Hardwood floors vs. carpet for dogs

[Rissask]

I agree that dents and scratches DO still look on hardwood floors...character is right .....but tmy kitty claw scratches aren't 'character' as much as an eyesore.
But it does look better than tired looking laminate, true- when it starts to get wrecked it just looks cheap or something.

Believe me, that stuff is not so kind to carpet either. What is nice about the hardwood as opposed to the carpet is the hardwood is much easier to clean. We have a Golden Retriever (housebroken so the whole pee issue is negligble), but since she SHEDS and SHEDs and SHEDs and SHEDs, no matter how good you clean the carpet, you can't get all the pet hair up. We like the tile floor and hardwood as it is easy to swiffer and vacuum. Regardless its futile as the golden tumbleweeds are back in a few days.

Oh you poor guy. Friends of ours have two goldens in their house- the amount they shed is unbelievable!
I too prefer cleaning the HW over trying to get cat hair out of the rug...but we have darker hardwood, and that cat hair and dust sure shows up! I have to vaccuum every other day, whereas we only vaccuum the carpet once a week, and you can't see the hair.

Know what works well to get pet hair off carpet? Put on rubber dishwashing gloves and run your hands over the carpet- works like a charm.

[bbA2]

Originally Posted by SunKneeMarie

Just as another considreation, what is your opinion of/experience with the stained indoor concrete flooring?

I personally do not like it....buuuuttt if done correctly by an experienced artisan i guess it could look interesting. I consider it along the lines of painting brick...why take something that is a zero maintenance product and make it require maintenance...but being up here in michigan the only places we "generally" have concrete floors are in basements or garages...I know in more southern locales concrete flors are much more common throughout the house. so perhaps it is just my limited exposure to it that jades my opinions.

bba2

[Loree]

I think it depends on the style of your house.
I live in an old farm house that is over 160 years old and we just had our hardwood floor in the kitchen refinished in May. We have 2 labs and they are hell on the floor. Their nails do alot of damage, but because it is an old farm house, people expect it to look old. We always say, it's just more character added to the floor. And the shedding part is true, HW is so much easier to clean. We were told to only clean the floor with plain water or vinegar and water because if you need to have it refinished in another 15 years, it won't have to be sanded prior to finishing.
My daughter had the fake plastic HW installed and it looks fake and it's cold on your feet.
Just my dos pesos!

[B Kromm]

I'm on the laminate Bandwagon. Neighbors have hardwood and a chocolate Lab. Not a good combination

Did the pergo American Oak a couple of years back. We have had people not realize that it is laminate flooring and it is surviving 2 boys currently 7 and 12.

Brent

[Dallas91]

Originally Posted by Rissask

Know what works well to get pet hair off carpet? Put on rubber dishwashing gloves and run your hands over the carpet- works like a charm.

Thanks Rissask. I have tried that. It does work pretty well. But when we run the steam cleaner every so often , it shows just how much we missed. I love taking the dog for a ride in the SUV, but when the windows are down, you get swarmed with hair floating/flying through the air.
We knew (or thought we knew) what we were getting into when we got her. We researched a few breeds.

[lulabell]

Laminate. We have 3 dogs and it really holds up pretty good. It is very reasonably priced at Sam's Club and we did it ourselves. It is not real expensive to have it done and cleans up easy and still looks like new 3 years later.

[Rissask]

We knew (or thought we knew) what we were getting into when we got her. We researched a few breeds.

And I am sure she is worth it anyway, right? They are such nice dogs, goldens. Just a lot of hair.

Our one cat has a ton of long hair- he has an actual mane....he leaves CLUMPS everywhere.

[Jimmy-James]

Originally Posted by playabum17

Are you still talking about floor covering?

Oh man, you are bad.

[bmar]

We decided on carpet for the livingroom and black walnut hardwood flooring for the diningroom. Thanks everyone for your help! The hardwoof flooring is being installed right now. Can't wait to get home to see it!!!

[ELECTRA]

A laminate-floored dog house in the back yard.



.

[Mexivoof]

Hardwood! Our two, a five y/o Basset Hound and a 13 y/o Springer Spaniel were actually tug of warring with one of the Springers new toys. I can't believe the Springer was actually participating, he must have been REALLY po'ed. They weigh about the same, but the Basset was totally dragging the Spaniel across the hardwood floor! Hysterical, Priceless!!

[Sol]

Originally Posted by Mexivoof

Hardwood! Our two, a five y/o Basset Hound and a 13 y/o Springer Spaniel were actually tug of warring with one of the Springers new toys. I can't believe the Springer was actually participating, he must have been REALLY po'ed. They weigh about the same, but the Basset was totally dragging the Spaniel across the hardwood floor! Hysterical, Priceless!!

I'd love to see that!

[Dallas91]

Originally Posted by Rissask

And I am sure she is worth it anyway, right? They are such nice dogs, goldens. Just a lot of hair.

Sorry, I had become unsubscribed to the thread. Yes, Absolutely worth it. She has been a best friend to our 3 yr old niece (who lives with us) and is absolutely wonderful with kids/people. Fairly intelligent dogs, though she's pretty stubborn about commands unless food is involved. I blame myself as we did all the training and I did not keep on pushing it. She is a member of the family though she knows where she ranks on the pecking order.

[Dallas91]

Originally Posted by mrsbosco

Laminate. We have 3 dogs and it really holds up pretty good. It is very reasonably priced at Sam's Club and we did it ourselves. It is not real expensive to have it done and cleans up easy and still looks like new 3 years later.

Edit: Disregard. Nevermind. I read this and thought 'linolium?" instead of laminate.

[Dallas91]

Originally Posted by bmar

We decided on carpet for the livingroom and black walnut hardwood flooring for the diningroom. Thanks everyone for your help! The hardwoof flooring is being installed right now. Can't wait to get home to see it!!!

Sounds like it is going to be very nice. Congrats. I'm envious. I would like to do hardwood, but we are probably going to sell the place soon and we would definitely not recoop that cost in our area. Still looking at laminates.