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Like Qwerty, I simply have poly over white oak (and previously had Bona Traffic water over white oak and a medium stain over elm in between the 2). I have a husky, so hairs that are both black and white, but only swiffer once a week. We learned our lesson with a medium stain and it was reinforced by the guy who sanded my current floors. He said that they rarely have positive feedback from staining floors and push very hard to skip staining, or go as light as possible. Same for satin vs gloss... the higher the gloss, the more effort to keep looking good, so we have satin.
A couple of different family members got brazilian cherry years ago....they were constantly having to
"swiffer" the floors because every day you could see lint or whatever....my daughter got a more med.
color hardwood and didn't have that problem. Personally I would not want a darker color if I ever got
hardwood flooring.
Get a robotic vacuum (Roomba or Neato) and set it to run every day.
I haven't gotten one yet, but there is definitely one in my future.
And my experience has been that all hardwood floors show dirt - what you see depends on the color of the floor so dark stuff shows on light floors and light stuff shows on dark floors. But it's all there either way. I have one of those swiffervacs and that works pretty well although the battery doesn't work for as long as I really need it.
I have a new Pergo floor in a "coastal pine" color that looks sort of like distressed driftwood -- shades of white/gray/tan with some fake knots here and there. It really hides a LOT....sometimes you can't tell the knots from the spots. But anyway, my white Westie hair blends right in, to the point where I go to sweep and suddenly I realize there are TUMBLEWEEDS of dog hair by the baseboard or under the kitchen chairs, etc. I don't know which is worse, seeing it or realizing it's there piling up and you didn't see it, LOL! In my previous house, I had original medium-tone hardwood and ugh, I could always see the dog hair and ESPECIALLY in the sunlight.
my experience has been that all hardwood floors show dirt - what you see depends on the color of the floor so dark stuff shows on light floors and light stuff shows on dark floors. But it's all there either way.
Agreed. We had white oak hardwood in one room and it seemed to show much more in the way of scratches, dust and dirt than the darker hardwood in the adjoining rooms. But they all showed something.
We have hardwoods in our main living areas and travertine floors in our kitchen/laundry room/powder room. The front door opens onto hardwood floors. The back door opens into the kitchen but it's just a quick turn around the corner (the dogs' path, by the way) right onto the hardwoods.
We have two large, mixed breed dogs - one is a black lab mix and one is who knows what, but he has thickish orange and white fur (yes, I said orange - we call him our red headed Irishman!). They also both weigh about 75 pounds.
In and out, in and out - oh, they want in, now they want out, is there a squirrel in the yard? MUST GO OUT. Now we're done, he's gone - MUST COME BACK IN. Sheeze! Spoiled rotten!
Our hardwoods are medium colored, satin gloss and lightly distressed. We thought that would be good enough to disguise a bit of dog traffic, but NO. It's not so bad when it's dry weather, but this winter and spring have both been so wet - it's disgusting. I sweep and mop several times a week, but it really doesn't matter. Every time they run in from that wet back yard, I have paw prints again. Oh, and of course hair.
The good thing is, that travertine floor in the kitchen SHOWS NOTHING. I do mean nothing. I swear, if I was a nasty person, I could go months, months I tell you, without mopping or sweeping.
We put Italian tile down in a peach color that is pretty much without pattern or distress. It shows stuff easily as well. We had our beloved mixed lab with black hair and it was always a challenge to keep it looking good. Now, it is just the two of us and is easier to keep it looking good. I do have a Dustbuster that I can pic up stuff in the sunroom and kitchen if it needs it. While we miss our dog ( she is in Doggie Heaven now) I DON'T miss her fur. Not planning on getting another dog.
My floors are 100% hardwood, medium oak color and I own anywhere from 3 to 6 senior black labs. I've learned that a few minutes outside brushing the dogs saves a great many minutes of sweeping indoors, especially at this time of year as they shed the heavier winter coats.
I use a straight bladed rubber squeegee to gather up most of the hair inside, pick that up by hand, then vacuum up the smaller grit. It saves wear and tear on the vac and it doesn't have to be emptied so often.
I'm not one to believe in conspiracy theories in general but sometimes I think that the vacuum cleaner manufacturers all conspired to genetically alter dogs and cats to grow far more fur then they need so we'd go through more bags and our vacuums would wear out sooner. It just seems that pets shed more nowadays than when I was a youngun. Maybe pets just spent more time outside back in the day.
Agreed. We had white oak hardwood in one room and it seemed to show much more in the way of scratches, dust and dirt than the darker hardwood in the adjoining rooms. But they all showed something.
The light in the room makes a huge difference too. We had the same floor in 2 different rooms, one room seemed "dirty" all the time and the other not--but the one room was much more sunny so it just was more noticeable. They really were probably equally dusty.
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It just seems that pets shed more nowadays than when I was a youngun. Maybe pets just spent more time outside back in the day.
