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Hardwood floors with dogs-what's your experience?

Phydeaux

Phydeaux

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Rather than hijack the dog hair/hardwood floor thread....

We're ready to tear out carpeting in one of our larger rooms, and would like to install hardwood flooring. We have two dogs, roughly 30lbs each, and we do routinely trim their nails. Obviously, we want durability, and thus want to select one of the hardest woods or preferably bamboo.

From those with direct experience, what have been your results? What are your recommendations? :ponder:
 
We put in new floors three years ago. I was also worried because we have to large 60 pound dogs who are very busy, like to wrestle and race around the house.

We put in red oak floors because they are a fit for our 110 year old house. They still look like new. The key is having a super heavy duty finish on them. It took two days (two coats) and we had to be out of the house for most of the day due to the fumes but it was definitely worth it.

Deb
 
The majority of our house has hardwood, and after 10 years, I can't attribute any more wear and tear to the (now departed) Cocker Spaniel than to her human co-tenants. In fact, the really big boo-boos are all ours.

Jim
 
I dont have hardwood, I have tile, but my comment is the same...look at this from the dogs perspective, and consider whats going to happen as they age...he's going to slip and fall. Nothing sadder than seeing our old guy not able to stand up on the tile or laying there after a fall, spread eagle, on his belly, all 4 legs pointing in different directions. We bought runners so he could go from rug to rug with a little dignity
 
ronparise said:
I dont have hardwood, I have tile, but my comment is the same...look at this from the dogs perspective, and consider whats going to happen as they age...he's going to slip and fall. Nothing sadder than seeing our old guy not able to stand up on the tile or laying there after a fall, spread eagle, on his belly, all 4 legs pointing in different directions. We bought runners so he could go from rug to rug with a little dignity
Click to expand...

Agree 100%. We had hardwood floors and 2 large Golden Retrievers. They did not become house dogs until they were 5 or 6 years old. When they did they slept on the floor in the bedroom with us and insisted on sleeping on DW's side of the bed. Of course, when she would get up in the am, she really had to do some stretching to avoid the dogs. The routine only happened once - they stayed there on the floor hoping she would come back to bed. When they heard her making coffee downstairs they bolted and ran down the stairs as fast as they could, made the rt turn on the wood floor and both wiped out. From that point on, my job was to walk them down in a controlled fashion. We were able to avoid future accidents but were never able to get them to sleep anywhere else.
 
I agree that the floors seem fine with the dog. He is well housebroken, so there are no accidents. He tends to curl up on his bed or hang out on a throw rug we keep in the family room for him, so he doesn't lay much on the bare floor.
 
Our 10 year old hardwood floors look great - but the carpet is a totally different story. Our cream Parade Home carpeting was changed to something more forgiving. I'd take hardwood floors anyday.
 
My dog didn't care for the change at all. Carpet was much more forgiving and quieter. But he was an old dog and is gone now. Had we known how difficult the adjustment would be we would have waited. Ours is laminate however. Maybe hardwood isn't as slick.
 
No running in the house!!! Seriously. the older she gets, the easier it is for her to lose her footing. Also need to keep nails trimmed but there is an audible reminder. I do not think my dog is any harder on the floors than we are - no doggie toenail scrapes for example.

I have a big time shedder and I love hardwoods/ceramic floors for that - turn on the ceiling fan then go around the edges of the room with a swiffer.
 
Don't get a wood that is too soft- ie cherry. It will get little indentations in it from the dogs nails.

Oak is very durable as I understand it. We have mahogany, which is harder than any dogs nails. Our mahogany is very red, it looks like cherry.

We have dogs and if we need to add rubber-back bathroom rugs, we'll do so. But I have this very strange intense aversion to wall-to-wall carpet, for some reason I cannot abide the idea of carpet in my house. I'm fine with it in anyone else's house or out in public. Odd I know.

H
 
geekette said:
I have a big time shedder and I love hardwoods/ceramic floors for that - turn on the ceiling fan then go around the edges of the room with a swiffer.
Click to expand...

Love that suggestion!!! I did not think about that, but will try it!
 
Our house has a lot of oak wood flooring and we also have dogs. Agree with others, no problems at all. But, as Ron mentioned, they can be slippery for older dogs. Ron's idea to get runners or rugs to give them some traction is great.
 
muranojo said:
Our house has a lot of oak wood flooring and we also have dogs. Agree with others, no problems at all. But, as Ron mentioned, they can be slippery for older dogs. Ron's idea to get runners or rugs to give them some traction is great.
Click to expand...

Same holds true for elderly cats. Our kitchen is hardwood flooring and we put an area rug down under the food & water bowls to make life easier for our elderly kitties. One had a hard time with splaying whereas her sister had no trouble at all.

