Polished Floors Verses Carpet/tiles Best For Dogs

[murraydebbie]

We are renovating a queenslander that has the most beautiful polished floors that could be restored. Never having had polished floors before, not sure what damage dogs would do to the floor, hence our dilema.... keep the polished floors or go carpet/tiles/vinyl. Any suggestions.

[OMD²]

We have polished floors. The dog's have made their mark on them that's for sure Scratches everywhere. Ours are inside dogs. I would prefer tiles here instead of the polished floors

[Bluefairy]

We had carpet, but I got fed up with the smell and ripped it out. It is at the moment vinyl, it old and very tough unlike newer vinyl we had down in the kitchen which is now crap. I'm keeping the vinyl on the floor until my Pug is toilet trained, then we are getting laminate floors.

With vinyl Zoe slides on it, if she sits her bum slides backwards, and if she runs she slips on it all the time. The cat never does, just Zoe.

Tiles I think are too cold, well they are for SA but I'll never go back to carpet again with pets.

BF

[Greytmate]

We are renovating a queenslander that has the most beautiful polished floors that could be restored. Never having had polished floors before, not sure what damage dogs would do to the floor, hence our dilema.... keep the polished floors or go carpet/tiles/vinyl. Any suggestions.

Is it hardwood or pine?

How big and heavy are your dogs?

We have pine and the dogs have scratched them. Just a bit too soft for dog nails. The dogs are also in danger of slipping on the floor while playing and hurting themselves.

The enclosed verandah is hardwood, and it is not scratched, just scuffed.

My suggestion is that if you keep the floors, buy very large rugs.

[dancinbcs]

Dogs nails will destroy polished floors. If you want natural floorboards, use Estapol instead of polishing them. Not quite the same finish but it is tough enough to not scratch like the polished ones do. Everyone I know that started with polished floors has re-sanded done them with Estapol.

[Abigail]

Mmmm, polished floors may look very stylish but they don't go hand in hand or should I say paw in paw with dogs, as the other posters have said, you will have a floor that looks like a serious game of snakes and ladders. Vinyl can be great BUT you have to be ultra careful when moving heavy furniture as it tends to drag and tear; tiles are the best by far....easy to clean and very hardy but make sure that the grouting has been sealed otherwise regular mopping will eventually seep right down to your polished floors. I would not go past tiles, they can look quite elegant providing the colours can last through the times and not look dated in a matter of months, lol. Tiles equate no dust mites, no dog hair as it is a breeze to vacuum and no germs. Oh, btw...I promise I don't have any shares in some tile company, lol

[Greytmate]

Mmmm, polished floors may look very stylish but they don't go hand in hand or should I say paw in paw with dogs, as the other posters have said, you will have a floor that looks like a serious game of snakes and ladders. Vinyl can be great BUT you have to be ultra careful when moving heavy furniture as it tends to drag and tear; tiles are the best by far....easy to clean and very hardy but make sure that the grouting has been sealed otherwise regular mopping will eventually seep right down to your polished floors. I would not go past tiles, they can look quite elegant providing the colours can last through the times and not look dated in a matter of months, lol. Tiles equate no dust mites, no dog hair as it is a breeze to vacuum and no germs. Oh, btw...I promise I don't have any shares in some tile company, lol

I would never put tiles over floor boards in an old QLDer.

Better just to sell the house and buy a low-set modern house if you want a tiled floor.

[charli73]

Floorboards here and cork tiles in the kitchen area... With only one dog we dont notice the scratches thst much but Im sure theyre there...

If I were renovating would never get carpet with pets, one rug is filthy enough, would tile if I could..

[twodoggies2001]

At the moment we are living in a house with two mini schnauzers and polished floor boards. We will be moving into a newly built home where we have tiled the entire bottom floor just because of the dogs. There will be scatter rugs around for them to sit and lie on. Even though the polished boards look great. at first, I would never have them again. They scratch, and the maintenance to have them repolished is extensive. We need to have them done after just 2 years upon moving out, so they look presentable for the sale of the house.

