Real question here: hardwood floors

[momofkhm]

Do hardwood floors and kids and dogs mix?

With the dishwasher problem of a few weeks ago, we have to get a new floor. (No one can match the laminate we already have so it all has to be replaced.) So now we are looking at laminate or hardwood. Insurance should pay all or most of either. But then talking with MIL yesterday, she remembers dh dropping crayons and stepping on them and nothing getting them off the floor. We had hardwood near the front door and the dog (singular back then) scratched the floor badly with her nails. I know, I know - keep the dog's nails cut and it won't happen but since I don't do such a good job of that...

We don't have kids dropping crayons anymore, but we do still have kids who drop things and don't pick them up. And now we have 2 dogs with nails to scratch the floor. How hard are they to keep up?

Thoughts??

[Sunny]

We have wood floors, and 2 dogs. You must keep the nails cut, simple, or get scratches. Of course, they are surface scratches, and buff out, unless your dogs dig at the door.
Kids and floors make scratches / dents too. Our kids drop silverware on the floor regularly, and they leave big dents.
I look at it this way... what piece of wood is perfect anyway? It is all just more character of those who live there. The wood is nice to look at, even with scratches and dents because usually people don't notice them, it is warm to walk on, soft to walk on, and all around beautiful.

[Heather in the Kootenays]

We had a wood floor in our kitchen and I loved it. It's true that the dogs scratched the floors but I figured it could be fixed when the dogs were gone. And the scratches and dents just add to the character.

[Frontier Mom]

I always felt at home with wood floors that weren't perfect, I want my kids to feel the same way.

I keep a spray bottle of water and vinegar under the sink for quick mops. Works great here.

[Pencil Pusher]

We refinished our wood floors ourselves when we bought our house a couple of yrs ago. No dogs, 2 dc, & 2 yrs later, I really thought the floors looked awful, and they were by far the worst in the dc's room. It made me want to cry, & my dc are not particularly rough.

BUT, we did it ourselves. A prof probably would have done it much better (at a much higher cost). We met a couple later whose dh sells flooring. He installed wood floors (or was it just the finish?) in their house, & it looked AWESOME, even 2 yrs later w/ 2 very rough little boys.

So research your finish. Someone rec gym floor coating to us, which we couldn't find in the time frame we needed, but I know that's not what our friends used. (I don't remember what they *did* use, though. Sorry!)

Good luck!

[abbeyej]

I love, love, love our hardwood floors. The ones in our house are 60 years old, but we had them refinished when we moved in 4 years ago. (They didn't *desperately* need it or anything, but we knew they would within a couple of years, and it was easier to do before we moved in than after.) The floors still look great, and there's not a single major scratch or dent anywhere. There may be a couple of minor scratches (where the heavy dining room chairs get pulled in and out around the table), but nothing hugely noticeable. That said, my kids are relatively easy on furniture and "stuff".

My parents moved into their house ~10 years ago -- 80yo floors, refinished when they moved in, 1 small indoor dog and a *very* high energy child who is *seriously* tough on her environment. Their floors still look fine *except* in my dad's office where he has a rolling chair that he sits in every day and slides back and forth between two desks, and in my sister's room where she rearranges her heavy This-End-Up furniture on a weekly basis (at least). Even with the scratches, they could be refinished and look as good as ever.

I *do* think it matters a lot that you start with good quality wood and it's finished properly (with *several* coats of poly). But I love how low-maintenance and easy-to-clean my hardwoods are. They look beautiful and just make my life easier. :) And they last practically forever.

[Tammy]

'real question here'......LOL! I guess all those other questions are 'fake' LOLOLOL!

Just pickin' on ya!

[Alice]

We have hardwood floors in our 1940's built house. We did not refinish them when we moved in 4 yrs ago and I'm not sure when they would have been done before that. They are actually in pretty bad condition when you look close...lots of scratches, stains etc. But I still think they look good. I think real hardwood still looks good even when kind of beat up...it adds character IMO. Oh, and my kids are very much at the dropping crayons, and playdoh, and all of their dinner stage and it all comes up fine.

I'm not sure where your new floor will be...except you mentioned near your front door. We actually have a slate floor in our entryway that my dh put in a few years ago. It's really nice. Cleans easily, looks great and hides dirt really really well.

