Best dog and water resistant flooring?

I have a friend with _several_ Dobermans who used to have a fully carpeted house and did a lot of searching before deciding to go with full ceramic tile.

It has turned out to be an excellent choice, as the very occasional messes that they make are _easy_ to clean up.

Lewis.

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There is a downside here if any of your dogs are aged or infirm (or are likely to become such). One of my dogs has degenerative disk disease and sometimes can't keep his footing well on the tile.

I have a fully ceramic tiled house and many aquariums. It is imperative that you keep the floor free of water, drool, slobber, and anything else even halfway liquid, or you will fall flat on your ass- hard. And going barefoot in any of the above listed situation will guarantee you a serious fall.

And yes, the old dogs object strenuously and you end up filling the house with room sized rugs, which isn't half bad. I always considered them semi disposable.

If I had it to do over again I would get the roughest slate I could find.

'the wobbles'

I'm located in Ontario, Canada, which means it's cold for a good part of the year, so tile in the whole house wouldn't be a good thing ... plus I don't think my wife would like the look of a tiled living room and bedrooms. Whatever we pick I think it's gonna have to look like wood.

Thanks, Harry

P.S. Anyone ever heard of waterproof laminate? Seems to exist in the UK, but can't find anything in Canada.

Ceramic tile. The bonus is that the dog will learn very quickly he can't turn or stop very well on it when he's running...

How about some combination of products? Ceramic tile in parts of a room, wood or carpet in the rest.

Take a look at Wilsonart.com They have some of the best around.

If you want it to look like wood, you should use actual wood. Then put down about 9 coats of poly, and add mats of various materials in high-traffic areas.

"Harry Muscle" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

What size of dog do you have, and how often do you walk it/have it groomed.

If it is a heavy(ish) dog (lab-sized or bigger by my guess) that is consistently allowed to have longish nails, you will want to worry more about the finish you put on the flooring. You will want a lot of coats of something pretty resistant.

If you have a light dog or you ahve a dog whose claws are always cut/worn down to not touch the flooring, you don't need to worry as much about scratches.

We (my wife and I) have a miniature schnauzer/shih-tzu blend that is about

12 lbs. We have wood floors throughout the house, and after almost two years ahve seen very little effect on the wood floor. The people before us (1 year) had an Olde English Sheepdog, and therewere no scratches from him either.

I cant believe no one has said vinyl or linoleum sheet goods. Minimal seams, easy to clean and stand up well to all sorts of abuse. Softer than tile, no grout joints (which are harder to clean). And not too expensive.

I've heard this argument before about tile not being good in the winter but I don't buy it.

My logic tells me that the tile would be the same temp. as what you've set your thermostat to, just like the rest of the house.

Lewis.

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Logic and perception collide.

You are correct, they will be the same temperature. The problem is that you body is about 97 degrees and the floor is much less. Put your foot on carpet and you feel no temperature change. Put your foot on tile and if feels cold. Why?

On the carpet your foot is supported be a series of fiber and lots of air spaces between them. Your senses do not notice the temperature difference as there is little heat transfer. Put your foot on that smooth tile and you have a lot more surface contact with the skin. Since heat always transfer to the colder spots, the greater contact and material that acts like a heatsink, makes your body feel cold.

"Slick" tile comprises only a small fraction of the ceramic and porcelain tiles now available. We found a huge selection of tiles that have textures rough enough to overcome this problem, even when wet.

That said, footing-wise for dogs and humans, carpeting is the best choice. But it's not water-friendly.

Maybe a combo of tile and area rugs?

FurPaw

As someone who has wiped out on carpet, I can testify that it can be surprisingly slick and dangerous. I cannot think of one positive thing to say about carpet.

My all-time favorite flooring is wood, with area rugs for the dogs (or, as I used to refer to them: wrestlemania mats).

I think wood is about the best flooring surface for both humans and dogs. I have not found it to be particularly scratch-prone. What scratches *do* happen can be easily buffed out with a little stain-varnish combo.

As for the dog's nails, if they are clicking on the floor, they are too long and ought to be trimmed. Keeping the dog's nails short will go a long way toward keeping your floor scratch-free.

Well, there *is* a certain amount of upkeep with wood floors, if you want them to look nice.

That may well be what's going on with the OP's dog, but my experience has been that people just don't trim their dogs' nails frequently enough. It mostly seems to be a matter of ignorance and not of the dog having Bizarro Miracle Gro Nails[tm].

Do they bother her? Harriet had a couple of problem nails that bothered her. On one of her vet visits, I had them trimmed while she was under. From then on, I've shaved micro bits off with a trimmer, then used a rough emery board to finish them off.

Every home I've visited that had a combination of large dogs and wood floor, I've found to be scratched up. A friend of mine hasn't had a dog in years, but the gouges left by her Lab is still there on the floor.

So, when are you taking delivery of Pan? I've tried all sorts of things, including daily Dremeling, but that's one dog whose quick just refuses to shrink back. I've finally resigned myself to living with it instead of driving myself crazy over it. One of these days, I'll take pictures of her nails; they're mostly white and you can see the quick really well - promise they'll make you want to cry.

Suja