dogs + hardwood floors?

Karen · Post by **Karen** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 12:53 pm

Well...with the addition of our 7th dog, I'm thinking the carpet on the 1st floor of the house is going to need to go pretty soon. We have white oak (stained as red oak) in our dining room, which I love and would like to bring throughout the kitchen, living room and family room.

Anyone out there have hardwood floors where the dogs frequent?

Ruffshooter · Post by **Ruffshooter** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 1:10 pm

Yup:
the floors are all scratched up but if the dogs nails are kept short, I do not think it is much of a problem. Adds character. In fact I think it is more me that scratches my floors up as I refuse to take my shoes or boots off until I am in for the day.

My floors are cherry which is softer than many hardwood floors so damage shows up more. The new acrylic finishes that are factory supplied are very durable.

Rick

Post by **Sharon** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 1:39 pm

I have 60 year old oak hardwood. Dogs jump from the bed to the floor etc and no marks left. Urine will leave a stain that is almost impossible to remove. If you varathane your hardwood , you have nothing to worry about.
7 dogs in the house?! My husband would be applying for a divorce.

deke · Post by **deke** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 1:57 pm

I do floors for a living so i can tell you for a fact that dogs can do a lot of damage to a hardwood floor if they are not house/potty trained. The best floor for dogs that i have found so far is tile, or concrete. If you keep your dogs nails trimmed and have them very house broke than a hardwood floor is not a horrible idea.

Karen · Post by **Karen** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 2:21 pm

Sharon, yes 7 dogs. I married the most wonderful man! And 2 of the dogs are his, 1 is his daughter's...so only 4 are mine, and one of those has been with a trainer for months (and 1 hasn't arrived yet)

Questions......does urine immediately damage the floors? Or are we talking urine that sits for 4+ hours?

Our dogs are confined when we're not home, and supervised when we are. Rarely does an accident go unnoticed for more than 30 minutes and are few and very far between now that the pups are housebroken.

Mountaineer · Post by **Mountaineer** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 2:34 pm

Yes.

No problem, other than with older dogs.
With some health issues from hips to seizures, the smooth surface gives them little traction and it can be tough for them to get their feet under them if they get down.
Little problem with a Yorkie...more of an issue with an 80# Lab.

Boots did not help my 13 year-old Lab.

gsp-fan · Post by **gsp-fan** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 3:22 pm

We have hardwood through the whole house except for the kitchen & baths. We went with a hand scrapped (not shiny) in hickory (nice hard wood) in a darker color.
Our dogs run all over it - when a scratch occurs I just use a color marker to fill it in. If you put down area rugs make sure you a jute felt pad they will not
stick to the floor. My EP drips water across it and we just wipe it up with no issues and we had my old hound have a little accident and it cleaned up great.
We bought Shaw flooring which is made in the USA in TN

.

MNspanielguy · Post by **MNspanielguy** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 4:26 pm

When our carpet was shot, I went with hardwood as a replacement. I like the look of scratched hardwood over the dirty and smelly carpet.

Mike

gonehuntin' · Post by **gonehuntin'** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 5:27 pm

I run a carpet store. Hardwood is a HORRIBLE choice for anyone with dogs. It scratches like mad. Urine stains it and is impossible to sand off. Urine gets between the boards and stinks. It's noisy. It looks like crap after six months of dog's on it.

There's a new vinyl plank on the market that you can't tell from hardwood.Water doesn't hurt it, a dog can't scratch it, urine doesn't stain it, it's quiet. It's called Adura and is made by Mannington Mills. Give it a look.

phermes1 · Post by **phermes1** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 5:31 pm

We built our house with tile on the first floor that looks just like hardwood - most people don't realize it's tile unless we point it out. We originally did it because we didn't want to spend the money on hardwood. After living with it for 9 years - if I did it again, I'd stick with tile. Much cheaper and nearly maintenance free.

We used to live in a 1920's-era bungalow with original hardwood. That stuff was hard as a rock and the dogs couldn't damage it. But my brother's last house was built new, with new hardwood, and that stuff took an absolute beating. Scratched up, really looked bad when the sun caught it right.

I also wouldn't put tile or hardwood on the stairs. It's a recipe for accidents, and not easy for some older dogs to use.

phermes1 · Post by **phermes1** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 5:36 pm

This is our kitchen with the fake hardwood tile we used.

jimbo&rooster · Post by **jimbo&rooster** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 5:40 pm

the house I lived in during college had hardwood floors and between me and my lab, we were pretty rough on them. The house I moved into had a linoliam thal looks just like hard wood. Its deffinately not the same but it doesnt scratch and it looks good. Its also urine resistant (17yo dachsound).

