Dogs and flooring, laminate, wooden or vinyl ?

Tyler_Du

We have a young Labrador puppy, we're thinking of replacing the carpets in our living / dining room. I'm just not sure whether to use laminate, wooden or vinyl flooring. I've read that wooden flooring is not great for dogs due to being slippy and therefore not great for a dogs joints, etc, laminate I believe is very hard wearing and less prone to damage caused by the dog, finally as vinyl flooring has a slight cushioning effect again it's better for the dog. Ease of cleaning is a consideration, as is being able to resist damage by dog claws.

lee111s

We have slate tiles in the kitchen and hallway, super easy to clean and will last forever. Dogs love it in the summer as they stay cool!

Have laminate in the living room, pointless getting carpet with two mental mud and water loving spaniels! We do have a huge rug though which they love lying on at a night time.

hmc

We changed our laminate ask to carpet
as the older dog hated it and got very stiff if he layed on it and not his bed

meritaten

my son has laminate and the dog slips and slides on it. and her claws have scratched it. he is saving up now for carpet. the dog is getting on a bit and a fall wouldn't be good.
I have had dogs and in kitchen area I have bought vinyl - the really tough, non slip one. its a bit harder to keep clean as the surface is textured, but its much safer, both for dogs AND humans.

Person_one

I have laminate, its brilliantly easy to clean and I haven't had any problems with my dogs slipping on it. If you go for laminate or wood, don't get the type that has grooves between the boards, get a flat surface.

If yours struggle on whichever option you choose, you can always put rugs down which are then much cheaper to replace than a whole carpet if they get ruined by an episode of explosive diarrhoea at 4am (the dog, not you!)

Carer

We have porcelain tiles with a slight non-slip pattern to them throughout the whole of the downstairs.
Been down about 15 years and still look very good - could do with a regrout here and there now but otherwise they are fab.

Before that we had laminate and it was awful and slippy for the dogs.

Would never have carpet where the dogs go (they don't go upstairs) as it stinks - I don't care how much you clean it, houses with carpets and dogs just smell bad.

krlyr

Laminate here, it was the most practical/affordable option. I made the mistake of getting two dogs in opposite colours (one black, one white) which means I can't win either way when it comes to carpet/fabric colours!

The dogs don't slip and aren't fussed by the laminate, but they've been on it for as long as I've owned them (so nearly 7 years for one, 5 for the other). The clicking of nails is the one irritation of it thought, so we're leaning towards using vinyl in the kitchen when we redecorate - only concern is potential damage from their nails.

gettingready

tiles in bathroom and hallway, laminate in kitchen and bedrooms

no scratches, slips etc - all good

elsien

Mum has vinyl - the expensive karndean stuff. So far bearing up well to heavy footed bull terrier flingdings around the house. Never had laminate. We also had cheaper lino with the previous dog and as she got old and rickety we had to put carpet tiles as stepping stones across the kitchen or the poor soul would freeze to the spot, too scared to move.

peachyprice

krlyr wrote: »

The clicking of nails is the one irritation of it thought, .

Trip, trap, trip, trap, trip trap, trip. That's the sound of my dog on the bamboo floor as he follows me around the house! Drives me insane. It's not so bad in the kitchen on the ceramic tiles though

hgotsparkle

My dog has had large sores on both her elbows from laying on laminate, so we changed to vinyl and we find that the dogs don't slide around as much when they're got wet feet and its easier on their elbows when they're laying.