[Abigail]

Mmmm, polished floors may look very stylish but they don't go hand in hand or should I say paw in paw with dogs, as the other posters have said, you will have a floor that looks like a serious game of snakes and ladders. Vinyl can be great BUT you have to be ultra careful when moving heavy furniture as it tends to drag and tear; tiles are the best by far....easy to clean and very hardy but make sure that the grouting has been sealed otherwise regular mopping will eventually seep right down to your polished floors. I would not go past tiles, they can look quite elegant providing the colours can last through the times and not look dated in a matter of months, lol. Tiles equate no dust mites, no dog hair as it is a breeze to vacuum and no germs. Oh, btw...I promise I don't have any shares in some tile company, lol

I would never put tiles over floor boards in an old QLDer.

Better just to sell the house and buy a low-set modern house if you want a tiled floor.

Hey Greytmate...you are right in saying that it isn't the greatest idea to put tiles over floor boards but it has been done

ample times in the past and need not prove detrimental providing that the grouting does get sealed on a regular basis but all in all, as you have said, it is best to buy a home that has a concrete slab and then proceed to lay tiles.

[mita]

We've got polished hardwood (original) floors in our Qld'er. They've stood up well to dogs, no doggie scratches. But our dogs haven't been heavy. Shelties & tibbies.

The shelties did find it difficult sometimes to get a grip on the polished flloor....especially as one of them aged.

But I found large cream cotton mats (in various shapes) which I laid down in the 'movement' tracks. Those mats easily wash in the washing machine.

The tibs don't have the same traction problem....I think their hare feet get a better grip.

[4 Paws]

to the people who have polished floor boards and have gotton scratches on them do your dogs stay in side a fair bit and do the run and play inside as well?

We are in the process of buying an older house that has ploished floor boards(not sure what kind of wood though)but our dogs(2 x gsd's and a foxie)mainly only come inside after dinner and just lay on their mats/crates.They don't run around or anything wild as they know if they can't keep quite they go outside so please tell me they won't damage the floors by just walking slowly on them as hubby will be dissapointed if they do any damage(he's not the biggest dog lover )

[murraydebbie]

They are hardwood floors, all from original. There is even polished floors in the two bathrooms and the kitchen. My 2 main concerns, I suppose, was firstly whether the timber damaged easily and secondly whether it affects the dogs with sliding around and not have a great deal of traction. I have cockers.

Edited April 18, 2010 by murraydebbie

[Erny]

I have polished floor boards (hard wood) in the family/lounge room, tiles in the wet areas. Carpet elsewhere. I have a considerably large decking area outside.

The floor boards will scratch. But IMO more importantly, they are slippery and if your dog is an active dog, it is easy to slip even going around corners at a trot. It bothers me that the 'splits' could be a possibility. I purchased rubber backed carpet from Clark Rubber and also bought a long strip of rubber matting for the outdoor decking area when I got my boy. This has prevented many an accident that could have done some damage (to the dog) if it had not been there.

My boy is pretty active (being young) but my previous avatar girl (Kal - bless her cotton socks) was considerably docile and 'measured' in her activity, so she didn't need all the covering, although for her I still had non-slip carpet pieces at corners as even she would slip from time to time.

ETA: My carpet is filthy. Was great when dainty Kal was around. But my current boy missed out on "dainty" when it was being passed around . I plan to one day have most of the carpet pulled up and in its place, lay tiles - something not too slippery.

Edited April 18, 2010 by Erny

[Adnil444]

We are renovating a queenslander that has the most beautiful polished floors that could be restored. Never having had polished floors before, not sure what damage dogs would do to the floor, hence our dilema.... keep the polished floors or go carpet/tiles/vinyl. Any suggestions.

Is it hardwood or pine?