Ingrid
 
Our dog was 80-90 lbs, I must admit we never trimmed her nails. Some years ago we had new oak floors installed (prefinished, as I was told it was tougher) in our family room, hall and two of the BR. There are huge scratches (more like long gouges) in the family room and hall, where she would jump and run toward the door to "greet" the mailman or other visitors.

The two BR that she rarely visited are fine. I expect it will have something to do with how heavy and/or excitable your dog(s) are.
 
A laminate like Pergo will not scratch as easily as hardwood. However, do not put that in areas that have possible water damage like a kitchen or bathroom.

If you go to Home Depot, they have a rating on hardness for each floor they sell. I would get one of the hardest available just to be safe. That is, if you should decide to go with engineered wood backing and hard wood top.
 
tompalm said:
A laminate like Pergo will not scratch as easily as hardwood. However, do not put that in areas that have possible water damage like a kitchen or bathroom.

If you go to Home Depot, they have a rating on hardness for each floor they sell. I would get one of the hardest available just to be safe. That is, if you should decide to go with engineered wood backing and hard wood top.
Click to expand...

Definitely won't be going the route of engineered laminate.

So, no one with a bamboo floor? :confused:

Still catching on, I guess.

Thanks for all the replies! We'll go shopping..
 
Yup. Had to do runners on the stairs for an old dog years ago and now we have runners on the kitchen tiles and family room pergo.
 
We installed great looking hardwood floors that have a little distressed look to it. We have two 100+ lb. dogs and they occasionally do a Scooby Doo rounding a corner and I don’t see any difference in the wood. They don’t have run of the house and they usually stay on their dog beds when they are inside.
 
Hickory!

I did a *lot* of research on this topic before choosing which hardwood to install upstairs in our new home - after living with pine floors in our last house, which were pretty deeply scratched after a year or 2 with a dog inside. I ordered many samples, and did scratch tests using fingernails, nails and keys.

Hickory is the hardest domestic wood, not to mention very gorgeous. 4 years later, they still look perfect. You just about can't scratch it if you try. I found mine on the internet somewhere, and it's got about 6 layers of baked-on finish as well.

It wasn't too expensive, and is solid 3/4" wood, not engineered - got solid wood in case we ever need to sand and refinish, but frankly that will never be necessary. I can look up where I found it if you need.

At another house we installed some engineered hand-scraped oak, with enough irregularities that a scratch here or there doesn't show up because it looks distressed. This could be a good choice as well if you like the look.

I wouldn't go with oak - after years of dogs, you can often see scratches. I wouldn't go with bamboo either, though it's very attractive.

edited to add: here's something similar or maybe identical to what we bought- sale thru Friday...
http://www.ifloor.com/3-4-solid-hickory-natural-3-1-4-wide
 
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Just our personal experience: We've been in our house with oak floors for about 20 years now, and we've always had two ~80-lb. physically active dogs. No scratches on our floors, and they've been known to do the Scooby Doo a few times, too. Plus they have the run of the house. :D

P.S. Hickory does sound interesting and worth investigating.
 
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Laurie said:
I did a *lot* of research on this topic before choosing which hardwood to install upstairs in our new home - after living with pine floors in our last house, which were pretty deeply scratched after a year or 2 with a dog inside. I ordered many samples, and did scratch tests using fingernails, nails and keys.

Hickory is the hardest domestic wood, not to mention very gorgeous. 4 years later, they still look perfect. You just about can't scratch it if you try. I found mine on the internet somewhere, and it's got about 6 layers of baked-on finish as well.

It wasn't too expensive, and is solid 3/4" wood, not engineered - got solid wood in case we ever need to sand and refinish, but frankly that will never be necessary. I can look up where I found it if you need.

At another house we installed some engineered hand-scraped oak, with enough irregularities that a scratch here or there doesn't show up because it looks distressed. This could be a good choice as well if you like the look.

I wouldn't go with oak - after years of dogs, you can often see scratches. I wouldn't go with bamboo either, though it's very attractive.
edited to add: here's something similar or maybe identical to what we bought- sale thru Friday...
http://www.ifloor.com/3-4-solid-hickory-natural-3-1-4-wide
Click to expand...

We have bamboo kitchen countertops and think bamboo flooring in an adjacent room would look fabulous.
 
The type of hardwood is critical in the decision.

We were advised that our 50lb retriever wouldn't damage our birch floor - first day on the floor she was taking gouges out with her nails every time she laid down or got up.

We should have researched the hardness level ourselves as the flooring place basically lied to us and had we known then what we know now we would never have but in birch but would have likely installed hickory or oak.

Stay away from maple as well - it's also quite soft and a neighbour's dog destroyed their hardwood floor in a 2 year time span.
 
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