Wall to wall carpeting VS hardwood floors

[Janie Doyle]

Right now in our house we have wall to wall carpeting. This Spring we are going to paint most of the interior of our house.

We have a 6 pack of Yorkies ranging from 3 to 12. Over the past 10 years there have been accidents on the carpet. My Husband wants to rip up all the carpeting because there is beautiful hardwood flooring inderneath the carpets.

I am undecided what to do . Are accidents on the wood floor very damaging. ? How do you protect the flooring?

Do you think we should just replace the carpeting or go with the hardwood floors. ???

Your opinion and tips are needed. Thanks

[bildio]

Urine can stain the hardwood. If you clean it up right away usually no problem.

If you darken the natural wood with a wood stain it's less of an issue.

With wall-to-wall carpeting you don't know what's happening to the wood, & it's hard to perfectly cleanup accidents.

[Critter]

I don't know about pee stains on hardwood floors but we recently put in tile throughout the house except the bedrooms because we got a new dog that has been a challenge to housebreak (so after training one and trying to train the other I had enough of cleaning up dogs urine from the carpets). I told my DH either the 2nd dog goes or we tile now (no one get offended by this statement because 1 we had talked about tiling for a while and 2 I would NEVER get rid of the dogs, DH just needed the push to do it sooner rather than later). Anyways we had the tile put in about a month ago and it is so much easier to find the accidents and clean them. I am so glad we did this. Also when they pulled the carpet up I was astonished how many pee stains the carpet really had and realized that we probably didn't really know how often Harley and Sam had actually peed on the floors. I am glad we don't have carpet (except bedrooms) anymore.

[Princes mom]

I love, love, love my hardwood floors!!! Go with hardwood, plus, if you decide to sell one day, hardwood is definately an upgrade. The only problem with hardwood and Yorkies is that you have to make sure the their feet pads and nails are trimed on a regular basis. When Prince's fur gets too long around his feet, he tends to slip. I don't want him to hurt himself, so I get his fur trimmed about once a month. He has never had an accident on the floor, thank goodness, but cleaning the floor is so easy. I dust mop every two days or so, and mop with Murphy's Oil Soap every Friday.
We do have carpet in our bedrooms, but in the kitchen, powder room and living room, it's hardwood.

[Martie]

I have hardwood floors, with three yorkies and two cats, I love hardwood!!!!! The carpet is just toooooooo hard to keep clean and odor free. Yes, we did rip out all the carpet in the house and I have never, never regretted putting in hardwood. Ditto on the keeping the toenails clipped.

[Cinq1964]

I can't wait till we get rid of all our carpeting! I put wood floors in the kitchen & living room and love it!!! I would not go back to carpet!

[piperlu]

I have mostly hardwood floors. I have carpet in all of the bedrooms. I think it's easier to clean up little accidents on the hardwood floors. Ours are stained a bit darker.

You do have to watch them when they're running through the house though. They slide easily.

[lil fu fu girl]

Loved hardwood floors. A lot easier to clean. Plus less allergy problems when you have hardwood; and when you live close to the floor like most yorkies, it is beneficial. Plus if you use house pads, it will be a lot easier to train them. Keep all the rugs out and just the pad till they are trained. I Miss My Hardwood!
Best of luck~

[txrosegirl]

but does spraying nature's miracle (or other enzyme cleaner) ruin hardwood? i will eventually be putting in hardwood floors (bamboo) but worry that cleaning up after accidents would ruin the wood

[emilyann]

Carpet is the most disgusting thing EVER... no matter if it's new or not. It grosses me out so bad. I refuse to go without socks or slippers no matter where I am... I won't even do it at my brand new apartment. I love hardwood floors and when we have our own house, that's what we'll have, no matter what.

[SweetViolet]

Have your hardwood floors finished with Verathane. You can choose satin or high-gloss. This is the same stuff they put on roller-skating rinks and it is impervious to EVERYTHING. I did the oak floors in a house in California in 1977 with Verathane and when I sold the house in 1990 the floors still looked like they had been freshly finished, even in the entry way. Plus, you can mop the floors with regular mopping solution...once Verathaned, the floors look beautiful, but can be treated like vinyl!

[TrevorForever]

I have hardwood and I clean and disinfect with my shark steam mop. No hazardous chemicals, no odor left behind......I love, love, love to clean my floors with steam

[roxies_mom]

I also have ripped up all carpet in the main part of the house. After years of raising kids and potty training animals it had to go. With Roxie being so difficult to potty train and allergy problems with some of us in the family I said no more carpet. We'd go visit my brother in Florida who has 3 dogs, 2 of which are yorkie-poo's and his house is all tile on the lower level. I was sold. How easy it is to clean up messes. They keep a baby gate at the stairs so the dogs can't go up to the bedrooms (all carpeted) unless someone is with them. Downstairs they have a slider door to the back yard with a doggy door in it and the back yard is fully fenced in with a 10 foot privacy fence. They don't even have fleas because he's eliminated alot of the trees that attract squirrels. I love his place it's a very easy place to be with dogs. Anyway...no more carpet for us exept in the bedrooms!!

[LuvMySissy]

Originally Posted by TrevorForever

I have hardwood and I clean and disinfect with my shark steam mop. No hazardous chemicals, no odor left behind......I love, love, love to clean my floors with steam

We have Pergo flooring, but ditto on the shark steam mop. I would also leave a few pee pads down, but as long as you get to it quickly there is no damage and no smell.

[Rosiegirl]

My hubby had his own hardwood install business. Our one room of carpet lasted one year and that room was also made to be hardwood. To maintain hardwood, you should clean it with vinegar water. It is WAY easier to keep clean, I wouldn't worry about scratches unless you have large dogs too and then I would trim nails regularly. New hardwood will allow you to re-finish the floors 3 or 4 times before there isn't much left to sand on, which should last 30-50 or more years if done right. There are 2 finishes you can use, Glitza or polyeurathane, (poly is less strong) There is also pre-finished, which is hard or near impossible to re-sand, raw wood is better, but messier to install. I would highly recommend hardwood, i LOVE mine, we have two boys and dogs and that is the only floor that will outlast our crazy family. I would think hard about installing it in the kitchen or bathroom though in case your dishwasher breaks while you are on vacation or something and water left for long periods on wood floors will cause it to cup up and need to be re-done, not fun! If you have any other questions about hardwood, P.M. me and i have much more info to share with you guys.


P.S. I trained several puppies and they all pee-ed on my hardwood and there is absolutely no smell or remains of these trainings on my hardwood, It is the best! Just always use vinegar/water to clean.

We have Brazillian Cherry 5' thick peices, it is beautiful, and we also have one room of distressed Oak-prefinished. (stained dark)