Our house is currently covered in carpet. We have a dog who sheds and has occasional accidents in the carpet. I'm debating whether or not to switch to hardwood floors. I would like to to the floating because of cost. Does anyone have advice? Should I stick it out with carpet? Is wood that much easier?
We had an English Bulldog that shed. Shows up good on carpet. We installed a hardwood floor by ourselves and it was easier to clean. Couple of things to consider. A large dog will have a tendancy to scratch the surface after a while of the wood floor. Especially a cheap wood floor. Things like the fake wood with plastic on top last a couple of years. Also, older heavier dogs tend to slip and have trouble standing on the slick hardwood.
I like the hardwood but with your dog lays the question. Unless you clean the mess up quickly the boards will soak up btween seams and will raise at that location. Been there done that. Buy and extra package of flooring for replace. Hardwood with small area rugs work the best, you can wash the rugs
We have 8 animals in the house. Pergo-floatin floors or hardwood floors are the only way to go. So much cleaner than carpet, although, I do have to sweep everyday. Carpet just holds onto the hair. It is real hard to keep it clean with animals in the house.
Everyone has given you good answers. We've had young labs, old labs, hardwood, carpet and laminate. Right now, we're on carpet, and wishing we would have stayed with hardwood and area rugs. As someone mentioned, the pee smell is almost impossible to remove from carpeting. You can use relaitively inexpensive area rugs which are easy to clean or replace. Your dog will probably have his/her accidents on the area rugs simply because of they provide traction while the dog is trying to go. The plastic laminates are very tough, and don't dent or scratch from the dog's nails like wood can, but most are less water resistant than wood, and are damaged by moisture more than wood. It's all really personal preference for which product weakness you want to put up with.
Hardsurface flooring would be better to have than carpet especially if you have pets around the house...not only are they earier to clean, they are much more hygenic. Carpets will accumulate dust and promote molds that can cause respiratory problems for the those who live there, and those who come to visit. Since carpet absorbs liquid, the smell of pet's urine won't be that easy to remove from it. I've encountered people who have been trying to get rid of the smell of pet urine even after a month that the carpet has been taken out... it costed them a lot of time, money, and effort jsut to get the bad smell out. The more if uric acid has affected the subfloor (even concrete), you cannot just lay another flooring on top as the smell would still permeate throughout the house. If you are to do a floating hardwood floor, apply a water-proof adhesive (like Bruce Everseal) at the tongue and groove so that even dog pee wouldn't seep through the cracks. Damages will occur if it happens as the liquid will not evaporate, thus the boards can warp. I am unsure how big your pet is but choose floors that are with aluminum oxide finish, they help prevent scratches. There are certain wood floors that are with a high janka rating (or hardness rating) which would be harder to dent as well... mostly are exotics that can be almost 3x as hard as White Oak. It is advisable that you also trim your pet's nails regularly:) Always remember that if you'd plan to re-sell your house in the future, hardwood floors will always increase its value.
