Hardwood floors vs. carpet for dogs

[Mexivoof]

Originally Posted by Dallas91

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

Linolium sucks. We put Pergo laminate in our bathroom and love it. Especially w/ doggers I would use it instead of hardwood or carpet if I were re doing a room. Just have to be careful that it dosen't get "really" wet, as in sitting in standing water for hours, otherwise it's ok.

PS... Hating that countdown, it's also the # of days I have left in my forties!

[Brent & Kim]

Go to petsmart and get doggie diapers until your dog is potty trained, or start crate training your dog! Both would work great. I vote for hard wood!

[bmar]

Go to petsmart and get doggie diapers until your dog is potty trained, or start crate training your dog! Both would work great. I vote for hard wood!

Holly is about 5 years old and was terribly abused. She is mostly house trained, she just has accidents occasionally, like when she's left in the house too long. Buddy, our boy beagle is house trained. We may have to crate Holly when we're not home. But we hate to punish Buddy for Holly's behavior! It's hard being parents!

The floor is looking amazing. I highly recommend Black Walnut!!! They still have to put one more coat of poly on. We had our floor site finished instead of the prefinished. The guy told me it was at least 95% dust free...don't believe it!!! I have fine dust through out my house. I'm glad I did the wood before the carpet!!! I would not have been happy if that dust had gotten into the new carpet! Now I have to order the carpet, then we'll be almost done with the remodel. Except I think we're gonna have to replace all the trim now, it's gonna look pretty tired next to the new floors! Does it really ever end????

[jscarbor]

I would look at high quality laminates. Real wood is too soft generally IMO.
Tile would even be better.

[wired529]

As a flooring salesperson, I have read this thread with great interest, and alot of what was said is true. One thing not mentioned about hardwood though is that many pre-finished hardwoods have aluminum oxide in the finish which makes them VERY durable but VERY difficult to re-finish. (aluminum oxide is the same abrasive found in sandpaper) My personal suggestion would be to check out Fibrefloor from Tarkett. It is a total loose-lay resiliant flooring which is almost as comfortable as carpet, carries an out of this world warranty, water (and pee) will not damage it. The wood patterns in this line are exceptional, you don't see the pattern repeat like you do with other wood look linoleums. In Canada it is priced around $30/square yard so it is pretty affordable also.

[bmar]

I was just thinking about this thread this morning. Here's an update on the horrible experience we've had getting our floor!

They started the job almost 3 weeks ago, our floor was scheduled to be done in 3 days and we are now into the third week! A family friend lays site-finished hardwood floors and after talking to some people that had pre-finished floors we decided to go with the site-finished floor. I was assured that it was 95 - 99% dust free...not so much!!! The site-finished seemed to have a smooth finish so it wouldn't trap dust and doggie hair in the little cracks that are in pre-finished. I so wish I'd gone with pre-finished now!!!

The first day of the job, the finishing crew threatened to walk off the job due to a problem they had with the contractor we hired, they didn't have the correct filler, and they put a big gash in my wall. They got that all straightened out and after they put the final coat of poly on I saw ripples all across the floor. It looked really bad. After the contractor said it was because it was laid across the joist instead of with the joist and he laid it that direction at our request. We asked if it mattered before we told them what direction to lay the floor in! They finally said they'd sand it back down and start all over. After the first sanding it was still rippled, but they said it would smooth out when they got the final coat on it. Not only did it not, but it looked worse than the first time, they didn't put the poly all the way to the edges, there was a big hair in it and little bubbles all over the place!!! The contractor (family friend) basically said at first that we were just going to have to live with it, that once we got curtains up and furniture in, you wouldn't notice it!!! He basically told us that it was a small job and the sub-contractor didn't want to mess with it anymore! He finally realized that he wasn't going to be paid until the job was done right. So he got another crew in to re-do the job. So, they are at my house right now putting down the final coat of poly. Hopefully this one will be right!

I don't recommend site-finished floors (there's dust half-way up my walls) and really think about doing business with family friends!!!