New House - looking for everyones advice...

[xracer4844]

So we bought a new home that we will be renovating slowly. The whole main floor is ceramic tile - which I'm not crazy about. We plan on renovating the kitchen first with travertine floors and of course all new cabinets and we already purchased all new appliances. There are also big sliding glass doors to a fairly large deck. Down one step into the back yard. We plan on making a dog run at the side of the house. I want tile in the kitchen so that when our boy comes inside from the back yard it's easy to clean. The rest of the main level we want to replace the ceramic with laminate flooring. I've had all types of hardwood, refinished hard wood, engineered floors. Laminate seems to be really durable. We wanted something "hand scraped" and darker so that it hides hair and scratches. Upstairs is all hardwood in 3 bedrooms - which we will probably leave.

WHAT I WOULD LIKE FROM EVERYONE: I'm looking for ideas, knowledge, experiences you've had in your home especially related to your dogs. Things you've done differently. Things you love etc. We are doing some big renovations so before they start - I'd like ideas from everyone Finishes that have worked the best. Best floors for the dog(s). Everything and anything.

[voodoo]

I have nice tiled 18/12 inch floors in living/dining/kitchen and carpet in hallways/bedrooms/office. the problems i have are:

tiles are very slippery for dogs but dont mark/scratch. they are very durable and easy to clean.
I have 9x12 and 8x10 rugs in living/dining room. these help considerably and I probably couldnt own tile floors without area rugs.

the seem from the tile to the carpet in the hallway seems to take a beating from the dog running/jumping from tile to carpet. It is very high quality carpet, but I can foresee this area to be a trouble spot with the edge fraying in a couple years.

no issues with the carpet in any of the rooms

the area rugs(one handcrafted dyed persian and other machine made poly-whatever) are both holding up fine

I think tiles are less slippery than linoleum or hardwoods imo due to the texture of tile/grout lines.

dont know if any of this makes sense, but fire away question wise if I am confusing.

[beth101509]

We built our house October 2013 (pre-dog) and have hardwood floors. They are hand scrapped (?) wood floors. They are not as dark as I would like. The dog runs around on them like a maniac and I have yet to find a scratch so they are pretty durable floors. They are slippery though so he does go skidding across the floors quite a bit. The lighter colors show ALL his hair on the floor so that is my only negative. I think if they had been darker, they wouldn't show so much dirt/hair.

We also have tile on the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room floors. The only carpet in the house is in the bedrooms. Oliver seems to really like the cool tile/hardwood floors after he has been running around. He prefers to lay on those instead of the couch with us when he gets hot. Tile is less slippery for his feet than the hardwood but he can still slide on them when he really gets going. The tile seems to hide his hair/dirt a lot better than the wood floor.

[xracer4844]

I have nice tiled 18/12 inch floors in living/dining/kitchen and carpet in hallways/bedrooms/office. the problems i have are:

tiles are very slippery for dogs but dont mark/scratch. they are very durable and easy to clean.
I have 9x12 and 8x10 rugs in living/dining room. these help considerably and I probably couldnt own tile floors without area rugs.

the seem from the tile to the carpet in the hallway seems to take a beating from the dog running/jumping from tile to carpet. It is very high quality carpet, but I can foresee this area to be a trouble spot with the edge fraying in a couple years.

no issues with the carpet in any of the rooms

the area rugs(one handcrafted dyed persian and other machine made poly-whatever) are both holding up fine

I think tiles are less slippery than linoleum or hardwoods imo due to the texture of tile/grout lines.

dont know if any of this makes sense, but fire away question wise if I am confusing.

Thanks voodoo this is exactly the kinda stuff I'm looking for!!! In the research I've done - people say laminate flooring is extremely slippery when wet. Not sure if anyone else has had this experience. I like that the tile is durable...my problem with it is during Canadian winters...I feel like it will be really cold. Our living room as a big wood burning fire place though which I'm sure would warm that area of the house.

[xracer4844]

We built our house October 2013 (pre-dog) and have hardwood floors. They are hand scrapped (?) wood floors. They are not as dark as I would like. The dog runs around on them like a maniac and I have yet to find a scratch so they are pretty durable floors. They are slippery though so he does go skidding across the floors quite a bit. The lighter colors show ALL his hair on the floor so that is my only negative. I think if they had been darker, they wouldn't show so much dirt/hair.