Jim

Grange · Post by **Grange** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 7:29 pm

I have hardwood through much of my house. I deliberately put tile in the kitchen, dining room (patio door is in the dining room) and back entry because of the dogs. My first house had birch floor in the dining room and entry ways. Now the birch floor was absolutely gorgeous, but it is a soft wood and I'd never use that wood again. The wood I have now is much harder and has worn much better.

Fireside · Post by **Fireside** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 8:11 pm

I have seen people have good results with commercial grade oak flooring using commercial finishes. The next time we redo the floor Im going to look at one of the Pergo type laminates. I have seen them hold up extremely well!

chiendog · Post by **chiendog** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 7:58 am

We only have one area rug in the entire house. The rest is hardwood....everywhere. Three dogs live indoors and have full run of the place. The floors were refinished about 5 years ago. We told the floor guy that we had dogs and asked that he give the floors an extra coat of the toughest stuff he had. He did a great job and the floors still gleam. They are also a breeze to clean up.

I think the dogs would prefer carpet...it give them a lot more gription than the slippery poly-coated hardwood and to be honest, my middle aged feet say AHHHH every time I visit my folks' house with wall to wall carpet. But it seems that an extra coat of hard wearing poly (or whatever it is he used) was just the ticket.

High Voltage · Post by **High Voltage** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 12:56 pm

Phermes1 - that looks really nice, what brand of tile is it?

phermes1 · Post by **phermes1** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 1:18 pm

I'd have to find a box and look at the label, I don't know. We got it at Home Depot, though. They have a few colors, that was the darkest.

mxdad777 · Post by **mxdad777** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 3:18 pm

I recommend staying away from "real wood" floors with or without dogs. It will scratch and also requires a lot of maintenance. I would go with one of the new laminate floors. They look just like real wood, are very durable and will provide years of maintenance free service.

JWP58 · Post by **JWP58** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 8:06 pm

How about tile? My Brittany hates it, it always looks like he's running in place....no traction lol

RoostersMom · Post by **RoostersMom** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 8:16 pm

We have hardwood in most of the house - it is getting pretty torn up with the dogs. The older two are also having some troubles with traction and slipping. They just won't walk through the house - always in a rush to go somewhere! I think a tile with a rough surface would be better for them, but I don't want to mess with it yet.

deke · Post by **deke** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 10:43 am

i am with gonehuntin on this one. The new floors are basically plastic, and dogs cant harm them. Laminate is horrible because the seems will swell if a dog urinates on it. and that cant be fixed.

mister2 · Post by **mister2** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 11:28 am

All my floors are hardwood except for the kitchen and bathroom. I have 2 boys ages 4 & 6 so the dog is the least of my worries. The kids have smashed and scraped every toy they have on those floors. The best is the Hot Wheels cars with the wheels removed. My pup is about 1yr old now and I found that as long as I exercise him regularly he just walks around in the house anyway. My kids on the other hand....forget it.

High Voltage · Post by **High Voltage** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 12:38 pm

phermes1 wrote:I'd have to find a box and look at the label, I don't know. We got it at Home Depot, though. They have a few colors, that was the darkest.

Thanks, we have a wood burning stove and have brick tile under & around it but sometimes the embers go past it so we don't want real wood. We'll be checking out Home Depot

Knightfarms · Post by **Knightfarms** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:25 pm

Is there hardwood under the carpet or are you talking about putting it in?

Most of the homes in my area are old and have hardwood under any carpet, so it's just a matter of having it refinished. That, is much cheaper than a new install. I have hardwood, 2 dogs, and 2 young kids... it's beautiful and I love it, but I would never opt for it if given a choice because it's easily scratched and stained. We had our floors completely refinished 5 years ago with an extra coat of poly put on them, and they need to be done again, esp in the high traffic areas.

I agree with the folks who said go with a wood look alike if you want the look but greater durability. My sister installed a blonde color (which I would think would show every scratch when filled with dirt), and her floors looks great after a few years.

dan v · Post by **dan v** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:41 pm

gpblitz wrote: would like to use Tamarack alittle on the soft side but love the looks. Think i'll use manufactured.