How big and heavy are your dogs?

We have pine and the dogs have scratched them. Just a bit too soft for dog nails. The dogs are also in danger of slipping on the floor while playing and hurting themselves.

The enclosed verandah is hardwood, and it is not scratched, just scuffed.

My suggestion is that if you keep the floors, buy very large rugs.

I have the same situation. I wouldn't like to have carpet though with inside dogs - so much easier to keep clean etc. However if I had my time again, I'm pretty sure I would put down the vinyl that looks like floorboards. Tiles are hard on your legs if standing for long periods of time - like at the kitchen bench. Also if you drop things on tiles, they almost certainly will break.

Keeping dogs nails short is the answer to floorboards though.

[Jed]

I've had carpet - doesn't work.

Previous house was a colonial with the most beautiful polished original floors, a mixture of crows ash, brush box etc. Every dog hair showed, every footprint showed, and they did scratch the floors (medium sized dogs) and they slipped. If I put mats down, getting hair out of the mats was twice the work, and they simply skiied over the floor on the mats if I put cotton mats down.

I have tiles now, that's a winner.

If you must have polished floors, get a matt finish, not high gloss, or as someone else suggested, estapol them.

Having had both, I would tile over polished floors. Every single time.

Easy to care for, a good vacuum picks up most of the dirt and hair and the dogs can't damage the floor.

Not high gloss white though

[skip]

mY house has pine? floorboards. I used matt polish as the polish guy told me better 4 dogs.

Noticed a few scratches only in the hall way where they bolt outside to check out a person walking past in the park behind my place. Haven't decided about a hall runner for this reason cause it means a bit more vacuming.

Lived in a house tiled thru out except for the bedroom and the tiled floor was good and easy to clean. It is cooler on feet but I wear Ugg boots in winter so i did not care.

The house I brought had wood floors and cheaper to polish that to tile or cover. It was suuggested to put tiles or cork in kitchen but to just polih the whole house was easier. I can always re polish. Cost me $1600 to sand and repolish my smaller house anyway.

[RubyStar]

I've got polished jarrah floorboards and so far my dogs haven't done any damage. I was stressing they would, but a few months on and still nothing. But I don't let them play or run inside, so the most they might do that might scratch the floors is when they stretch, I hear the nails scrape a bit then :D

I love floorboards and my dogs by choice are inside dogs while I am home, so I am willing to risk my floors to have the floors I want and the company of my dogs! If you're the same, just keep the dogs nails short and be strict on what they get up to inside

[Zerofallen]

I know this is about timber floorboards, but is there anyone with timber laminate floors that can give a review? I've always heard that they're more durable than hardwood/softwood so am interested in how they fare with dogs.

Been thinking of tearing up the carpet eventually and going a timber laminate.

[Crazy Daisy]

I've moved more times than I care to think about :D I think I've had every floor type imaginable.

At my parents house we had polished gloss hardwood floors and a beautiful gold cocker. Her favourite past time was chasing a tennis ball down the main part of the house and then sliding and crashing into the couch at the end She loved sliding around corners and zoomies were very scary to watch. My mum had the floors redone every year because of the scratch marks. But it kept Bonnie happy so she kept doing the floors in gloss. ;) They are slippery and when they are gloss you also see water marks (like when she would come in from drinking and her ears would be dripping all over the floor!!) If you want to keep the floors I would go with a matt finish.

I've had carpet (never again).

I've had lino (scratches and I am not a real fan).

I've had tiles (for me they were a pain in the neck to clean, I also have kids and trying to get weet-bix out of the grout is a nightmare :D )

I currently have laminated timber floorboards (no scratches whatsoever, but..... They are porous so any little spills have to be wiped up straight away or they bubble. The dogs have mats in every room and you have to make sure that they are completely dry before they lay on the floor. I have a nice little bubbled patch where I hadn't dried my Shih Tzu's feet completely.)

That's my experience anyway.