# Hardwood Floors that hold up to a big Golden?



## MommysBears (Sep 26, 2011)

Our carpet is 10 years old. My husband tried to clean it again this morning and said enough, we have to get something different. It's just disgusting the amount of dirt it collects. 

Does anyone have recommendations on hardwood floors (a type of hardwood?) that holds up to goldens? We have a faux hardwood floor - maybe pergo in our foyer and it is loaded with scratches. 

Thanks!


----------



## dezymond (May 3, 2012)

I personally have bamboo hardwood floors and I can tell you they don't hold up well to a Golden, or any other impact for that matter. Looks nice, but if I had to choose again it wouldn't be bamboo, just too soft.

Try taking a look at hardwood laminate. I just helped redo my uncle's house with it and it looks very nice. It doesn't look as cheap as I thought it would and has a bit of elegance to it. I believe I saw some scratch resistant ones as well. Lasts a long time and it's easy to clean.


----------



## mikeyw09 (Oct 21, 2012)

do not get engineered hardwood! (basically real hardwood floor on the top layer and filler underneath) ours has scratched up so much. honestly I would probably just do cheaper laminate but that's just me...I have a feeling dogs have a way of messing up any floor so why spend a bunch of money for it to get ruined? I would just re do it before/if you sell the house


----------



## goldensrbest (Dec 20, 2007)

Don't go with the fake stuff, real oak hardwood floors, tile is best for dogs, easy cleanup.


----------



## mudEpawz (Jan 20, 2011)

i opted for laminate, while my parents went for real hardwood. They ended up putting runners all over their house to protect the floor from the dogs. I have no scratch marks and dont have to worry about covering up the floor. i went with a higher grade of lamaniate and most of my friends and neighbours were shocked to hear that it was actually laminate


----------



## TheZ's (Jun 13, 2011)

Real oak with multiple coats of polyurethane finish has held up well for us. We also have experience with pine flooring. . . much softer and shows the scratches. There have been some other threads on this in the past.


----------



## Wyatt's mommy (Feb 25, 2011)

Stone floors that color coordinate with your dog. That's what we did


----------



## bioteach (Nov 13, 2010)

We have real hardwood (oak) and it has held up remarkably well. At some point we'll have it sanded and refinished but that is because it was 15 years old when we bought the house. That is the real advantage of the "real" thing - it can be fixed up without replacing it. 

One consideration however..... Nugget does have some issues with traction on the hardwood. He has become quite good at coasting into a slide so that he doesn't crash into the wall at the end of the hall!


----------



## Ninde'Gold (Oct 21, 2006)

My moms house has laminate hardwood floors. The previous owners had a large Husky and there's no scratches.

Over the past 6 years there's been a Golden and a Pit Bull running on them with no scratches.


Seem like they're pretty tough floors to me!


----------



## BajaOklahoma (Sep 27, 2009)

We're getting distressed light-colored, hardwood floors at the lake in the next year or so. The lighter color with help hide any marks, as will the distressed look.
Expensive, but we can refinished 2 or 3 times before they need to be replaced....


----------



## LibertyME (Jan 6, 2007)

does the sound of walking on laminate bug anyone else...? It drives me crazy.


----------



## DanaRuns (Sep 29, 2012)

I have laminate floors and...

1. I have no idea what sounds LibertyME is talking about.

2. Not a single scratch with three dogs (two of which are Goldens)

3. The biggest problem is that the old dog (12 y/o) had a little trouble with the floors being so slippery on his pads; however the young dog (2 y/o) "surfs" them just fine.


----------



## Sammy&Cooper (Dec 28, 2011)

we have laminate floors all throughout the house (with 2 goldens and a husky) we have no scratches and its very easy clean up. 
my cousins house has the most beautiful dark hardwood floors (can't remember exactly what kind) that is full of scratches from his Boston terrier.


