Anyone replaced carpeting with hardwood because of dogs?

[Sugar's Mom]

Originally Posted by bornnygurl

I wonder: Does the vinyl become worn like hardwood requiring a lot of preventative methods (treating the floor). My husband and I were talking about getting hardwood in our future home, because of the accidents from our other dogs and allergy problems but now I'm thinking vinyl would be better. I would love to see the thread you are speaking about......*going to search*

No the vinyl doesn't require anything but mopping. If you go with it, make sure you get the higest quality you can afford. It is guaranteed like twenty years. That is what you see in most of my pictures I put on here. The post was back in late Feb and early March

[Pattie]

Originally Posted by cinnamonmon

Next time I will do things differently, but none of my 3 dogs are very well potty trained. We take them out every 2 hours (none are puppies) but they still have accidents. They have ruined my carpet and I need to replace it. I like the warmth of carpet but with 3 dogs it is unsanitary and I am spending a fortune on carpet cleaning, so am thinking of getting either hardwood or laminate. I pulled up the carpet in my bedroom a year ago and they have only had one accident in there since then, so Im hoping with the carpet gone they will stop. So for anyone that has done this, did it help...did they stop, or would I be wasting my money ? Thanks for the help.
Laura

Yes it helps and no you wouldn't be wasting your $$
Also you might want to consider using washable chucks in a corner of a room, they may go on that in between visits outside and stop p-ing on your carpet. Mine did

[IluvLucy]

When I bought my house in March, it was fully carpeted. In October I had the living room/dining area/ and hallway pulled up and replaced it with hardwood laminate. The only carpet now is in the bedrooms.

I don't regret it a big!

[peanut]

I replaced all my carpet with hardwood but one room, my bedroom, cause I wanted it warm when I got out of bed...mistake, they love to pee in there, so now I am pulling it up and thinking about putting ceramic tile down...Its not a waist of money, they use there pee pads great on the hardwood, carpet is another story....

[keri1973]

my hubby and i have been doing the research on the armstrong laminate and will prob get it soon. dang its expensive though.....

[txshopper73]

Our carpet was ruined, too! I pulled up the carpet everywhere except the bedrooms (those rooms are gated now). I had my concrete smoothed out, cut to look like 18 inch tiles and stained. I absolutely LOVE my floor.

Here is a picture of my floors. Ignore the towel...a pup had pulled it down, but I love my floors...cracks and all!

[peanut]

Originally Posted by txshopper73

Our carpet was ruined, too! I pulled up the carpet everywhere except the bedrooms (those rooms are gated now). I had my concrete smoothed out, cut to look like 18 inch tiles and stained. I absolutely LOVE my floor.

Here is a picture of my floors. Ignore the towel...a pup had pulled it down, but I love my floors...cracks and all!

Didn't you do that last summer I remember seeing pics of it before...I would love to have that down, but I don't have concrete, it looks great....

[txshopper73]

Originally Posted by peanut

Didn't you do that last summer I remember seeing pics of it before...I would love to have that down, but I don't have concrete, it looks great....

Thanks! Yes, I had it done in July (I think). Took a week (about 4 days longer than expected) because it rained all freakin week long. They are so easy to keep up with. Only complaint is that you can see every speck of dirt the girls bring in. Oh well...much cooler in the summer, too.

[RowdysMom]

Oh, I'm glad that you posted Kimberly - I too, just love your concrete floor! Ours is the same color, but we didn't have it scored, ours is just smooth - except for the cracks of course, which give it character. You are right though, the concrete shows everything - I don't mind a bit though, it is soooo easy to take care of!!!

Someone mentioned above that their hardwood or laminate showed every speck of dust. I guess I'm lucky because mine does not. It is various lengths and colors of wood and so there is so much variation of color and patterns, that it does not show anything!!! I love it. Of course, that probably means it is dirtier than my concrete since the concrete shows everything! But I don't care!

[YorkieRose]

I know someone who is replacing ruined hardwood with laminate..I have Pergo and nothing stains or seeps through the cracks...I have stone tiles in the kitchen and baths...and I will never have any carpets again..but I live in Florida..I tried tile/laminate in Md and it was too cold for us.

[BubblPopElectrc]

Luckily, I have only lived on homes with hardwood floors. Both because of the dogs and because I just hate the look of carpet.

[CO_yorkie_momma]

That is our next major project. I dont even want to think about what it looks like when I pull them up. My vet was telling me about virgin vinyl they had installed in their house and they love it. They say it looks just like hardwood floors and is so easy to clean. I will probably go with that. I am sick of shampooing carpets all of the time.

[mojo]

I too am trying to decide what to do with my flooring. I had a very nice berber, but my dogs have ruined it. I love hardwood, but everyone tells me too hard to take care of and shows every little marks from a scratch or chair or whatever.
was considering laminate, but our ex neighbor who sells it said he would never do that, it will warp due to the pee.
I recently decided to go with big tiles, I also really like the concrete, i hadnt seen that before.
My problem is my house is so cold, I think this might make the problem worse.

does anyone have any experience with radiant heat (some sort of heating coils under the flooring). I am wondering about the cost of that.

I am also now curious about who you guys got to smooth out your concrete and what that might cost, that looks great!

[RowdysMom]

Originally Posted by mojo

My problem is my house is so cold, I think this might make the problem worse.

does anyone have any experience with radiant heat (some sort of heating coils under the flooring). I am wondering about the cost of that.

I am also now curious about who you guys got to smooth out your concrete and what that might cost, that looks great!

I'm sorry, I don't have any experience with the radiant heat, but just the other day, I was talking with someone who had it installed under her tile floor and she loved it. Yes, the tile, hardwood, and concrete floors are cold, and that can be a problem, especially for those of you in cold climates. In Texas it is a big PLUS in the hot hot hot summers!!!

Also, I can't help about the smoothing of the concrete floors - we didn't have to smooth ours, we built on to the house and just stained the brand new concrete slab, so we didn't have to smooth. I do know though, there are companies that do nothing but smooth, score, and stain concrete floors.

[TatumsMom]

Originally Posted by RowdysMom

Someone mentioned above that their hardwood or laminate showed every speck of dust. I guess I'm lucky because mine does not. It is various lengths and colors of wood and so there is so much variation of color and patterns, that it does not show anything!!! I love it. Of course, that probably means it is dirtier than my concrete since the concrete shows everything! But I don't care!

That may have been me you're talking about. Being out in the country and having so much dust (and kids and hubby and dog running in and out!), yes the floor can look dirty and dusty quite often. I think the main place I notice it is on the side of the house that is all windows. So much light comes in that it shows the dust and dirt more on the floors. That's definitely not a big issue with me though. I'd much rather Shark the floors every 2-3 days and know that the dirt/dust is gone than to think of it hiding in the carpet fibers!

But I have to say again I'm so glad that we didn't put carpet in the bedrooms like so many people said we should. Just knowing that Tatum's favorite "accident spot" was my MIL's carpeted bedroom kept me from having any carpet.

And I would have LOVED to have the radiant heating but it wasn't in the budget. I probably would have sacrificed something else to have it if we weren't in TX but still, it would be nice to have during even the mild winters we have.... I'm so cold-natured!