We also have tile on the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room floors. The only carpet in the house is in the bedrooms. Oliver seems to really like the cool tile/hardwood floors after he has been running around. He prefers to lay on those instead of the couch with us when he gets hot. Tile is less slippery for his feet than the hardwood but he can still slide on them when he really gets going. The tile seems to hide his hair/dirt a lot better than the wood floor.

What color are your floors? Are they a laminate or hard wood?

[kimbersmom]

At our old house, we had really solid oak floors. Kimber spent her first 6 years in that house and I saw only a few scratches in that time, usually when she had her BFF over and the two would go crazy playing.

At our new house, we have hardwood floors but it's obvious the wood is not as high quality. Kimber's already scratched them mutiple times. Since her spinal injury, her back left leg is weak and sometimes she loses purchase and scrambles. (To help her, we do have a series of runners in her high-traffic areas.)

I like that the wood has tons of variation to it so that the dog hair doesn't show up that much.

Another issue: dog drool. At the old house, I was able to use the steam vac on the wood floors and that cleaned up the dried drool just fine. The builder of our new house did NOT recommend using the steam vac so now I have to get down on my hands and knees and use a Magic Eraser followed by a cleaning with Bona to get the drool tracks up. That's annoying.

I had a friend with a couple of German Shepherds who had laminate floors and hated how easy they scratched and also complained about the slippery-when-wet.

I wouldn't want tile in a cold-weather-climate, although I'm sure Kimber would love it. If I could do it over, I'd stick to hardwood but spring for some heavy-duty oak.

[xracer4844]

At our old house, we had really solid oak floors. Kimber spent her first 6 years in that house and I saw only a few scratches in that time, usually when she had her BFF over and the two would go crazy playing.

At our new house, we have hardwood floors but it's obvious the wood is not as high quality. Kimber's already scratched them mutiple times. Since her spinal injury, her back left leg is weak and sometimes she loses purchase and scrambles. (To help her, we do have a series of runners in her high-traffic areas.)

I like that the wood has tons of variation to it so that the dog hair doesn't show up that much.

Another issue: dog drool. At the old house, I was able to use the steam vac on the wood floors and that cleaned up the dried drool just fine. The builder of our new house did NOT recommend using the steam vac so now I have to get down on my hands and knees and use a Magic Eraser followed by a cleaning with Bona to get the drool tracks up. That's annoying.

I had a friend with a couple of German Shepherds who had laminate floors and hated how easy they scratched and also complained about the slippery-when-wet.

I wouldn't want tile in a cold-weather-climate, although I'm sure Kimber would love it. If I could do it over, I'd stick to hardwood but spring for some heavy-duty oak.

I was just talking to a friend that installs hardwood floors and he said a lot of the hardwoods are amazing at being durable. He said a lot depends on the quality and type of wood used. He suggested hand scraped and said any scratches the dog adds will just give them more character

He said he will be going to his supplier later today and will look to see what they have and get back to me.

[Snowshoe]

Hardwood isn't all equally hard. We have red oak and it is tough. It does have more open cells and a toenail catching in play could take a splinter out but probably only on a board edge. I do not allow crazy play and running in the house, the floors are refinished with a new super durable polyurethane and we are quite pleased. The flooring is even pretty resistant to the bits of gravel from our driveway that comes in on people's shoes.

Wood species for hardwood floors, Mirage hardwood floors

Unless laminate flooring has made great strides in the years, about 7, since friends put it down then it is slippery, especially for an older dog. Our friends also found it is not nearly as durable as well finished hardwood and once it's chipped or worn there's nothing to refinish, whereas hardwood is solid wood at least 3/8 of an inch thick or more.

We do not have ceramic but I think Oban would like it, he runs hot and it is a cool material. My friend made the mistake of putting ceramic tiles about a foot square in her entry and kitchen of wooden joisted floor over the basement. All the tiles where they walked the most have cracked. Apparently special underlay that will accommodate the flexing of the floor must be used and is beneficial even for smaller tiles. Every plate or glass her kids ever dropped shattered and it's noisy and cold.

[beth101509]

What color are your floors? Are they a laminate or hard wood?

Hard wood. We are close to a cherry color. I wanted a darker color and thought they were going to do another layer of stain but I guess they decided not to.

[beth101509]

I was just talking to a friend that installs hardwood floors and he said a lot of the hardwoods are amazing at being durable. He said a lot depends on the quality and type of wood used. He suggested hand scraped and said any scratches the dog adds will just give them more character

He said he will be going to his supplier later today and will look to see what they have and get back to me.

That is exactly what we have...hand scrapped hardwood floors. They are extremely durable. I have dropped all sorts of heavy stuff on them and nothing.