I currently have about 1400sqft upstairs, and 1000 in the basement.
The basement is not yet finished and has no floors. Upstairs, I have
carpet through most of the house, ceramic tile (stone) in the Kitchen,
front door, fireplace area, and vinyle in the bathrooms.

With pets, I have come to hate carpet. As puppies, they have
destroyed corner areas of the carpet. I spend a lot of time cleaning
up areas with the shampoo vac.

I would like to replace the carpet as well as put something in the
basement other than carpet, and am looking for suggestions. From what
I have read, wood floors have issues with blackening from pet stains,
Tile has issues in the grout, and Marble has problems with anything
acidy.

I have looked at laminate, purchased a small piece and put it on the
floor. The dogs have destroyed corners of this piece, so I question
how durable laminate really is at the corners.

Vinyle does really well as far as cleanup in concerned, but I have a
strong dislike of it. What about Slate with area rugs? Not sure that
would be any better than carpet, and would be rough on the feet.

Any suggestions? I guess nothing is perfect, but I'd like to know
what would be best to use in my case. Bare in mind that the basements
in this area are always humid.

Edwin

Edwin Davidson wrote
I have looked at laminate, purchased a small piece and put it on the
floor. The dogs have destroyed corners of this piece, so I question
how durable laminate really is at the corners.

If your laminate is properly laid, it won't have any corners the dogs
can get at to chew.

Vinyle does really well as far as cleanup in concerned, but I have a
strong dislike of it. What about Slate with area rugs? Not sure that
would be any better than carpet, and would be rough on the feet.

Depends on the roughness of the slate and how well it's laid. How
often do you walk about barefoot?

Any suggestions? I guess nothing is perfect, but I'd like to know
what would be best to use in my case. Bare in mind that the basements
in this area are always humid.

Sealed cork sheeting is warm and resilient.

Owain

On 18 Oct 2004 13:48:02 -0700, (Owain)
wrote:

Edwin Davidson wrote
I have looked at laminate, purchased a small piece and put it on the
floor. The dogs have destroyed corners of this piece, so I question
how durable laminate really is at the corners.

If your laminate is properly laid, it won't have any corners the dogs
can get at to chew.

Not to mention: why are your dogs chewing inappropriate items like
flooring? Heavy/regular exercise ought to be a good distraction, and
you also could try retraining the dogs to chew appropriate toys. I
highly recommend the Dental Dinosaur Durable
http://www.petco.com/product_info.as...1&dept_id=%2D2 (NOT
the flexible one; dogs will consume those in no time flat). My two
young dogs, one a Lab, the other a rat terrier, love theirs, and we
have about five floating around the house. And I also crate my dogs
when I'm gone from the house for any length of time.

*Our* dogs don't chew the floors anymore, but they still have
accidents.
We babysit a puppy the other weekend and it chewed up carpet. I can
forsee more puppys in our future and you cannot immediately train them
what is appropriate to chew on. I would rather use material that is
*puppy proof*, if there is such a thing, where I can. While I am by
no means rich, I am not poor either. I have some cash I can invest in
this area. I just want to make sure I do so wisely, and
appropriately.

If your laminate is properly laid, it won't have any corners the dogs
can get at to chew.

In thinking about this, what about where the laminate borders the
ceramic tile? What about the trim around the walls. I am concerned
about those items. Maybe a different material would be more
appropriate for those areas?

Depends on the roughness of the slate and how well it's laid. How
often do you walk about barefoot?

Often.

Sealed cork sheeting is warm and resilient.

Never even heard of this. I did a Google search and found:
http://www.duro-design.com/english/cork_flooring.html

I also found some pricing at
http://www.fastfloors.com/type_151/Cork-Flooring.htm
http://www.fastfloors.com/lp_14358,0...roduct.htm#NAV

This looks awesome. The product sounds good, and the pricing range is
within my projected budget.

Thanks for your input!

Hi my wife has run a pet rescue org. for the last 15 years about five
years ago we built a new 3600 sf house that is all tile except for the
stair treads. Best decision we ever made! I've had a lot of dogs in
the house in that time and the cleanup is great you can have grout
problems but if done correctly sealing will help also there are many
new types of cleaners to make the job painless.