If you are a pet owner, the option of the right flooring is a vital part that has to be considered in the interior planning process. Many people claim that wood flooring is not recommended and must be avoided if you have dogs or cats at home. But, in general, should you make the perfect choices, I really don’t find any reason why you need to give up the notion of owning this natural and ecological home decor element or face a decision: a ground or a pet. Read on to learn our best tips for picking the right floor for pets.
Invest in hardwood floors
Most of all, invest in hardwood flooring. Softwood is certainly not advisable, as your greater initial investment in a hardwood flooring will prove to be a better deal for cash in the longer run. Go for such wood species as ipe, maple or walnut.
Certainly, select solid, not designed hardwood flooring. As pets’ claws often cause scratching to the ground, it’s crucial to have the chance to re-sand the floor if you will need to. In the case of solid hardwood floors you’ll have the ability to re-sand the floor multiple times in its life, while engineered hardwood floors does not permit that.
Proper finish
Moreover, choose a hardwearing finish for the floor. On lacquered finish scratches are more easily visible as compared to oiled, but lacquered finish will in general withstand more wear and tear. Oiled solid flooring fitted at a house or flat that has pets will most certainly require more frequent recoating than at a house without pets, but it is going to most likely seem less tired at the meantime.
So, if you’ve already chosen the varieties of solid hardwood floors and picked either lacquered or oiled finish, you should focus on other facets and measures you will need to think about and implement to keep your flooring look good for longer.
Keeping up the floor
Clean your pet’s paws before it enters the house or flat in a walk, and definitely dry your dog or cat if it is wet outside. Bear in mind that pets do not wipe their feet before coming into the house, whatever the amount of doormats you’ve got. For this reason, it’s of crucial importance to make sure you rub down the pet when they enter the house. Especially the combination of dirt, water and dirt can wreck havoc in your floor, so be watchful and do everything you can to dry off the pet until it comes to the home in any way times.
In addition, regularly keep your pet’s claws short. Long, scratchy claws can harm your hardwood flooring, particularly if a dog or cat is very lively and enjoys running around. That is why it’s crucial to attempt to always keep your pet’s claws well trimmed, in order not to damage the floor.
Moreover, never forget to mop up any mishaps as soon as they happen. Even though elderly pets are not that likely to have little accidents, if they happen, or if you’ve got a puppy or a kitten, always mop up any urine immediately. Urine can cause deep stains, which are often hard to take care of. The ammonia in urine triggers discolorations and unsightly stains in wood flooring. If your flooring got stained with urine we’ll counsel you on how best to cope with that in future content.