Hardwood flooring and dogs

[cannondale1]

Any way to protect hardwood floor from the little critters scratching it up?

[gretz]

keep their nails cut, area rugs...

[Tik-Tok]

You can try these little plastic things that you melt onto their nails, but I think most dogs will just chew them off (I know mine would)

As gretz said, just keep their nails trimmed, do it every 2 weeks and they won't be a problem.

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by cannondale1
Any way to protect hardwood floor from the little critters scratching it up?

No.

They will fuck it up. It's just how bad. Just put on a thick clear coat and maintain it often.

[barmanjay]

If you wanna protect the hardwood,.. lay laminate ontop ;)

[clem24]

well the first question is.. Is the hardwood already down or are you deciding whether or not get hardwood or not... I made the mistake of getting birch (one of the softest but also very pretty). I've got deep GOUGES everywhere. :cry:

[black_shadow_18]

i too put in birch flooring. its only 6 months old and you can see the wear very well, i have 2 seven pound dogs...

[quazimoto]

Brazillian Cherry is absolutely amazing when it comes to dogs. We have one 4 lb dog, one 15 lb dog and one 30lb dog with just normal wear and tear.

In fact I believe most cherry types woods have a much higher density and for that matter are fairly good with dogs. I mean if you have big 150lb beasts your still gonna be screwd.

[sputnik]

Just be prepared to replace all of the hardwoods before you expect to sell the house.

Dogs destroy hardwood floors unless they are small dogs.

[Tik-Tok]

You guys must all have some cheap ass hardwood or finish down. Previous owners of our house had 2 big dogs, and we have 1 medium size (who likes to scramble around a lot), and they never destroyed the hardwood. We just had it sanded and refinished because it hadn't been done in 30 years, but it wasn't because of claw marks, just normal wear from walking.

[sputnik]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok
You guys must all have some cheap ass hardwood or finish down. Previous owners of our house had 2 big dogs, and we have 1 medium size (who likes to scramble around a lot), and they never destroyed the hardwood. We just had it sanded and refinished because it hadn't been done in 30 years, but it wasn't because of claw marks, just normal wear from walking.

Old hardwoods like yours (installed and then covered in the thick layer of rock hard polyurethane) are much different than the pre-finished hardwoods installed today.

[clem24]

Originally posted by sputnik


Old hardwoods like yours (installed and then covered in the thick layer of rock hard polyurethane) are much different than the pre-finished hardwoods installed today.

It's probably also a different type of wood. My parents house has some Brazilian hardwood called macaranduba or something like that. One of the hardest you can get. My dogs are there everyday while I am at work. There's barely a scratch on theirs. Birch is one of the softest you can get. Heck, I dented it before I even moved into my house when it was brand new!!!

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by sputnik
Dogs destroy hardwood floors unless they are small dogs.

Big dog goes deep, small dog has tons of tiny scratches as they run around.

[alsinha]

For those with Birch hardwood and bigger dogs, how bad does the flooring get? Do you see scratches/dents if you look around for them or is it noticeably ugly as soon as you walk into the house?

[Kloubek]

Personally, in our new house we opted for tile to cover most of our main floor. Then the rest will be carpet.

But I presume you already have the floor, and the dog. So that isn't really a lot of help...

[quazimoto]

Well you will get scratches and dings in the hardwood naturally anyway so just don't worry about it. I mean if you have a 100lb active dog that is running around like crazy you can expect more scratches and dings than normal.

It also will greatly depend on the color of the wood. I swear in the dark colored hardwoods you can see the damage a lot more. It was for that reason we went with American Cherry in our new home.

The brazillian cherry in our current house though is pure gold, just the color isn't what we like.

[atgilchrist]

Originally posted by clem24


It's probably also a different type of wood. My parents house has some Brazilian hardwood called macaranduba or something like that. One of the hardest you can get. My dogs are there everyday while I am at work. There's barely a scratch on theirs. Birch is one of the softest you can get. Heck, I dented it before I even moved into my house when it was brand new!!!

This. I helped my mom put down some flooring in her place in Nanaimo, we took keys to the flooring sample and could barely leave a mark. But you have to pay for it, much more expensive than standard birch and oak.

[quazimoto]

Yeah you are looking in the $10 per SQ FT plus just for the wood price and that's getting a deal lol.

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by quazimoto
It also will greatly depend on the color of the wood. I swear in the dark colored hardwoods you can see the damage a lot more. It was for that reason we went with American Cherry in our new home.

The brazillian cherry in our current house though is pure gold, just the color isn't what we like.

Also, the glossier the finish, the more obvious the scratches. You can also have your floor refinished with a stain to change the colour.

Our floors are a combo of red and white oak (original hardwood from 1958), we could have stained it to look like pretty much any other type of wood we wanted, but liked the natural look. We also got semi-gloss so the new scratches wouldn't be as obvious.