----------



## Pointgold (Jun 6, 2007)

We replaced all of our carpet with Acacia wood floors. This wood is 74% harder than oak, and is gorgeous. We have at any given time, 4 or 5 dogs in the house and these floors are bullet proof. My only regret is that we waited so long to do this! And we put slate tile in the kitchen/breakfast nook. LOVE how they look, and clean-up is a breeze. With having Pointers, I do sweep daily (big deal - takes 5 minutes) and I vaccum at least once a week, but I have been accused of being a "neat freak" so it's nothing new. I did invest in a new vaccuum cleaner which does a fantastic job on wood floors and has a seperate piece for carpet (we have area rugs, and do have carpet in the bedrooms.)
I will tell you that you do NOT want to be there when carpet is ripped up and removed - you will be absolutely disgusted to see what you actually were living with, no matter HOW clean you keep things! :yuck:


----------



## A1Malinois (Oct 28, 2011)

We have real oak in our house its been here for 20 years and it looks really well. When we bought the house we had to kinda refinish the hardwood but now that its got a few coats of that poly stuff it looks really well for its age. We have all tile in the house except a bed room in the basement is that old square wood tile things and the living room upstairs which is the oak hardwood as well as the hallway/bedrooms. We had Pine in our old house just a small section and when they snuck in there (they werent allowed in the very small section of pine was maybe 25 by 50 feet) you could see the scratches. We had laminate in the basement living room and it held up fine.


----------



## Dallas Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

We replaced some tile floors with a laminate hardwood--huge mistake and we were very unhappy with it. Our dogs managed to scratch it up pretty well. Our master shower pan leaked and ruined a tiny area of the wood in our bedroom, which was our motive to take the insurance settlement and apply towards real oak, distressed with several coats of polyurethene finish. We are very happy with it, and we also replaced some high traffic areas with travertine stone that matches a Golden Retriever's fur color. Now I vacuum when I see Texas size tumbleweeds go by.


----------



## Pointgold (Jun 6, 2007)

FYI - we purchased the product (acacia wood - "Tobacco Road") at Lumber Liquidators. I actually went in expecting to go with hickory (another very hard wood...) but when I saw the Acacia I was in love - at Lumber Liquidators their floor is made up of sections of their product and my eye immediately went to the acacia and I had to know more about it... A friend of my oldest son specializes in flooring installation so we had him do it. He is an artisan and did a really cool threshold transition to tie together the older tile in my mudroom to the new tile in the kitchen.(I could not do the same tiles but now I am actually happier with the results...) He laid down stones that we got from my BIL and SIL, and also Daniela, that they'd polished themselves... and we included a Petoskey stone which has special significance to me because of my late best friens. 

It's all so durable, and easily cleaned, and makes living with multiple dogs a breeze.


----------



## BriGuy (Aug 31, 2010)

Of the common hardwood floors, maple is the hardest, then white oak, and then red oak, with pine being softest. If you go to a flooring dealer, you can find harder woods than any of those - it kind of depends on your budget. 

We have a lot of white oak, and if you keep the nails short, and put throw rugs down, it should be OK. You'll see scratches, but if you view them as "adding character" you won't feel bad.


----------



## BriGuy (Aug 31, 2010)

Pointgold said:


> FYI - we purchased the product (acacia wood - "Tobacco Road") at Lumber Liquidators. I actually went in expecting to go with hickory (another very hard wood...) but when I saw the Acacia I was in love - at Lumber Liquidators their floor is made up of sections of their product and my eye immediately went to the acacia and I had to know more about it... A friend of my oldest son specializes in flooring installation so we had him do it. He is an artisan and did a really cool threshold transition to tie together the older tile in my mudroom to the new tile in the kitchen.(I could not do the same tiles but now I am actually happier with the results...) He laid down stones that we got from my BIL and SIL, and also Daniela, that they'd polished themselves... and we included a Petoskey stone which has special significance to me because of my late best friens.
> 
> It's all so durable, and easily cleaned, and makes living with multiple dogs a breeze.


I really like that acacia flooring. I will be filing that away for a future project. Thanks!


----------



## Penny & Maggie's Mom (Oct 4, 2007)

Laura, LOVE that acacia flooring. We have the original oak hardwood in our living room, hall and 2 bedrooms. It has a naturally distressed look that I love. I can't tell you the number of people who comment on the beautiful floors. We're in the midst of tiling the entry and kitchen. Carpet will remain in one bedroom and the family room.