Howie,

Is there a saw mill up your way where a guy can get some Tamarack 6x's and rough 5/4 x 6's for fence building? I got some from a friend near Duluth, but no more.

bigdaddy · Post by **bigdaddy** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 2:50 pm

mxdad777 wrote:I recommend staying away from "real wood" floors with or without dogs. It will scratch and also requires a lot of maintenance. I would go with one of the new laminate floors. They look just like real wood, are very durable and will provide years of maintenance free service.

Have you looked at a piece of laminate flooring in profile. It's paper. Wood > paper in durability and just about every other quality I would look for in a floor. I have (now) 3 pointers in my house with wood floors. The new dog has been living in an outdoor kennel so there have been some accidents. It wipes up completely and easily.

The only "synthetic" - i.e. laminate, manufactured, etc - flooring I would use is commercial vinyl tile or real linoleum.

nj gsp · Post by **nj gsp** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 8:39 pm

What a coincidence. We have oak hardwood floors and 7 dogs. We've had anywhere from 3 to 12 dogs in the house at one time or another over the last 16 years. Forget toenails; dirt + dog feet = sandpaper. They weren't that great when we bought the place, but there is no finish left on our floors now. But it's easy to clean; sweep, vacuum, mop with Murphy's and the floor is clean, smells nice, and not at all slippery. Do we like it this way? Nope. We'll be replacing it with a commercial grade hardwood laminate soon and we'll burn the old floor in the wood stove we're installing. Our house is 200+ years old and the floors are not stable enough for tile.

gonehuntin' · Post by **gonehuntin'** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 5:46 am

nj gsp wrote:What a coincidence. We have oak hardwood floors and 7 dogs. We've had anywhere from 3 to 12 dogs in the house at one time or another over the last 16 years. Forget toenails; dirt + dog feet = sandpaper. They weren't that great when we bought the place, but there is no finish left on our floors now. But it's easy to clean; sweep, vacuum, mop with Murphy's and the floor is clean, smells nice, and not at all slippery. Do we like it this way? Nope. We'll be replacing it with a commercial grade hardwood laminate soon and we'll burn the old floor in the wood stove we're installing. Our house is 200+ years old and the floors are not stable enough for tile.

If you remove the hardwood, then add a layer of 3/4" plywood plus 1/2" cement board, the base will be thick enough and stable enough for tile. You need a 1 1/8" MINIMUM floor thickness for ceramic tile. A commercial grade of hardwood will offer you no better protection from the dogs than you have now. Since Wilsonart exited the flooring market, there is no true commercial laminate floor made.

jetjockey · Post by **jetjockey** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:19 am

Does anyone have any experience with the woven bamboo floors? Our dogs have trashed our cheap hardwoods and we are looking to replace them. A guy at Lowes said the woven bamboo floors would be better then hardwoods, but still not perfect. My brother has Brazilian hardwoods and they seem to stand up to his Brittanys pretty well. The woven bamboo floors look very similar to actual hardwoods.

gonehuntin' · Post by **gonehuntin'** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 3:34 pm

jetjockey wrote:Does anyone have any experience with the woven bamboo floors? Our dogs have trashed our cheap hardwoods and we are looking to replace them. A guy at Lowes said the woven bamboo floors would be better then hardwoods, but still not perfect. My brother has Brazilian hardwoods and they seem to stand up to his Brittanys pretty well. The woven bamboo floors look very similar to actual hardwoods.

Brazillian Cherry is one of the hardest woods out there on the Janka scale. Strand Bamboo is as hard. It is so hard, that if you get a 3/4" solid strand, you may have to predrill the wood to install it. We sell the Strand floors with a plywood core for ease of installation and stability on the floor.

jetjockey · Post by **jetjockey** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 4:14 pm

Gonehuntin. In your opinion would the woven Bamboo or brazilian cherry be good choices? We like the look of the woven bamboo but from what I understand the color we like, which is a little darker, isn't as hard as the natural color woven bamboo. Not sure if there's enough difference in hardness to make a difference.

ben33127 · Post by **ben33127** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:28 pm

Yes, horrible scratches!!

mcclinj · Post by **mcclinj** » Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:24 pm

Karen,

Our house is almost entirely hardwood flooring and from what I've noticed the problem doesn't seem to be with the nails. The scratches seem to happen when the dog is running and leaps up on the couch, chair bed and slides it out of place. We have corrected this problem by making sure all the furniture has those little felt pads on the feet of the furniture. The last house we had was carpeted and we never noticed a problem so we just let the dog jump into her chair or up on the bed....now if she does that the chair slides across the room...lol

-John

gonehuntin' · Post by **gonehuntin'** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:54 pm

jetjockey wrote:Gonehuntin. In your opinion would the woven Bamboo or brazilian cherry be good choices? We like the look of the woven bamboo but from what I understand the color we like, which is a little darker, isn't as hard as the natural color woven bamboo. Not sure if there's enough difference in hardness to make a difference.