[Sunny]

Maybe "real" had to do with Real wood vs. fake wood?

[momofkhm]

'real question here'......LOL! I guess all those other questions are 'fake' LOLOLOL!

No, I also asked where the term "hive mind" came from. It's in a different post though. I realize only those who re-order the questions will understand that though. I am one of those people who re-order questions. :)

[Tammy]

Cheryl....I hope you know I was just kidding with ya! It just made me laugh! :)

[momofkhm]

Yep, I know.

[Tracey in TX]

We've had both wood-style laminate and hard woods floors. Given our family style and dogs, real wood is the way to go! I don't sweat the scratches; it makes the house looked loved!

[Miss Peregrine]

The very first time we let our dogs in after installing our bamboo, one of them skidded and spun around on the floor putting gouges into it :mad:

I was so mad and irritated! But at least we got it out of the way.


I still get a little grumpy when I see the scratches but I am learning to get over it.

[Paz]

I love our wood floors. They look a little rustic. They're a mixture of different colors of wood with textured nicks in them that are part of the design. I have them in my living room/dining room and my mom has hers in the bedroom and they still look somewhat formal. Nothing shows on them. Our cats knocked over a glass table in the living room and left a few nicks in the wood. It isn't even noticable.

[Jenstet]

We have hardwood floors and dogs. They scratch the heck out of it but the house we lived in before was carpeted and THAT was a nightmare with dogs.

leather couches and hardwood floors. Good for kids and dogs.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

Prefinished hardwood has an extremely durable finish. It is similar to the finish on laminate, but it's real wood, and it's beautiful. We love our Kahrs floor. There are many brands available, but I don't know how they compare. Kahrs has a think layer of hardwood. Years from now, if the finish starts looking bad, we can strip it down to the wood, and refinish it with polyurethane.

[Sharon in SC]

leather couches and hardwood floors. Good for kids and dogs.


ITA! We had carpet and upholstered furniture in the old house but have hardwoods and leather in the new. No. comparison! The dogs don't even want to get up on the leather where they literally lived on the upholstery. :p (To clarify - I'm talking about the main living areas of the two homes, here, not the kitchen/baths).

As for the hardwoods, my recommendation would be to go with the absolute hardest wood you can afford. We bought our Bellawood Brazilian cherry from Lumber Liquidators and could not be more pleased. It is prefinished and comes with a 50 year warranty. The dogs have been trampling on them for almost 6 mos now and there's a rare scratch here and there which, to be honest, I don't know was made by them.

[Scarlett]

My thoughts on wood floors. I have an 8 yo boy and a mid size dog that *thinks* she is an inside dog.

I just got them in my den...replacing disgusting old carpet. The good news is I can CLEAN these wood floors. I mean really clean them. The bad news is they show dirt. Oh well. I dust mop and vacuum the area rug daily, but at least it is really clean.

Scratches? Yeah, it will happen. No matter what you do. Days after the wood was installed, and before we got the area rug, dh dropped his lap top on our floor...the corner of the laptop hit the wood gauging it badly. The laptop exploded. Thankfully the area rug covers this area. So that has made it easier to accept the scratches from the dog. And boy. And life.

The biggest thing that I would caution on is wood in a kitchen. Sometimes this can be a problem near the refrigerator with ice in the door and around the dishwasher because of the extreme steam coming from it. Use throw rugs in those areas and that will help.

[Karen sn]

I totally agree. A friend's mother told me every story behind the marks and dents of her floors. Beautiful memories of her children. It is character - especially so if you get to live forever and die an old woman in that house.
Real wood floors are durable.

[Sharon in SC]

The biggest thing that I would caution on is wood in a kitchen. Sometimes this can be a problem near the refrigerator with ice in the door and around the dishwasher because of the extreme steam coming from it.

I had hardwood floors in the kitchen of our old home and chose tile for the new house. We had the line to the icemaker break on the frig at the old house and I walked in to a literal geiser shooting out the back of the frig. Water. was. everywhere. The wood buckled and it took MONTHS for it to dry out. That incident convinced me of what dh had been trying to help me see - tile is safer in the kitchen where you have dishwasher, sink, and frig to leak at any unforeseen moment. ;-}