the floor, but entire shower as well. We love it. I have not even come close to slipping. We purposely didn't put on a shower door - and even with the little spray that gets out, the floor doesn't get slippery. I sealed it, including the shower and it has been so easy to maintain.

Because of extreme weather I actually bathed the bubs in our shower. They weren't impressed, but it worked really well.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

 

[bigdogs@5501]

We started ripping out carpet this weekend in our bedroom and laying tile- so far I love it- ( I had wanted tile but then flooded the bedroom when I was working on a pipe in the bathroom)
Ruthana, I live in N.Texas, we had to really shop around but I found the tile I wanted for .49 cents a square foot. I had gone to a floor place in Plano and this exact tile was 1.29 a square foot. It looks like distressed leather- I wanted darker because of the dogs- and we are going with a darker grout.

Hopefully we will be able to get this finished this next weekend

[Ursa]

We had a guy come out and give us an estimate on staining the concrete.  He gave us some good things to think about in terms of trim etc.

We've seen some good prices on tile too.

I wish we felt confident that we can do a good job ourselves but neither of us is exactly "handy". 

[Viking Lady]

I know how that is. I think you have to pick your projects and let the pros do the others. My husband and I spent about 25 years doing and redoing our house. Most of the work we did ourselves. Some of it we probably shouldn't have. We always needed to be "thrifty". For the most part it was fun and rewarding. By the time we made it big enough for all of us, the kids had all moved out on their own.

[Ursa]

You aren't kidding.  We keep thinking of how much money we could save by doing it ourselves but that's offset by the cost of paying someone to repair the damage!

[sc.trojans]

Ursa...do you have any chemical / green considerations?

If so, it would have a big impact on your options and choices and you may want to rethink the use of concrete.  If not, stained concrete is very cool and can be done in any style, color and even texture you want. Its not as low maintenance as a lot of people think however.  It requires a lot of chemicals to maintain the color and keep it looking "waxed" or finished. AND it is not a good choice for a dog room given that concrete is a highly porous surface and stains easily.  It is extremely difficult to sanitize as well, if at all.

I have a chemical free home here and so my considerations may not be your's - but we had stamped, colored concrete outside and just ripped it all up and in the process right now of re-doing.  This was the last "toxic chemical" left on my property after making our home "green".  Since I am not willing to use the chemical sealers necessary to maintain it, it really looked like h*ll (and does quickly if these sealers are not consistently applied).  Some installers will even use epoxies on it which is one of the biggest off-gasers and air pollutants we have - so not a great choice for a small space or not well ventilated space.

As a result, I avoid all products high in chemical density and especially those that off-gas - like many vinyls.

The best products to use from an air quality stand point, are linoleum, porcelain tile, or natural products (rubber, stone, or slate). Marmoleum in particular is very safe, and anti-bacterial and easy to clean (http://www.themarmoleumstore.com).  Tile, as long as you can deal with the grout, is also a great, safe, cooling choice.  The rubber floors used in garages, as long as they aren't treated, are good options as well.

I only suggest this because I think staining, sanitation, and safety are all important considerations for your intended use.

[Ursa]

Your post is more timely than you know, sc trojans!  Now that we've pulled up the carpet and seen how the concrete looks we've decided that staining it is not going to be the way to go.  We never would have guessed that our builder GLUED the carpet padding down but guess what?  We're just not willing to go way over budget to have that problem addressed when there are so many other options that will work well for us.  We'd rather spend that extra $$ on other things that our dogs will actually NEED. 

So, it looks like we're falling back on plan B - porcelain tile.  We've been very happy with the tile in the rest of the house and have found it easy to keep clean even with 3 dogs, 3 cats and a lot of human traffic!

We've already picked a tile that has a nice texture to it (not nearly as slippery when wet as the tile in the rest of the house), will show minimal dirt and should hold up to heavy traffic.  Another upside is that the porcelain tile can be steam cleaned which I hope will help with keeping it sanitary. 

I appreciate the info on concrete maintenance as well.  Reading that makes me glad we're going to have to go another route.  I'm not interested in high maintenance or in exposing the dogs to any extra chemicals.  The whole point of this room is to give them a safe, comfortable place to stay when we're not home and a convenient place to do some grooming, store their supplies etc - not to make me crazy trying to keep it beautiful!