Those are the two hardest woods. If you are determined to have wood, Brazilian Cherry or Strand Woven Bamboo would be your two top choices. In General, darker wood is softer. Lighter wood shows the scratches far less. I would opt for a prefinish floor with an aluminum oxide wear layer. It is harder than either Glitza or Gymfloor.

There is also something to be said for an oil finish. With oil when you get scratches, you can simply wipe on a little oil and the scratches disappear, just as they do on a gunstock. It is a lot of maintanance to it but it probably stays better looking longer. You don't see it too much today, but there are still oil finish floors out there. US floors has some.

If it were me, I'd go with aluminum oxide.

If you're real wood people, you're real wood people. I'd sure look at Mannington's Adura line of Loc Solid vinyl plank floors though.

Ruffshooter · Post by **Ruffshooter** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 10:54 am

I have a tavern grade cherry floor, it dents easy. The finish is an acrylic manufacturer applied, 50 year warranty.
Cherry of any kind is a relatively soft wood. Hard Maple is just that hard. Then the finishes GH suggested will help.

mountaindogs · Post by **mountaindogs** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 2:54 pm

mister2 wrote:All my floors are hardwood except for the kitchen and bathroom. I have 2 boys ages 4 & 6 so the dog is the least of my worries. The kids have smashed and scraped every toy they have on those floors. The best is the Hot Wheels cars with the wheels removed. My pup is about 1yr old now and I found that as long as I exercise him regularly he just walks around in the house anyway. My kids on the other hand....forget it.

Ditto this!
I do have 7 dogs though... but only 2ish inside at at a time.

mountaindogs · Post by **mountaindogs** » Mon Mar 05, 2012 2:57 pm

Well I have carpet in the bedrooms... I regret that every day. I have to shampoo them ever few months and its the people with muddy boots, coffee spills, and every kind of dirt boys can manage ... not so much the dogs.

yukonjasper · Post by **yukonjasper** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 3:55 pm

Timely topic as I am researching flooring as well. I think we are looking at vinyl for ease of maintenance and overall durability. I had looked into tile or stone, but as mentioned in a previous post, there is a lot of work that need to be done to the underlayment to make that work and all of the threasholds etc need to be lifted, its expensive comparably, so Vinyl is on my list - I'll look into the Adura by Mannington. I guess I haven't seen Linoleum in a while - I wasn't sure they still made it. We'll be visiting Home Depot and Lowe's tonight after hitting a fish fry.

Thanks for the info - you guy (and gals) are great. Nothing speaks the truth like experience and, collectively, you have tons of it.

gonehuntin' · Post by **gonehuntin'** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 5:28 pm

yukonjasper wrote:Timely topic as I am researching flooring as well. I think we are looking at vinyl for ease of maintenance and overall durability. I had looked into tile or stone, but as mentioned in a previous post, there is a lot of work that need to be done to the underlayment to make that work and all of the threasholds etc need to be lifted, its expensive comparably, so Vinyl is on my list - I'll look into the Adura by Mannington. I guess I haven't seen Linoleum in a while - I wasn't sure they still made it. We'll be visiting Home Depot and Lowe's tonight after hitting a fish fry.

Thanks for the info - you guy (and gals) are great. Nothing speaks the truth like experience and, collectively, you have tons of it.

Yes, real linoleum is made. Both Armstrong and Tarkett make it. It comes in rolls 6'6" wide. Beware! The seams have to be heat welded and that add's substantially to the cost. Very, very, tough stuff though and since it's made from linseed oil, a very "green" product as well.

Sheet vinyl also usually requires a sub floor for the most durable installation. Really, there is very little difference in cost between HIGH quality sheet vinyl, Mannington Adura, Armstrong Alterna, real hardwood, and ceramic tile. If you figured an average of $9.00 a square foor installed for the adura, alterna, wood and sheet vinyl, and $10.00 for the ceramic, you'd be close. When I say installed, that means removing and replacing base, appliance moving, and floor prep.

When it's all said and done, they're withing 1-2.00 a square foot of each other.

What can skew the price is CHEAP sheet vinyl. You can get that for about $1.00 a square foot, same with laminate. It's worth about as much as an equal size pile of dog crap.