Flooring and Dogs

[Salt]

We are putting new floors in our home but we can't decide what the best choice of flooring is for us since we have 3 dogs.
Carpet is definitely not an option.

We are thinking about laminate wood floors, staining the concrete, or tile.

My top choice would be the fake wood floor but I'm not sure how well that would work with the dogs. I wonder if their nails will scratch the floor and if they have an "accident" will it ruin the floor?

Does anyone with dogs have advice?

[doggerham]

I can tell you that pine is way too soft! Just come and look at my floors...

[FruitsAlive]

Our ceramic tile has worked out pretty well. Just make sure the grout isn't too light or it'll be difficult to clean if there's an accident.

[cminmd]

Laminate works great with big dogs. Just make sure you get a laminate that doesnt grove between boards. Real wood is bad with big breeds, but laminate holds up very well. We have an 80 lb dog with laminate carpet and linoleum. By far the laminate has held up the best. Carpet- yikes and linoleum has scratches that you can see with the right light. So far 2 years on laminate and it looks great. And we just bought the Costco brand, I'm sure they make more expensive kinds that would give you better looks. We went with simple dark stain. No experience with tile, I hate cleaning the grout lines.

[Laurielee]

I picked tile because of my dogs and my messy Dh :D . I love it, I went so far as to get get samples of tile and have the dogs walk on it, took some of their fur to see how it showed up, so I went with a mottled tile that shows almost nothing, I agree about getting a dark grout, I wish I went that way, it hasnt been a problem from the dogs, but just dirt in general. I like the idea of the wood laminates, but they show everything little spill/footprint

Laurie

[Grace]

We got laminate because of our dogs too. Two labs with big nails. Five years later and it still looks great!! (Except where I dropped the knives and there are a couple of gouges). But no scratches whatsoever. I'd do laminate again.

[Gumbeaux]

Because laminate is so hard, a dog's toe nails make a LOT of noise. You can buy an under layer of sound proof material but it doesn't help with toe nail noise. We have laminate in the kitchen and when the dog is walking in there we have a difficult time hearing the TV in the den. I can't imagine how noisy it would be if we had laminate in the den.

Also, laminate cannot withstand a flood from leaking pipes, a dishwasher, or washing machine. Once water gets underneath laminate, it will buckle and will not be covered by warranty.

[luv2cook]

I have two dogs myself and I would 200% recommend TILE w/ 1/8 GROUT, not the standard 1/4! less grout, less junk that collects there plus, it looks really cool.

We have laminate upstairs. It IS noisy as heck. Also, if you do spill something or someone pees on the lam and it sits there, it will buckle the floor. Trust me, I know.

[aggie94]

We have laminate in most of the rooms in our house and love it with the three dogs and cat. It's very durable, looks great, and is so easy to maintain.

[pointerhaven]

I have Tile in my greatroom and hard wood in the bedrooms, which are covered with orientals and laminate up stairs which does great with the dogs and I have three English Pointers.

[Salt]

For those of you that have wood laminate floors does the sound of the dogs nails drive you nuts?

Are there any types of laminates that I should stay away from?

[Grace]

I think size of the room may have something to do with the noise. I have a very small house and the sound of the nails isn't loud at all. But maybe in a big house it would be bad. I can see where that might be the case.

[Gumbeaux]

For those of you that have wood laminate floors does the sound of the dogs nails drive you nuts?


Yep.

I've actually had to bring him from the dining room to the den one time because he was walking and creating so much noise I couldn't hear the TV.

[luv2cook]

let me put it this way: I can hear a (at the time) 4lb kitten running back and forth across the floor upstairs when I'm downstairs! now he's about 8 and chases my other cat and it sounds like thunder! Now, imagine. Quadruple that! :eek:

[LakeMartinGal]

We have tile, and love it! We have some carpet, in the bedroom and the dining room, and it constantly needs cleaning, just from the dogs being outside and not being bathed enough :o . We love the tile, and the grout ideas given above are excellent... wish I'd thought of it! :rolleyes:

[armel]

Thank you so much for starting this thread. I am not ready to buy flooring yet, but will be needing to in the future. And I like the looks of wood, but was worried about it. Y'all have convinced me that tile is the way to go.

I am considering getting those carpet squares that you can get. put them on top of the tile, as area rug look, but when the square gets soiled / ruined, you can just take it out and replace it with another carpet square.

Just because when my dog goes running on the tile I have in some places now, she goes slipping and sliding and I feel bad for her.

[luv2cook]

IMHO, unless she's a really old dog, I wouldn't worry about it. my dogs hardly slip and they're big...

[armel]

IMHO, unless she's a really old dog, I wouldn't worry about it. my dogs hardly slip and they're big...

Maybe they can give my dog lessons . . . 'cuz she certainly doesn't have the hang of running on tile. It is funny, but then I feel guilty for laughing. Poor pupster.

[Laurielee]

Armel, since you mentioned carpet tiles, I got this catalog yesterday that has beautiful carpet tiles. its called www.florcatalog.com. What a neat concept

Laurie