[RowdysMom]

I would definitely get rid of the carpet. It doesn't matter how much you clean carpet it is still nasty dirty just under the surface and if you want to really be grossed out, take up your carpet yourself - it is a real eye opener and once you do it, you may not want to put it in your house again.

For anyone building a new house or a new addiiton to an existing house, you might consider staining the concrete - that's right - you put nothing over the concrete. It's a pretty new concept, and here in Texas, you see it in lots of the high end houses - you also see it in new stores like Walmart. I know it sounds bizare - but it's not. We built on a den, office and closet and the den has a western/American Indian motif and we stained the concrete floor a terra cotta color and it is absolutely beautiful. We did it ourselves and it only cost about $100.00 for the entire 800 square feet (we stained the office and closet the same color). I absolutely adore the concrete floor - in the heat of the Texas summers, it is so cool to put your bare feet on and the dogs just love it too. Of course, it is the same as tile in that respect. During the winter, you just put on house shoes to walk on it. You can also have a professional score the concrete and stain it different colores so that it looks just like tile. But that increases the cost considerably. Staining your concrete is not an option however, if you have had carpet, tile or something on top of it because to stain it you would have to sand down the concrete to get rid of all glue, etc. and that would cause a huge mess and be very costly. Anyway, I know concrete floors sound bizare, but I LOVE them! I have had 2 puppies and one old dog on the concrete floors and they have done everything imaginable (pee, poop, diarrhea, vomit - I know I'm gross - but trying to make a point) on the concrete and it has not caused one problem. I scrub it up with soap and water and then spray it with lysol!

We have hardwood flooring in the rest of the house and yes, it will stain if urine sits on it for a long time - but if you have a good topcoat of varnish/sealer, then the urine will not soak through immediately. Our older dogs have had some accidents on the hardwood floor and it has never stained (yet - fingers crossed). I thought I would miss my carpeting, especially in the winter and I have not missed it a bit, not one little bit. I'm so glad we got rid of that nasty carpet. There was tile in the kitchen and hall when we bought the house many years ago, and we recently put tile in the bathrooms. I will never never ever ever go back to carpet, unless I have no choice. I would think that laminate flooring would be an option, but I do know that it does chip because my daughter's laminate did chip - however, the newer heavy duty laminate (described above) sounds like it could hold up to almost anything.

Good luck with your decision!