# Hmmm Wood floors and goldens nails?



## Clhoie (Dec 16, 2008)

We're finally looking to buy a house in florida! and we're really loving the wooden floors in the houses... 
If anyone has wooden floors - Just curious whats the upkeep on scratches on the floor from their claws? Do the floors get ruined pretty fast?


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## Oaklys Dad (Dec 28, 2005)

Real wood floors get scratched up pretty fast by dog claws. Laminate floors hold up much better in my opinion. The slippriness of laminate can be a problem. You might want to think about some well placed throw rugs to give some traction.


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## I<3myGoldenRetriever (Nov 21, 2008)

My house has all wood floors down stairs & carpet up stairs. The floors have gotten scratched up, but not too bad. Bruce is mellow so he doesn't really run around like crazy. Although I will suggest a rug between the stairs and the bottom of the floor where you start going up stairs because when he runs or just goes down stairs he tends to slide. I learned that the hard way, because before the rug, he came down stairs & the transition from carpet to wood, had him sliding.


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## Finn's Fan (Dec 22, 2007)

I consider dog claw marks in my floors the patina of a good life


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## jwemt81 (Aug 20, 2008)

We made the huge mistake of getting rid of our Pergo and installing new maple hardwood floors last year. I couldn't believe how quickly they got scratched up by our cats and dogs. It seemed like as soon as they were installed, they were ruined. They looked horrible. There was no point in refinishing them since they would just get all scratched up again. We finally tore them all up in July and installed a scratch-resistant cherry laminate. I only wish we had done that in the first place. They still look brand new after 7 months and they don't have a single scratch anywhere on them. They stand up so well to the dogs and cats running and sliding on them. Hardwood floors are nice...if you don't have pets. I absolutely love our new laminate and will never go back to regular hardwood. Tile is also really good if you have pets. We have ceramic tile in our entry way and bathroom and I love it.


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## annef (Feb 23, 2008)

I have an oak engineered hard wood floor in the living room and although it does have some claw marks on it they are difficult to see and it still looks fantastic. We have 7 dogs in every day and it has been down over 2 years. We also had a solid hardwood floor in our last house and that seemed to scratch more. We had laminate in the kitchen when we moved in and it was far too slippery for the dogs but it looked good and didn't mark. Annef


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

I had new oak flooring installed about 3 years ago and have had up to 5 dogs living here. The floors are scratched, yes, but not so badly that I need them screened or refinished yet. The most scratches were created by my sisters dogs who don't have their nails done regularly.

My 3 goldens tear around the house but their nails are done at least once a week with a dremel. BTW, the original oak flooring lasted 50 years with dogs.

I do have a brother who installed Pergo and ripped it back out in a month or so since it was cold and hard - he went back to real oak flooring.

Oh - I would add that I also had tiles put in all the entry ways - wet golden feet did more damage than golden claws in these areas. The tiles with area rugs and toweling their feet really help.


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## Dallas Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

We've gone through so many flooring options because of the dogs my head is spinning. 

At one point we placed "engineered" wood on the floor and it was disastrous. We pulled it up from the wet areas (kitchen, utility and our entry foyer) and put travertine tile in which worked out so much better for us. The dogs' claws and tags on their collars ruined the engineered stuff. 

Fast forward to this year. Our master shower sprung a leak, covered by insurance (yay!), and the leak damaged a small part of the engineered floor we still had in the bedroom. Insurance totalled the floor and we were able to get it replaced with something our contractor and the floor company "assured" us would stand up to dog scratches and could be repaired easily--we'll see....it was real hardwood, hand scraped and stained on site with 4 coats of varnish on top. We chose a mild hand scrape, though the heavy scraping is supposedly better for doggie damage. I can't tell you how it is working out because last night was the first night we were able to walk and sleep on it (first good night's sleep in 5 weeks!!). 

My recommendation is try the flooring, add lots of rugs, and if it doesn't work think about re-tiling in high traffic areas. 

Congratulations on the upcoming house purchase. It is so exciting!