----------



## Willow52 (Aug 14, 2009)

We have solid prefinished natural red oak hardwood floors in our kitchen, foyer, great room and hall. We bought it at Lumber Liquidators, it's Bellawood brand. I love it, easy to clean and is holding up well with an active Golden. The only problem we had was with heavy bones, they can dent the floor when dropped if there is a sharp edge. DH has outlawed them indoors.


----------



## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

The high-end newer laminates are so incredibly hard that I've heard they don't show scratches.

The other option is a well-finished hard hardwood.


----------



## Pointgold (Jun 6, 2007)

BriGuy said:


> I really like that acacia flooring. I will be filing that away for a future project. Thanks!


 
Thank, we love it, too. The Dogfather cannot/will not say no to the dogs, so even with them tossing around large chew toys, including elk antler cuts, this floor _does not scratch_. I take them away after a while simply because of the noise!


----------



## Dexter12 (Feb 10, 2012)

Right now our kitchen floor are vinyl but we're going to have to replace them soon, and we keep having the same discussions what wood would surivive our Dexter.


----------



## Pointgold (Jun 6, 2007)

Penny & Maggie's Mom said:


> Laura, LOVE that acacia flooring. We have the original oak hardwood in our living room, hall and 2 bedrooms. It has a naturally distressed look that I love. I can't tell you the number of people who comment on the beautiful floors. We're in the midst of tiling the entry and kitchen. Carpet will remain in one bedroom and the family room.


 
Thank you. We are really pleased. The acacia that we got is hand scraped and has a wonderful texture that feels great underfoot. And given the abuse that it takes with multiple dogs, people, living in a meadow and having very sandy soil, plus my propensity to move furniture around frequently, I cannot find a single scratch!


----------



## lgnutah (Feb 26, 2007)

When we moved into our home there was carpet in almost every room (house built 1960 with hardwood and wide pine floors, but someone remodeled in the mid-70's and put gold and orange carpeting in almost every room--bleccch).
Thankfully, we have pulled up all the carpets and restored the original flooring. The pine floors do show dents from Brooks' nails but they are stained and polyurethaned so you can't see the wood underneath. I don't think he leaves any scratches at all on the red oak floors, and in some parts of the house, they are the original floors (never have been refinished).


----------



## pandamonium (Apr 18, 2012)

Krys! said:


> i opted for laminate, while my parents went for real hardwood. They ended up putting runners all over their house to protect the floor from the dogs. I have no scratch marks and dont have to worry about covering up the floor. i went with a higher grade of lamaniate and most of my friends and neighbours were shocked to hear that it was actually laminate


Which brand...and type?...:wave:


----------



## mudEpawz (Jan 20, 2011)

whispered memories said:


> Which brand...and type?...:wave:


I dont remember the brand/type off hand just the store I bought it from. I'll dig up the receipt tonight and post it when I get home. In the meantime, this is what the floor looks like


----------



## mudEpawz (Jan 20, 2011)

n/a duplicate post


----------



## SheetsSM (Jan 17, 2008)

LibertyME said:


> does the sound of walking on laminate bug anyone else...? It drives me crazy.


Yes! It sounds completely different than hardwood.


----------



## Dexter12 (Feb 10, 2012)

lgnutah said:


> When we moved into our home there was carpet in almost every room (house built 1960 with hardwood and wide pine floors, but someone remodeled in the mid-70's and put gold and orange carpeting in almost every room--bleccch).


We had blue and burnt orange shag carpeting. EWWWWWW :doh:


----------



## JayBen (Aug 30, 2012)

SheetsSM said:


> Yes! It sounds completely different than hardwood.


Laminate or Pergo flooring is a free floating floor that basically just clicks and locks together and thats it. Solid hardwood is Nailed down...you wont have that hollow noise as you walk.


