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Best Pet-Friendly Floor

Best Pet-Friendly Floor To Consider Installing

by Dylan Johnson

Just because you love pet doesn’t mean that you cannot expect to have the wonderful flooring you are desiring. Here we have some best pet-friendly floor you can take into consideration.

Truly, choosing the flooring while you have a lovely pet is crucial. One of your pets may be very rambunctious, potentially leave the claws marks on the floor.

Or you are probably running for a commercial business such as pet care or animal facility, then you need a pet-friendly floor for your spaces, right?

In fact, different kinds of animal typically have different kinds of damages, too. Those can be toenails nails, urine or excrement and shedding.

Therefore, it would be better if you select the flooring with the surface that is not only durable but also stain-resistant and easy to clean as well as easy to sanitize.

Now let’s check out the best pet-friendly floor below:

Glazed Ceramic Tile Pet-Friendly Floor

If you are looking for durable, stain-resistant and easy-to-clean flooring as well as a safe flooring option for your pets, glazed ceramic tile can be the ideal choice to list.

In fact, glazed ceramic tiles offer an inherent strength of flooring materials, meaning that they won’t get damage when they must handle the largest rambunctious pets.

In this case, the glazing will make the flooring surface resistant to water and stain penetration. Any pet’s urine or excrement can be easily wiped up suing the soap and water.

Furthermore, ceramic tile has a very hygienic surface, making it difficult to infect.

The grout joints in ceramic tiles can be prone to stain if they are not sealed. Thus, it is recommended that you reseal the grout joints every few years to keep the floor’s surface resistant to liquids.

The only drawback of ceramic tile for pet spaces is the flooring surface that can be cold and rather slippery.

The radiant heating system of the flooring can make the ceramic tile interesting for animals.

Thus, you can selectively choose the matte finish better than the high-gloss finish to make the flooring less slippery and your pets will not feel so excited to play on.

Read Also: Budget Bedroom Flooring Ideas to Consider

Vinyl Pet-Friendly Floor

The second best flooring which is pet-friendly is vinyl flooring. Vinyl flooring is typically resilient and available in thin sheets or tiles you can purchase.

One of the popular variants of vinyl is the luxury vinyl which usually comes with the click-lock planks.

In this case, vinyl is best described to be highly resistant to water and stains penetration. The flooring can be easily wiped up so that it can be free from all the debris that stay.

Vinyl flooring also allows you to sanitize using the specific cleaning agent to kill any microorganism that may come from your pets.

If you use vinyl flooring, you can use the specific cleaning agent designed for vinyl. This will let you to clean the floor easily and safely.

Vinyl tile generally comes with the adhesive to connect with the underlayment while the sheet vinyl comes with the toweled adhesives or perimeter bond technique to adhere the edges and seams only.

This perimeter can arise problems when the dog runs and plays due to the fact that the dog will possibly cause toenails scratch. Meanwhile, the full-bond vinyl flooring is seldom problematic with this.

Sheet vinyl can appear more affordably than ceramic tile. However, it cannot last longer than the ceramic tile.

Sheet vinyl is thin. It is usually used on concrete. So sheet vinyl is a second skin that is very close to animals’ touch. The claws of the animals can potentially tear the outer layer.

Luxury vinyl is more attractive than the other vinyl types. However, it can be so problematic when the pets’ urine seeps through the planks.

Therefore, some vinyl manufactures offer vinyl flooring products with pet-friendly surface that will be more resistant to stains and scratches caused by the pets’ claws.

Linoleum Pet-Friendly Floor

Other best pet-friendly floor is of course linoleum. Linoleum is one of the ideal choices for commercial applications such as pet clinic, pet health or pet boarding facilities.

Linoleum is not only durable but also stain resistant and eco-friendly.

In the manufacturing process, some of the dangerous substances are repelled, making the floor easy to clean, care fore, and able to handle the large pets including cats, dogs and others.

Different from other flooring options, linoleum is constructed from renewable linseed oil mixed with the other natural materials. Linoleum is either low impact or lightweight.

It isn’t either problematic with the off-gassing or volatile organic compounds (VOC) like vinyl experiences.

If you are a person with a great environmental concern, linoleum is the perfect option to consider.

Concrete Pet-Friendly Floor

Now you can also consider choosing concrete flooring if you are just living with pets.

However, it needs special treatments before you transform it into the base where the animals play on.

The requirement include the regular application of concrete sealer to cover the absorbent surface.

This will provide the floors with the protection from being penetrated by the liquid and stains.

There are many different options available to choose over the concrete flooring such as that with the coloring, etching and polishing methods.

Thus, the floor will be there for you with the full-fledge design element for your room.

If you have already had a concrete slab foundations, concrete floor can be the most practical and efficient for spaces with animals.

Rubber Flooring

So you have a location with the high potential of environmental change, here is the rubber flooring that will suit it well.

Gyms and playrooms are the example of spaces that will be good with rubber flooring. They are also the spaces where most pets are playing on.

