Best Floor for Pets

Q: I am looking for some advice as to what type of floor would function best for pets. My husband and I live in Tampa FL and we do dog and cat rescue. Therefore, we have high traffic with big dogs. We would like to find a floor resistant to scratching from dog nails. Also we often have to house break puppies and they can have accidents – is there any kind of waterproof scratch resistant floor – we like the look of wood but are open to any suggestions. Our primary concern is a floor that works with our lifestyle. Also, what kind of underfloor would you recommend – is there anything that can reduce noise? Thanks so much for any advice you can give us. It is much appreciated.
Thanks, Sue and Steve
A: To account for traffic and keep a wood look you could go with a laminate. Higher grade laminate is super tough and can take the traffic from larger dogs rather well. My concern here is training the younger pups. With any wood floor, if moisture gets into the unprotected areas of the floor then all sorts of trouble will occur.
Honestly your best bet here is going to be tile or something like vinyl and linoleum. These floors perform much better when it comes to moisture concerns (hence why they are so popular for kitchens and bathrooms). Vinyl composition tile is another route to go, but this is typically only found for commercial jobs. This is the same product you will find in hospitals and grocery stores, once it is installed it can take a serious amount of punishment.
If you are really looking for a wood look you can go one of two routes. If you install laminate, find one that performs better in moisture resistance tests. Top this off by adding a small bead of tongue and groove glue to add a small measure of additional moisture protection. Keep in mind, this will not make your floor impervious to moisture, so don’t expect it to be water proof. In this case, a good underlay would be either 6mm cork or Sound 6 Barrier Acoustical Underlayment. Both of these underlayments provide superior sound deadening and are on the top tier of underlayments for wood floors.
The other route to go here would be to use the wood looking vinyl made by Congoleum. The Regal and Forum plank collections both look great and they are super easy to install. The only problem you will run into here is that these adhere directly to the subfloor and are somewhat thin, so you won’t get the same sound as you would from a good wood floor.