Dog friendly flooring???

[lookingfornewf]

At some point in the future (like when I win the lottery,  I need to get all new flooring for our house. We currently have ugly carpeting that came with the house. It desparately needs replacing. I don't know if it would be best to get tile, hardwood or carpeting again. Carpeting is such a pain to clean from the dogs. Tile I'm afraid might be too slippery for them, hardwood they might scratch up. Any ideas would be appreciated.

[GreatPyr]

I have to say Brick...We have Brick in our kitchen due to the heavy traffic(Main Door)from the barn and the dogs in and out.We are moving and in our new place we have brick area and hardwoods,I did not want any carpet in the house other then an area rug or two,the carpet holds in doggy odors and stains from muddy paws the brick is easy to take care of,just sweep and occassional mop over with Lysol.We have the one coat of schlack over the brick so its a gloss and easy to mop.Hardwoods you have to worry about there nails leaving scratch marks.We have the main doggy traffic area done in brick.

[Mainebernese]

We are in the same situation as you, we really need to replace our kitchen floor and some of the carpet in our upstairs soon.  I have heard that laminate flooring is the best for high traffic areas and it usually have a pretty good warranty on it as well.  Also, lighter hardwoods would show less scratches and as long as it is sealed on a regular basis, it should last a long time.

By the way, I love the pic of Clifford at the park!  What a great look!!!!

[shine]

Ahh, the Great Flooring Debate!

We have maple hardwood in our home.  Got a commercial grade sealer on it.  It is still destroyed.  High traffic areas near the basement door and treat jar are scratched and scarred all to Heck. 

Our neighbors (who have 5 dogs) have laminate flooring.  It seems to have held up better than our hardwood...I don't see many scratches on it.  It's also easier to replace a few boards if they get messed up.

One of my regular pet-sitting clients has tile in his house.  Not a scratch in sight.  However...the tile is pretty slippery even though it is "textured"...and the grout needs to be sealed to protect it.

I hear differing opinions on Bamboo.  Some say it is indestructible, others complain that it shows scratches.  Perhaps there is a big difference in quality from different manufacturers.  I like the sustainability aspect of it....though most of it comes from China....

Luxury Vinyl is supposed to be wonderful.  Comes in so many different patterns, does not show scratches, very sound-insulating, cleans up well. 


Someday when I am rich I think I am just going to have my entire house covered in sealed concrete....lo lol....

[lookingfornewf]

thanks for all the help. Whenever we do get the new flooring it will likely be the whole house. We have a large open floor plan house so really needs to be done in all the same flooring. Clifford sheds big hunks of black fur and Annie our Jack Russel sheds white fur so there isn't even a good color to pick.

[BigSoftandFluffyLover]

Dont go wood!!!  Even bamboo scatches...per go is decent but make sure to put down some kind of carpet for traction for the dogs.  The sliding and standing on slick surfaces will wear out their hips more than anything else!!!

[mynameislola]

If you have a concrete floor, you could have a layer poured over it, get it stained, stamped and textured.  The cheapest people we found to do that are usually advertising that they work on garage floors in high-end houses.  They also do epoxy textured overlayers.

[Nicole]

Gosh, Holly sure does know alot about Reno...vation. She's so smart.

I wanted to comment on the bamboo issue from an environmental perspective...

"Some say it is indestructible, others complain that it shows scratches.  Perhaps there is a big difference in quality from different manufacturers.  I like the sustainability aspect of it....though most of it comes from China...."

As far as the sustainability issue is concerned. Yes, bamboo is a grass and grows very quickly. So, it can be quickly harvested and replanted. However, because of this and its subsequent popularity in the "green" industry, larger hardwood forests are being cut down and replanted with the bamboo. The bamboo doesn't do much for erosion and one of our most important natural resources (some say THE most important)...our rich topsoil, is being eroded at alarming rates.

There currently isn't any way of certifying bamboo plantations as sustainable or fair-trade or anything, so the practices really do vary widely. And as we all know, the quality control out of China is well, abysmal.

So, anyway. There are definitely pros and cons to bamboo as far as durability, and the sustainability thing is questionable as well.

As far as durability, we use it at the Eco-friendly housing community where I work. I've seen that it doesn't really show scratches too bad, but it doesn't hold up to water very well. You also can't refinish it.

We are currently removing all of our carpeting. I hate it, its gross. I would rather have scratchy hardwoods than nasty carpet.

[brandon]

We kicked this around for a couple of years for our entry way and hallway, we had "decided" several times on what we wanted.. Tile, linoleum, etc.. and finally settled on a rough finished hand-scraped hardwood. It is not a shiny floor so it won't show up all the scratches, and it is not slick like tile or linoleum.

If you're wealthy cork might be a good choice, it is not hard, not slippery, and is self-repairing to a degree and is a renewable resource.  It's expensive as heck though.

[aggghgmom]

We have a laminent called Wilsonart - it is similar to Pergo but so much stronger - many people with dogs have trouble around the water bowl with the water buckling the floor.  Same with dishwashers.  Wilsonart is used in many beauty salons and corporations - no I'm not in anyway affiliated with wilsonart - I am just so happy with the product.

Randy

[lookingfornewf]

Thanks again for all the input on flooring. A few people mentioned brick floors which I am not familiar with. How does the price compare with a good quality tile? Do they get cold like tile? I'm probably leaning towards tile with a few area rugs. Hubby just wants to recarpet the whole house, but he is not the one that cleans all the stains from the carpeting.

[brandon]

This is the handscraped stuff we went with, you can probably tell in the pictures it is a rougher finish than hardwood normally is.  We're pretty pleased with it so far and the dogs haven't slipped yet.  We had a nice laminate in the entranceway that we took up and replaced with this.. I just hated how slippery it was especially if you come in out of the rain.

[Nicole]

We had bricks in a house we lived in in North Carolina. They weren't really cold like tile. The real down-size was that they weren't sealed, so they were VERY difficult to keep clean. My husband HATED them. I think they'd be very cool if they were sealed, though.

[lookingfornewf]

We live in Ontario so a cold floor could be a problem. Right now we are getting freezing rain and ice pellets coming down