Need Advice on Hardwood Floors and doodles

[Steve Drury]

I'm considering replacing the carpeting in the major living areas with tile or engineered hardwood flooring. I have done a search on this site and most of the remarks I found were coincidental on not the main topic.
My two concerns are dog safety---do they slip, slide and fall? and wear and tear on the floors. How do they hold up? I noted some of the folks who had positive feedback noted that they are diligent about trimming the dogs nails; those with negative feedback sometimes confessed being lax in trimming.
We are also considering tile. Same questions.
If you have had positive experience with your dogs living happily with wood, please provide information about the type of floors: old fashion hardwood strips, engineered wood; brand names would be great, type of finish if you know; smooth or "rustic" texture or distressed finish?
Anything you can offer will be appreciated. Thanks

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

I have a high-end laminate wood floor. It has little teeny dots all in it from Taquito's nails and I am sure my heels (even though I take them off when inside now). My parents have real wood and it just looks more distressed - not as dotty. Of course they have dogs also.

I personally like it. It kind of bothers me that it has the dots, but I am probably the only person that notices it. You do have to be careful about wiping up spills immediately (at least it doesn't stain but it does cause buckling if left for long).

And if we play catch, Peri does slide a bit on it. But nothing major. And she prefers it to my rugs because it is cool!

[Melissa & Porter]

My vote is hardwood. Laminate may get fewer dents, but I have seen it peel up at the corners after 10 years. A hardwood floor can just be sanded and refinished. The ones in my house are 80+ years old, except for in the kitchen where we put hardwood in two years ago--make sure you get 3/4 in thick if you do it--otherwise it is less sandable over time. There are a lot of affordable online vendors.

I have tile in my basement. It cost a fortune to prep the concrete slab (the tile itself was dirt cheap), but I have a lung condition and there was NO WAY I could put carpet down there or even a laminate with a subfloor--my contractor said that over time and with enough moisture, no foam or channeled plastic is mold proof.

[Steve Drury]

Wow....thanks for the excellent feedback. I had a "duh" moment last night as I tossed and turned unable to fall asleep.
Another project we're looking at is artificial turf in the back yard. It occurred to me that if we do the turf, we're attacking the source of the problem instead of mitigating the symptoms.
If you don't have muddy dogs, it's much easier to keep your carpet looking good.With 2 doodles our yard is pretty much trashed. Our 8 month old is now 55 lbs and VERY active. We were going to have to do something in the yard anyway.
If we kill the hardwood floor project, that makes the turf a much easier pill to swallow.
I think I'll get some solid quotes on the turf and see how it weighs out.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Ask and ye shall receive : ) We discussed this recently: Artificial Turf

[Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey]

We put in old fashioned hardwood floors in most our downstairs room and in the upstairs hallway in 2004. We put down wood as it is a lot easier to keep clean of dog hair than carpet. The beagles and cats don't slip on the floors. The doodles on the other hand will if I don't keep the hair between thier pads trimmed. The floors have held up great. We only have 1 spot that is showing wear in the dining room entry. This is the spot where the dogs come tearing down the stairs to head for the kitchen door to go outside. This is where they kind of run in place like a cartoon dog before gaining traction to keep moving forward. I have put down a non-skid carpet runner here. We have an older wood floor in our kitchen that we are planning to have refinished in the spring. The refinisher recommended put a commerial grade finish on the floor as it will stand up better to dog traffic.

[Dan, Judi, & Timbow]

We have wood floors in most of our house and really love them! Timbow does slide a lot, but only when he's moving quickly. We have to be careful to keep the hair between his paw pads trimmed short. I don't feel as if we've had any problems with scarring the floor or anything like that, but it will be important for you to keep his toe nails trimmed (and grinding the nails is even better, it makes them much smoother). Good luck!

[Debbie Penny]

We have tile, hardwood, and laminate in our home. The tile and hardwood are in the main living areas, laminate in the basement. I love all three, hardwood does dent and scratch but it adds character and can be replaced if need be, tile is the best, so easy to clean and cool to lay on for our pets. I have placed rubber backed rugs in the very active area's entrances as it is just too slippery when wet outside for both humans and pets. It also helps absorb the wet paws on initial entry during wet times. Ikea sells a great runner for around 20 dollars, and it vacuums off like a dream, no washing required. All the best with your selection, I have 2 dogs and both have little problems with playing and walking on the floors. Laminate seems indestructable but we prefer to keep that for the basement area due to the cost of hardwood and tile prep. All the best with your selection.

[DeeDee and Sheila]

I've lived in so many houses and had alot of dogs-yes, I am old(er) but I also think wiser. My comments are I love wood flooring that is the same color as my dogs, which is always light. I have small elctric vacuum and hungry dogs so the floor only needs to be lightly wet mopped every couple of weeks. When I had young children at home I cleaned the floor much more often. The woods havent scratched too badly, but I put runners in front of patio doors, where the mutts like to get traction to get outside quickly. I know, Adina, training !! I'm now in a rental house until our rehabbed home is done and it has cherry flooring which shows every mark, crumb, scratch in the world. Nice look, but too much work. I don't like carpeting but continue to put it in bedrooms mainly for expense and noise purposes. I personally don't like ceramic tile either, but have it in my bathrooms. Up north, tile gets cold in winter and since I have walked dogs now for 34 yrs. (since marriage), my feet don't like the hardness as well. I just researched bamboo, heard it scratches, and cork is beautiful but I guess I'm too old fashioned and can't go there. Wood is by far the easiest, long wearing floor I've experienced. The older wood was harder, now the new stuff isn't as hard, but I still like it above everything else. Just buy a couple xtra boxes so if you ever need repair you already have it.

[Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey]

DH and I are in the middle of planning a master bath redo (read blow up and start over). We are planning on putting in a cork floor. It is not cold or hard on bare feet and is water and mildew resistant.

[Carole (*Koda*Monty*Bindi)]

Ooohh....ours is presently "blown up!" and we are in the middle of our master bath redo too! i just saw on "Bathtastic" (on the DIY network) the cork floor. I wondered if it would be water and mildew resistant. You'll have to let me know how you like it. We're still at the "gutting and design stage"! LOL I know....I think we've gone about it backwards! LOL

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Laughing. I truly have NO advice about hardwood floors, but I do have them. Spud LOVES to SLIDE. He slides on playground sliding boards and when he was small he used the coffee table to run and slide across. Now we line the garage floor with folded down boxes to slide to slide on. In the house he gets a running start and he slides all along our hardwood floors.

I truly think he was a baseball player in another life.

Good luck on your hardwood floors. :)

[Leigh & Allie]

We had hardwood put in our downstairs right before we got Allie. One major note to think about.......I would not wish that on my worst enemy. We already had hardwood in the entry so all of our furniture was in the entry and dining room. ALL OF OUR FURNITURE. You could not walk through the house. If the dust does not kill you (do not think the dust sucker thing they tell you about will actually work), the stain odor will. You can actually get high off the stuff. I actually moved out of the house and stayed with my parents for about a week. We have had no problems with Allie and the hard wood. It is real and nailed down. Do think about color though. A builder friend of ours said the "in" color is a dark stain but not to get that because you can see all of the scratches. I can not remember the color but we got a golden honey color. We had have no problems at all and I love it now but boy was instalation a b****.