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## Ranger (Nov 11, 2009)

I've seen toe caps at pet stores you can glue on dog nails to prevent scratching, but that seems time consuming and I'm not sure how long they'd last or how effective they are. My dad's rental property had wood floors that are absolutey ruined due to a high energy lab that used to tear around inside. The finish is completely gone in (big) spots and the floors look awful. (That same dog is now living outside since her owner moved to a fancy mcmansion and the owner doesn't want HER floors ruined. Poor dog.) My parent's hard wood floors have seen two dogs, two cats and two kids over the span of 15 years and they still look great. Scratches in some places (from the cats screeching around the corners) but the wood is really light so you can hardly see them. Really depends on the activity level of the dog(s) inside the house, I think.

Reminds me when I brought my dog over to my now ex-boyfriend's mom's impeccably clean house. I had just gotten Ranger so wasn't sure how he'd behave in (another) new place and boyfriend's mom's house was always beyond clean. In preparation, I had Ranger's nails trimmed so he wouldn't click/scratch on the hardwood, had a leash on him the whole time and everything was perfect. Until we left and bf's mom told bf that she'd appreciate it if I didn't bring my dog over again since he had left dusty pawprints on the hardwood! Yeesh.


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

We have our original oak hardwood. Our house is 50+ years old. However, the wood floors were covered in carpet for years before we ripped it up and refinished almost 30 years ago. I LOVE them.. They aren't the spit-shine new look.... more distressed and weathered which goes well with our casual furnishings and life style. We do have carpeting the guest room and family room, tile in the entry and kitchen.


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## Lestorm (Feb 25, 2007)

annef said:


> I have an oak engineered hard wood floor in the living room and although it does have some claw marks on it they are difficult to see and it still looks fantastic. We have 7 dogs in every day and it has been down over 2 years. We also had a solid hardwood floor in our last house and that seemed to scratch more. We had laminate in the kitchen when we moved in and it was far too slippery for the dogs but it looked good and didn't mark. Annef


 
Sorry anne for appearing foolish, but what is a 'engineered wooded floor'? We have several floors that we want to change and wood really is the way i want to go.


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## BeauShel (May 20, 2007)

This website has great information on the differences between laminate, engineered hardwood floor and regular wood floor. We have Bruce engineered hardwood flooring. My four dogs and 3 cats have not damaged it at all but I have. It is very tough and so easy to clean. 
http://www.builddirect.com/Engineered-Hardwood-Floors/Engineered-Hardwood-Flooring-FAQ_8804.aspx


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## annef (Feb 23, 2008)

It is a wood floor that is manufactured like laminate but has wood on the top instead of laminate. Ours was made by 'Khars' I think and we bought it through John Lewis. We had to have this instead of solid wood because our house was built in 1948 when there was a shortage of materials and they put an oil based waterproof on the floor. Long story but eventually that had to come up! If you are in this area and want to see what it looks like you are very welocme to come for coffee!! Annef


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## Muddypaws (Apr 20, 2009)

Depends on the wood, if it's Ash, your in trouble. I put down Ash in two rooms and the hallway about 10 years ago - the hallway is ok but the rest are a mess. They need to be either refinished or replaced. I put in hand scraped Oak i the rest of the house ~2 years ago, they are doing fine. 

I am either going to replace the ash with the oak or ceramic tile. The tow rooms are the kitchen and family room (with slider to deck the dogs use).


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## Stircrazy (Nov 30, 2009)

we are looking at replacing our carpet in the hall, front and dinning rooms with hard wood and after a lot of reading and looking I have found there is two very good options for people with dogs. it is all in the finnish, any varathain, ect is going to scratch, but you can get an oiled finnish or what they call a hard wax finnish. these scratch also but are very easily repaired very quickly by either adding a bit of oil and buffing, or by waxing the dammaged area and buffing. the down fall is it is usaly only available on the higher end hard woods so it costs more.

Steve


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## MurphyTeller (Sep 28, 2008)

I have oak floors downstairs and a softer pine upstairs. I had the floors refinished when I moved in 10 years ago. I have two dogs, keep their nails pretty short (no clicking in this house) and the floors look like new still. I did have 5 coats of water-based urethane applied when I had the floors refinished and we all stayed off the hardwood for 10 days (before we moved in) and then only on towels/area rugs for another week after that.

The one place where the urethane is scratched is a corner where the cat likes to fly around a corner - he moves the rug and the rug is scratching the finish on the floor...

Erica


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## WLR (May 11, 2008)

Don't know if you want a wood floor in Fla. Termites. Big problem from what I understand.


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