Wooden Floorboards and Dogs...

[MrsMozart]

What's a good covering/coating for wooden floor boards when one has a hoard of dogs playing on it every day?

We tried the 'hard as diamond' stuff... The second attempt is in serious need of redoing, but at that price I'm loath to do it again just for it to get scratched off again in short order.

We did put down new carpets once - they lasted two weeks before we had to pull the whole lot up The dogs decided there was something about the smell of it and wee'd like it was going out of fashion!

It's an Edwardian house with a lot of its period features still in place, so would like something that fits. I thought of sanding off the remaining stain and then waxing, only I'm not sure how dog resistant wax would be.

So folks Any and all suggestions please (preferably not D's of having no dogs! He's joking, I think lol).

 

[cbmcts]

I have oiled oak floors and found it not just very resistant to marks but that they disappear when you reoil.
I didn't want varnished because I knew that being able to see the marks on the floor would drive me doolally (and IME varnish marks if a dog as much as tippy toes over it), thought about waxed but know that I'm far too bad a housekeeper to put the work in rewaxing and eventually chose oiled for easy maintenance.

Waxing could work, just remember that adding more wax needs a lot of polishing in to the get the shine...

High use areas are scrubbed to avoid ingrained dirt and oiled annually - probably should be every six months, but like I said I'm a bad housekeeper - and in 8 years I've only done the whole floor once. I actually think it looks better now then when it was new.

 

[MrsMozart]

Thank you

Oil sounds like it's the way to go! Do you remember which one you used?

 

[TGM]

Agree with cbmcts - we have oak flooring which just has an oiled finish and copes very well with daily traffic from two dogs, despite being laid about 15 years ago. However, was so long ago I can't remember which oil was used!

 

[MrsMozart]

Thank you

I shall go oil hunting!

 

[wren123]

Oh very interesting can I ask if you have big dogs? Like labrador size. Sorry op to jump on your thread but we are just getting new floors and my son's partners little dog doesn't mark their varnished floors at all but our dog does horrendously!

 

[TGM]

Oh very interesting can I ask if you have big dogs? Like labrador size. Sorry op to jump on your thread but we are just getting new floors and my son's partners little dog doesn't mark their varnished floors at all but our dog does horrendously!

Our two are what I would call medium size - one is a collie x lurcher, the other is German shepherd x collie.

 

[wren123]

Our two are what I would call medium size - one is a collie x lurcher, the other is German shepherd x collie.

Thank you

 

[Broodle]

I highly recommend a hard wax oil (oil AND wax, ideal ) made by Fiddes (sp?)

 

[MrsMozart]

Shih Tzu (had four, now have two of them). A Border Collie. A GSD.

Mad house (add in the cats, rabbits, and guinea pigs ).

 

[cbmcts]

Thank you

Oil sounds like it's the way to go! Do you remember which one you used?

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p20048

I bought 5l about 6 years ago and it's still half full!

All I do is scrub the floor with detergent/bleach mix (don't tell the guy who fitted it, he'd cry ) let it dry and oil it with a mop. Let it sink in and if you're very houseproud/have visitors due, buff it gently with a dry mop and it looks like new. Needless to say, it rarely gets buffed here. It's also in the kitchen and bathroom and has held up well there too. The reason for going for wood was that I couldn't bare the amount of hair that was woven into the carpets...at least dustbunnies can be picked up

When I got it I had a 45kg dog and 2 terriers plus 3 cats. These days only 1 small dog and cat live here but I regularly have have a mastiff and GSD visiting for weekends

 

[MrsMozart]

Thank you so kindly folks

I shall go investigate both of those. There's a large-ish dining room, a sitting room, and a hallway. Am tempted by the bathroom as well!

D is going to love me... He'll have to get the other stain stuff up from where the dogs haven't already shifted it. I think I'm going to be very busy being elsewhere

 

[Cinnamontoast]

Carpet. Marvellous stuff! Sorry, couldn't resist! Am looking at Amtico, I'd love wooden floors but three springers scrabbling would not be conducive to it staying looking fab.

 

[MrsMozart]

Tried a carpet! It was down for two weeks... they decided there was something about the smell of it and wee'd, copiously

 

[wren123]

Shih Tzu (had four, now have two of them). A Border Collie. A GSD.

Mad house (add in the cats, rabbits, and guinea pigs ).

Thank you Mrs Mozart, you have beaten my one solitary labrador! Although our house is still quite hectic!
I was interested in your post because we are having new flooring down in my whole downstairs, I had ruled out wood which would have been my first choice, due to it being scratched!
I had decided on Karndean which is basically expensive vinyl which looks like wood, a couple of friends with dogs have it and it looks very good, you can tell it's not wood but it does look nice.
The real catch for me is that it is no cheaper than real wood! Now I am undecided again!!

 

[Penny Less]

I have wooden flooring in the hall and have never even thought of oiling it. It was varnished umpteen years ago and looking sad now. Needs sanding I think and revarnishing but how do you do that in a hall when you have dogs and people traipsing over it all day? Im in a terrace so its a bit of a trek round back alleyways to the back door !