Rubber flooring is considered resistant to all staining and liquid penetration threats. It is also durable to fight against the rips tears and gouges.

However, it is also soft, comfortable, plus, and quiet. And these are the crucial features you need to create spaces of animals.

Furthermore, rubber flooring offers the benefit of becoming a non-slip surface.

Nevertheless, there are some drawbacks if you insist on using rubber flooring for animal spaces.

Typically, the flooring discoloration will be caused by the prolonged exposure to acidic substances including urine.

Rubber flooring can also be very expensive, making you think twice to spend the large expanses.

Besides, rubber flooring comes with the strong smell at which the animals can feel uncomfortable though the odor may disappear as time passes.

Artificial Grass

Another best pet-friendly floor to consider installing on spaces with animals is the artificial grass.

This is one of the pet-friendly floor you can consider installing in the individual kennels or rooms where the pets are usually spending most of their times.

Todays, the artificial grass flooring is designed in a modern way along with the attractive look and comfortable feel more than the original astroturf. In this case, dogs will enjoy the floors a lot.

An indoor animal spaces will be good with the artificial grass flooring that has solid urethane backing. This backing provides the floor with the resistance to moisture.

So you need only to wipe the dirt using the soap and water once you notice the dirt.

In this case, some animals are not able to recognize the real grass and the artificial one. It is just possible for the animals to get accidents when they are playing on.

Easily, artificial grass can be installed on the existing subfloors or vinyl flooring. It can even be installed on hard flooring.

Bamboo Flooring

What about bamboo?

Can we install bamboo at home while we have pets?

Due to the fact that bamboo is a natural flooring materials made from bamboo fibers, it is similarly like the hardwood.

Most people even find it surprising that this flooring forms are even harder than the hardwood. Thus, it is definitely scratch resistant.

However, not all bamboo flooring types will be suitable for animal spaces.

If you like bamboo while you have pets at home, you can select the bamboo flooring type that has a high hardness rating based on Janka test.

In this type, the bamboo flooring comes with the strand-woven feature that holds up best the homes with pets.

Noticeably, bamboo is also resistant to moisture and stains. In the manufacturing process, resins are used to add high resistance. If notice pet stains, you can wipe them up easily.

The only drawback of this bamboo flooring is the pet claws that will audibly click when the pet is walking on the surface. Remember, bamboo is not a sound-absorbent flooring.

Cork Flooring

One best pet-friendly floor you need to know lastly is cork flooring.

Cork flooring is relatively new type of flooring that can hold the pet best without taking too high risk at scratching and staining.

Cork is designed with the stain and scratch resistance as well as prevention of the growth of mold and bacteria.

Cork is noticeably resilient to absorb the sound. For homes with the active pets, cork flooring can even be better than hardwood flooring.

If you want to have a good performance of cork from years to years, you must periodically seal the flooring with the good and tough surface layer.

The List Of Pet-Friendly Floor Types To Avoid For Animal Spaces

Now that you have already known the list of the best pet-friendly floor, you need also to get know the flooring types that you must avoid installing in animal spaces.

In general, those flooring types are hard to clean and easily scratch and get damaged as well as prone to moisture penetration.

Those flooring types are:

Carpet

It has been arguable whether carpet is allowed for animal spaces or not. In fact, carpet is the worst flooring materials for animal spaces.

When it comes to pets and home maintenance, the penetration of urine seeping down the floor is unavoidable. In this case, cats will rarely come to carpets.

Read Also: Inexpensive Bathroom Flooring Options To Take into The List

Wood Flooring

Wood is a flooring material which is not only expensive but also very prone to scratches due to the dogs’ toenails. Pet’s urine can also cause discoloration to the wood.

In this relation, engineered wood flooring which is considered better than the solid hardwood actually uses a surface layer that can still scratch.

It is because a surface layer is absolutely thin. You cannot expect to be able to refinish the wood floors like you can do with the hardwood.

Though engineered wood comes with the attractive look, this flooring type can easily get damaged because of the pets.

Laminate Flooring

The next flooring type that you must avoid installing at home with pets is laminate flooring.

According to the manufacturers of laminate flooring, it is juts alright to have laminate while you live with pets.

However, you must be careful with this floors since it can be very slippery. This make the pets too excited to play on the floors. Thus, scratches will potentially occur.

Further, the cracks between the planks also permit the urine to seep through. As a result, it damages the core layers of the flooring as well as the underlayment.

Laminate flooring can be much of advantage especially due to its expensive price.

You can actually expect to have this flooring at home though you live with pets. But you must be remember to replace it every few years if the pets are heavily trafficking it.

Based on the customer review, most people who live with active dogs feel regret to install laminate flooring.

It is due to the fact that the slippery laminate floors allow the pets to experience hip injuries from sliding and playing around the floors.

Finally, you can conclude that laminate flooring is not recommended for homes with pets unless a careful maintenance is well-performed.

However, if you insist on loving laminate flooring for your lovely homes, you may consider luxury vinyl flooring that has a similar look with the laminate flooring but better performance.