Wood Floors and dogs (hardwood floors, engineered, laminate, refinishing)

[Turtle]

Does anyone out there have wood floors, or wood laminate with dogs? I am just wondering how it holds up. We will be building another house in a couple of years, and I love the look of wood, but I am worried my dogs will scratch the heck out of it (we have 2 very active golden retrievers).

My other thought is having my brother do a epoxy floor. He can make it look like anything and it holds up great (it's like what people have done on garage floors and stuff that is super strong and stain resistant.) I think that would actually be my first choice, I just don't know if it will be a possibility time wise because we are building 8 hours away in another state.

Just looking for some firsthand opinions.

[goodbyehollywood]

Real hardwoods with lots of polyurethane hold up okay. The scratches stay on the surface and pretty much buff out. If a scratch goes deeper, a stain pen usually takes care of it.

Wood laminate is less durable, especially if it's lower quality where the actual wood on top is thin. I had that in the kitchen and it got to looking ragged pretty quick. Ended up replacing it with ceramic tile.

I refinished the hardwoods in the rest of the house last year and had the refinisher put on an extra two coats of polyurethane. I keep rugs down in the high traffic areas and haven't had any problems. If the dogs get super rowdy, we put them out. We try not to let them romp in the house, so my nephews are probably harder on the floors than the dogs. Good luck!

[MsDeb]

Please check your hardwood flooring, if you decide on that route, for Lyctus Powder Post beetles before installing....Just an FYI.

[BlueWillowPlate]

We just have one mastiff now, but in the past we had two--and oak floors done in a light finish.
Basically we just lived with scratch/dents. It did not look too bad.
When we refinished our floors, the guy put some poly stuff called Traffic and it was not a miracle or anything but it did help.
Where we are now, we have dark engineered wood floors (not our choice) and every single scratch shows. I do go around with the stain pen.
We are down to one dog, and have put a lot of rugs down, and try to keep the dog quiet inside.

[titaniummd]

Wood floors can be refinished and restained. Laminate cannot but it can be replaced. If you're concerned about scratches, I would consider ceramic tile. It resists stains, doesn't require much maintainance, and scratches are imperceptible. We are getting a dog, soon.

I had hardwood floors in my last home and they are sensitive to spills and get dull over time (requiring refinishing).

[Turtle]

Tile is not an option.
I will have to figure a time with my brother for him to come and do his stuff. He can make it look like wood, tile, marble, whatever I want. I think if I do the prep work, he would be able to get the whole house done if a few days. I have had tile in our last two houses, and grout drives me crazy! We have cleaned and sealed our grout to keep it looking nice, but I don't really enjoy that In our current house, the tiles have cracked as the house settles, there are several reasons I want to avoid tile next time.

I just wanted to hear what people who had wood had to say about it. Thank you all for your input.

[WV gram]

We just redid our kitchen completely and put down a laminate floor. The 2nd one we have put down, by the way, and we truly love it. Got a better grade from Lumber Liquidators and have abused it and it has stayed really nice. We have 2 dogs and a cat and have not one problem with them. One is a rough-housing 80 lb. dog and the other is a small dog and the laminate has held up really well. We are now finishing up putting in a new dining room and laundry room and will once again go for the laminate flooring. Good luck and hope it will work for you.

[martinez4]

Originally Posted by Turtle

Tile is not an option.
I will have to figure a time with my brother for him to come and do his stuff. He can make it look like wood, tile, marble, whatever I want. I think if I do the prep work, he would be able to get the whole house done if a few days. I have had tile in our last two houses, and grout drives me crazy! We have cleaned and sealed our grout to keep it looking nice, but I don't really enjoy that In our current house, the tiles have cracked as the house settles, there are several reasons I want to avoid tile next time.

I just wanted to hear what people who had wood had to say about it. Thank you all for your input.

My2 cents.....I would go for your brothers work...sounds cool and in our experience with real, hardwood floors....too many scratches and scuffs . We had two big dogs and between the scratches and dog hair "floating" on the floors I would never go hardwood again.

Good Luck

[njkate]

Originally Posted by WV gram

We just redid our kitchen completely and put down a laminate floor. The 2nd one we have put down, by the way, and we truly love it. Got a better grade from Lumber Liquidators and have abused it and it has stayed really nice. We have 2 dogs and a cat and have not one problem with them. One is a rough-housing 80 lb. dog and the other is a small dog and the laminate has held up really well. We are now finishing up putting in a new dining room and laundry room and will once again go for the laminate flooring. Good luck and hope it will work for you.

Yeah my friend had the laminate put in..she has a 120LB Giant Schnauzer...her floor has the knotty pine circles..well for the last 4 yeasr he has been trying to dig them circles out with no damage to the floor.

[jkmewright]

I have a home built in the 40's and the original wood floor was redone about 8 years ago. I have had 5 dogs (4 of them large) and 2 cats. The floor has definitely been abused but still has no scratches and looks great except for the dog hair martinez mentioned . Now, when a 3 year old drops a monster truck on it, that's another story I am curious about your brother's ideas. I have seen some concrete floors done and they are AMAZING, if this is what you are talking about . Kinda like a huge slab of natural stone or decorative tiles, etc... The poster really loved it and mentioned the dogs sliding alot but no scratches. Take some pics if you decide to do it. I would love to see them.