----------



## Willow52 (Aug 14, 2009)

Dexter12 said:


> We had blue and burnt orange shag carpeting. EWWWWWW :doh:


We had black & orange shag carpet (with orange open-weave drapes) in our house in the 70's. Very stylist then


----------



## Dexter12 (Feb 10, 2012)

haha I bet


----------



## eslucky (May 10, 2012)

Wyatt's mommy said:


> Stone floors that color coordinate with your dog. That's what we did


LOL. That's exactly what we did. Hides the dog hair and most dirt!


----------



## MommysBears (Sep 26, 2011)

Pointgold said:


> We replaced all of our carpet with Acacia wood floors. This wood is 74% harder than oak, and is gorgeous. We have at any given time, 4 or 5 dogs in the house and these floors are bullet proof. My only regret is that we waited so long to do this! And we put slate tile in the kitchen/breakfast nook. LOVE how they look, and clean-up is a breeze. With having Pointers, I do sweep daily (big deal - takes 5 minutes) and I vaccum at least once a week, but I have been accused of being a "neat freak" so it's nothing new. I did invest in a new vaccuum cleaner which does a fantastic job on wood floors and has a seperate piece for carpet (we have area rugs, and do have carpet in the bedrooms.)
> I will tell you that you do NOT want to be there when carpet is ripped up and removed - you will be absolutely disgusted to see what you actually were living with, no matter HOW clean you keep things! :yuck:


Wow, I love your floors! How is the slate put together? Does it have grout like tile? We have tile in the kitchen and bathrooms and in the kitchen it's disgusting. The grout attracts everything. We had a color sealant put on two years ago and it's already coming off.


----------



## GeorgiaOnMyMind (May 4, 2010)

BajaOklahoma said:


> We're getting distressed light-colored, hardwood floors at the lake in the next year or so. The lighter color with help hide any marks, as will the distressed look.
> Expensive, but we can refinished 2 or 3 times before they need to be replaced....


 If the distressed is extra, get normal and the dog will make it distressed in no time :uhoh:


----------



## Visitador (Aug 12, 2011)

Real oak hardwood floor.


----------



## Pointgold (Jun 6, 2007)

SheetsSM said:


> Yes! It sounds completely different than hardwood.


 
Feels entirely different, as well. We considered laminate. But once we decided that we were going to stay in this house forever, we decided to go with what we really wanted - hardwood. I did a lot of homework as far as what to get. Thought I had it all figured out until I saw that acacia on the floor at Lumber Liquidators  Had to do more homework, fast! Turns out to be a great choice with dogs.

We keep nails short for several reasons, and actually use a dremel on them, so the noise from the dogs feet is minimal (excluding them thundering through like a herd of bison...)


----------



## cubbysan (Mar 13, 2007)

We just put porcelin tiles down in our bathroom that looks like aged wood. It has a lot of texture, so it shouldn't be slippery. I think I like the look better than the pergo we had. They are long strips like hardwood. I can't remember what it is called, but the flooring guy said this is the new thing everybody is using.

My hardwood floor was only refinished three years ago, is so worn out already in the heavy traffic areas.


----------



## cubbysan (Mar 13, 2007)

DanaRuns said:


> I have laminate floors and...
> 
> 1. I have no idea what sounds LibertyME is talking about.
> 
> ...


On the pergo I had a gsd, a great pyr, and raised Brady on it. No scratches, was easy to keep clean, but my 13 year pyr did have trouble walking on it his last year.


----------



## MommysBears (Sep 26, 2011)

Finally got our last quote today. This guy is pushing either laminate or bamboo. Well, it turns out we didn't have many options since we're on a concrete slab. It took a lot of quotes before someone finally said, you have to find a product that can be glued down or floats. So, I'm worried about the bamboo scratching and my husband is worried the laminate will look cheap and make our home harder to sell down the road.


----------



## Lil_Burke (Aug 14, 2010)

We have oak hardwood on the main floor. Our house is 2 years old (we built it). The floors look at least 5 years old from scratches. We have walnut laminate downstairs in the basement and there is not a single scratch (that I can see!).

We now say when we build our next house we will put laminate throughout. Even though laminate is considered 'cheaper' than hardwood, as long as we have dogs we will have it.


----------

