Wood Flooring and Pets

Wood flooring and pets

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
WhatsApp
Email
Print
5/5

The first thing you should know is that No real hardwood floor is invincible. There are certain specifications you may want to keep in mind when it comes to choosing a hardwood floor for your pet friendly home.

So the question is – Can you have pets and hardwood floors?

The response is YES YOU CAN install hardwood floors and still enjoy all the benefits of it without having the stress of them destroying it.

Our recommendation will be:

  • The proper training of your dog and the used of training pads with absorbent surfaces and plastics, preventing any liquid to touch your floor – but if it does just remember to clean it right away.
  • To prevent scratches on your hardwood floors, make sure to make it routine to clip and trim your pets nails.
  • To feed your pets, use heavy bowls to make it more stable so you can prevent spilling as well as using waterproof mats under the bowls.
  • Choose pre-finished hardwood flooring – it is a harder and can have more durable finish. Most of the major manufacturers of hardwood flooring these days use an Aluminum Oxide finish. This includes minuscule flecks of aluminum inserted into a layer of the finish, creating a stronger surface coating. Additionally, manufacturers are able to cure prefinished hardwood planks under UV lights, hardening the coats of finish even more.
  • Lighter wood species or stained products have a tendency to camouflage scratches and dents, so they are a lot less noticeable than they would be on a darker wood species or a dark stained hardwood floor. 
  • Surface texture can also help to hide scratches or dents caused by pets in your home. Handscraped flooring is becoming popular in homes across the nation for the warmth and character it adds to a room, but since the surface is already textured, appearance of scratches and dents become minimized as compared to those on a smooth surface hardwood floor.
  • Choose very hard wood species like Brazilian walnut, natural maple, hickory or amendoim between others.

Here is a list of strong hardwood floors based on the Janka Hardness rating Chart.

The Janka hardness test measures the resistance of a sample of wood to denting and wear. It measures the force required to embed an 11.28mm (.444 in) steel ball into wood to half the ball’s diameter. This method leaves an indentation. A common use of Janka hardness ratings is to determine whether a species is suitable for use as flooring.   WIKIPEDIA

RATING BASED ON JANKA HARDNESS RATING CHART

WOOD FLOORING  SPECIES POUNDS FORCE
Piptadenia Macrocarpa, Curupay, Angico Preto, Brazilian Tiger Mahogany 3840
Brazilian Olivewood 3700
Brazilian Ebony 3692
 Brazilian Walnut ,  Lapacho 3684
Sucupira, Brazilian Chestnut, Tiete Chestnut 3417
Massaranduba, Brazilian Redwood, Paraju 3190
Red Mahogany, Turpentine 2697
Southern Chestnut 2670
Brazilian Cherry, Jatoba 2350
Mesquite 2345
Santos Mahogany, Bocote, Cabreuva, Honduran Rosewood 2200
Brazilian Koa 2160
Osage Orange[4] 2040
Goncalo Alves, Tigerwood 1850
Hickory, Pecan, Satinwood 1820
Rosewood 1780
Blackwood 1720
Wenge, Red Pine, Hornbeam 1630
True Pine, Timborana 1570
Sweet Birch 1470
Hard Maple, Sugar Maple 1450
Picture of Erich Müller
Erich Müller
ALL CITY HARDWOOD FLOORS, INC. My name is Erich Muller and I am the gracious owner of All City Floors Inc. I am a native "Angelino" that not only takes pride in his work but loves to see the gratification in the eyes of our customers, with over 20 years of experience and Hundreds of Satisfied Customers!