Floors & active wrestling labs

[KenZ71]

We are redoing our kitchen, don't know why it is only about 15 years old. But, happy wife means happy life

So, we can't decide on the floor laminate, tile, hardwood, linoleum?

Current floor is a nice cream colored tile. DW said it's gotta go. Found a nice sunflower print linoleum below the tile, tuck!

[doubledip1]

I hate tile. Hardwood all the way.

[ckfalz]

My sister has tile throughout the house. It works well with the dogs. It holds up well and is easy to clean. it is very hard though and so I have noticed when I visit that my dogs don't wrestle on the floor.

[barry581]

I put down laminate back in August at the recommendation of three different flooring stores. So far it's holding up well to the dogs. I really wanted to do hardwood, but the dogs toenails would tear it up. You may want to consider bamboo, it's very hard and I was told it would hold up to the dogs, I just couldn't seem to find one I really liked.

[smartrock]

We had hardwood in a kitchen in one house and it really took a beating just in general. We had a large dog, we had kids who had friends coming in and out, when they were teens or college age, one friend wore heels that the heel taps had come off and she walked around making divots in the floor from the nails or whatever was exposed on the ends of the heels. The bottoms of the chair legs abraded the floor. It was a gorgeous floor but over time did not hold up as well as something else would. Tile is hard and cold but I'd rather that than hardwood, personally. Plus, even though we put a waterproof thing under the water bowl, some water got under there and there was damage to the floor because it wasn't noticed in time.

[bett]

i have oak floors in the kitchen for the last 25 yrs. only redid them once and had 3 crazy labs. now 2 labs and very crazy frenchie. most comfy floor and clean with vinegar and water. easy.

[Snowshoe]

New finishes for hardwood are very, very durable. But then I only have one dog and when cousin Bonnie visits I kick them outside when they want to play. I do think if you came home to discover a big leak on your floor it would have seeped into the joints though, and then the floor would probably warp.

Real tile? In my sister's house it's cold, noisy, slippery and every single thing you drop on it breaks. Laminate is slippery and I fail to see how that thin layer of fake veneer can possibly stand up to real hardwood. Friends hate it for their old dog because they needed to put rubber backed carpet everywhere he wanted to walk.

[Annette47]

We have several different types of flooring throughout our house, so here are my thoughts.

We have hardwood through most of the house. We have had to refinish it once since we moved here in 1996, but it was looking pretty bad in the high traffic areas, particularly in the one spot where Scully used to lay (especially when she would come in wet from swimming and lay there). We had it stained darker and re-finished two years ago and so far it is holding up beautifully.
In the kitchen, we had vinyl floor (linoleum) from when we moved in until this past summer and I hated it. The finish wore off and it got lots of teeny-tiny dents from the dog toe-nails which trapped dirt. It didn't help that it was light colored and we have dark dogs. We replaced it over the summer with tile, which I love. It's a rough textured tile (kind of a fake stone look) and is not at all slippery. It's also a little darker than the vinyl was with swirls of darker "veins" running through so does a better job concealing the dog hair, LOL. It is hard and cold cold though.
In our finished basement, we put in laminate. Chloe's the only dog that ever goes down there, and not very frequently, but so far it appears to hold up to her similarly to the hardwood, but I don't know how it would be if it got more use and especially if it was exposed to liquids on a regular basis (like the kitchen floor would be).
And finally, in our family room, which is where the majority of the wrestling goes on, we have carpet. It really needs to be replaced, but I think we will always have carpet (or at least a HUGE area rug) in there as it is just much comfier for the dogs, kids, whoever to lounge around on.

[Marmot]

The laminate has held up here under 3 labs, now 2 labs toenails and paws, ceramic in the bathrooms...the tile is doing fine, but the off-white grout is another matter...yuck, I have to bleach it again! In the dining room we have hardwood, I can see very fine scratches from toe nails. We installed floating vinyl plank flooring, about 10 months ago, this is in the kitchen, and well, you know labs, they are always in the kitchen! The vinyl plank are the easiest to care for, it seems very forgiving of lab toenails, dropped cans and high heel shoes, it's waterproof and if, just if, you need to replace a piece it is very easy. Oh and some of our visitors thought it was hardwood! So it looks good too!

[KenZ71]

Thanks for the replies. The kitchen tile held up well during the 10 years we've been here.

I like hardwood for the visual beauty but not the risk of water damage. Also the potential of scratches from dog nails, kids dirty shoes, toys, etc.

Laminate scares me due to slip & fall risk for dogs & adults.

Tile sounds nice as it is indestructible. But slippery...

Hmm, flip a coin?

Thanks again!