"Rick Brandt" wrote in message
. net...
tiny dancer wrote:

Thanks PDQ & Art. It's very helpful having all the different types
of wood flooring described and rated. About the only thing I am
concerned about is the dogs. I will have a few area rugs and a
runner down the hallway, but definitely won't be covering the whole
area with rugs. I'm not especially fanatic about a few dings, but I
admit I would be unhappy with huge gouges or deep gashes. I do have
an acquaintance who I plan on getting an estimate from prior to
deciding if this will be a do it yourself project, or if we will hire
him to lay the floor. He does hardwoods and all the other choices
too. If we did decide to do it ourselves, perhaps he might be a
source for a better poly?

While I agree that real wood is superior to human senses, dogs WILL be a
problem. Myself, my brother, and a friend of mine are all "dog people".
One
has engineered oak (relativly new home), one recently refinished existing
oak,
and I installed a laminate. Both of their floors were torn up in fairly
short
order. After a year mine looks like the day I installed it.

Also, there are better laminates than the "typical" stuff you see. Ours
is
Wilsonart red label brand where each plank is a single board with beveled
edges.
This is much more natural looking than the planks that have several board
images
on a single plank. Most of our visitors believe our floor is real wood
unless
we tell them otherwise (I'm sure a more knowledgable person would not be
fooled).



Thanks for the 'dog experience' and suggestions. I will try to check out
whether I can find your floor locally. Our neighbors put some sort of wood
floor down, haven't asked them *what* it is, but although I complimented
them on it, it looks a bit like *butcher block* to me. I didn't really care
for it. Either it was the way their installed it, or that's the way that
particular floor 'really looks'. The sections look too short and choppy to
be mistaken for a real wood floor IMO. What I mean is real wood looks like
fairly long planks laid side by side. Their floor looks like a whole bunch
of short pieces of wood stuck side by side. I didn't want to examine it too
closely, just from a glance I could tell I didn't care for the effect it
gave.

best,

td