Rottie-Proof Flooring?

[SarasMom]

It's time for the old carpet to go. The question is, what kind of new floor covering? Of course it must be Rottie-proof, ;) and NO carpet, it's bad for my allergies. The number one choice is laminate flooring, but what kind? Anybody have Pergo? How does it hold up under Rottie claws? Any advice would be appreciated. :)

[moondog]

I don't have Pergo flooring YET, but when I was looking into it, I actually tried to KEY a sample of Pergo that was on display......I REALLY tried HARD to key it and...NOT A MARK!

My guess is that it's Rottie-Proof!! :D

[Teena]

I just went through this awhile back.
In my kitchen i have ceramic tile, & I LOVE IT! Clean up is easy & the dogs can't hurt the tile.
In my dining room my husband wanted real wood floors. I said NO WAY, the dogs would destroy the real wood floors. I did much reasearch on laminate flooring & different kinds. I can tell you this Pergo does not have a good track record as far as wear & tear goes. I've had more than one person say it didn't hold up well.
We finally narrowed it down to either Wilsonart or Uniboard.
We went with Uniboard, it's made in Germany and comes in commercial grade with a 25 year warranty.
We've had it done a few months now. We often play chase around the dining room table with the dogs. :) They slip & slide all over. hehe
We haven't noticed any problems with scratches & or anything.
Good Luck!

[Gryphon]

We are in the same situation right now, the carpet has to go but we don't know what we want in it's place.

We went to the store to check out the Pergo because one of our friends have it and we didn't even notice that it wasn't real hardwood until they mentioned it. We were quite impressed with it until we talked to the man at the store, he told us that the pergo floor system is a floating floor meaning it is not nailed down, just interlocked with itself. He told us that with two big dogs it would have a good chance of buckling and coming up it the dogs were to be running and do a sudden stop on the floor. We decided to pass on the pergo.

We are now considering real hardwood or ceramic tile.

[PAULA]

If you are not in to the wood look like me. designer tile is best. We have a design in white that has ripples so if there ever does come a scratch it will be un noticable. :p

[kevinaz]

concrete!!!! LOL just kidding, actually we have tile through our entire house and its great. like Teena said clean up is easy and the dogs can't hurt it. You must put a sealer on the grout to keep clean.

[Teena]

I wouldn't go with the real hardwood! Real wood is soft & dents & scratches very easily.
Also, ceramic tile comes in different grades. Make sure you get a heavy duty grade. I believe ours is grade 5. We've had that over a year with no damage.
Uniboard is a laminate flooring. Do your homework if you want wood look & choose a good quality laminate.

[ August 08, 2001: Message edited by: Teena ]

[RSQRottweiler]

We have a neat Formica pattern in the laundry room. . .looks like bricks/stone. The only problem I've found is that, because the tiles are right up next to each other, there is really nothing to provide the dogs with traction. Sebastian (13.5 months) went through a stage where he would walk into the room and be afraid to turn around to walk back out. He just stood there with a "Mom, help me outta this, would you?" look on his face. Although the Formica works great for that one room, I would go for something closer to a real "tile" that will give the dogs a fairly decent grip when they walk on it if I were doing the entire house. JMHO.

Audrey

[new2rotts2001]

We put a Wilsonart product on our family room floor a few years ago (prior to Clementine, but with other dogs afoot), and I have no complaints about scratches. However, (and the technology may have improved by now--this one is installed with glue) you have to be very careful about wetness (no spills or puppy accidents), and I find ours very difficult to maintain. Every drip-drop of slobber shows, and when I wipe the floor, every stroke of the mop/cloth whatever dries in place! We finally rented a floor buffer this past weekend, and the floor looked good for about 12 hours! We have hardwood in the kitchen, library, dining room and living room--I love it. It will have to be sanded again one of these days, but on the whole it holds up very well with minimum maintenance. I do worry about Clementine sliding around on all of these floors, however, because I have read that such activity/movement may contribute to joint problems down the road.

[alexav]

Personaly, I would rather have scratch marks than injured dogs.

Pergo and the like is WAY to slippery to be safe for dogs. And YES, it shows EVERYTHING!

We have had ceramic tile before but found it to be too brittle for heavy traffic so when we built our new house we opted for porcelain. It is SUPER! We picked a style with a slight "fossil" pattern that is a neutral color and although it is not rough, it's not slippery either and consequently, not dangerous.
The amount of dog hair and "stuff" that collects but doesn't show is amazing! I can get by with a quick sweep when guests are coming but with 4 slobbery dogs having the run of the house most of the time...I really need to mop at least once a week.

[Gizmo's Mom]

We have hardwood floors. They really haven't been much of a problem w/ scratches. Last summer we put down tile in our kitchen. Great...until 2 months ago when Gizmo hurt her hips, actually slipping on the hardwood. Now we are reduced to putting horrible carpet runners all over the hardwood and we must keep her out of the kitchen. Slippery surfaces can be so dangerous for an elderly dog or one with bone or joint problems . I now wish I had carpet everywhere and only had to worry about vacuuming 20 times a day

[SarasMom]

Thanks so much for all the helpful replies. Looks like I have a lot of homework to do. ;) Hmmm, maybe something in industrial grade would be appropriate. LOL :D

[alexav]

Originally posted by SarasMom:
<STRONG> Hmmm, maybe something in industrial grade would be appropriate. LOL :D</STRONG>

Porcelain IS considered to be industrial grade. Before the house was done, we visited while the finish carpenters were here. One of the men went to put his hammer in his tool belt and missed the loop. So basically, this hammer fell from a height of about three feet right on the tile floor! WOW! Not even a chip! We were quite impressed!

We've lived here now for 1 1/2 years and the floor still looks like new. I would recommend it to anyone with Rotties or teenagers that don't take off their rollerbades before they come in the house!

[Barbara Surplus]

Indian slate tiles...it's beautiful, indestructible, comes in many different colour combinations and it has a natural unevenness which allows the dog to grip to some degree. Needs to be sealed after installation but is so extremely durable you'll never have to worry about scratches and dents. Clean-up is very easy and because it generally comes in darker colours, dirt is hard to see. It can be pricey but if you're intending to stay in your house for a very long time, it might be something to look into.
Barbara

[JimmyDean]

We have laminate flooring in our living room. It's a Canadian version of Pergo. Although it shows paw prints (bare feet prints for us humans), one cleaning with the 'wax' and it's gone. My suggestion though is to make sure your dog doesn't bring his bones or anything heavy near the floor. We made the mistake initially of allowing Razor to eat his bones in the living room. The problem came when he was carrying a bone and then decided he didn't want it anymore--and simply dropped it. We now have 2 known damage marks in the flooring and who knows how many more that I haven't spotted. Since then, he's been relegated to his little carpet off the kitchen.

JD