Best Flooring for Dogs

Just like us, dogs walk on the floor all the time. While we spend our time on a couch, bed, or any other comfy place in the house to relax, dogs, on the other hand, spend almost all day on the floor. They sleep, lay down, rolling, eating, even sometimes pooping on the floor.

Therefore, you must pay attention to your flooring option if you’re planning to have a dog or you already have a dog, and you’re planning to decorate your house flooring.

Things to Consider Before Choosing Flooring for Dogs

It either you adjust your dog for flooring or adjust your flooring for your dog.

First, if you choose to adjust your dog for the flooring option you are planning to choose, you have to trim the nail of your dog to prevent scratch.

Also, you have to treat the fur of your pet, so it doesn’t litter all over the place. That would be a case of maintenance. You need to control and train your dog to pee and poo in the litter box as well.

However, if you choose to adjust your flooring for your dogs, then you need to pick the flooring type which is strong and able to withstand such problems the dog would usually cause, such as littering, scratch, water spill, or dirt.

You should research the pros and cons of your flooring option and relate that on how your dog would behave. That would be very much easier for you later.

Now, what are things you should consider in adjusting your flooring if you have dogs?

• Water-resistant. Just like other conditions, having a pet requires you to at least have a water-resistant flooring at your house. Animals, dogs, in particular, are gonna cause trouble for sure. Either it is a water spill, muddy feet, or any food spill, you cannot control what your dog could possibly cause.
• Scratch-resistant. Dogs have paws. As much as dogs like to play around, they like to scratch a lot. After waking up from a nap or standing on a soft surface, they would naturally be scratching. If your flooring is not scratch-resistant, then you’d probably have your floor torn down.
• Durability. For us, we want to have comfortable flooring to step on. We want the soft one, water-resistant, scratch-resistant, and stain-less. For dogs, they get comfortable in traction on just some flooring types. Either way, those should last long and durable. Having dogs or any pet in your house and changing it several times is gonna be not a pleasant job to do.

Best Flooring Options for Dogs

Here is the list of the best flooring options you shall choose if you have dogs in your house.

1. Vinyl

Vinyl is probably one of the best and most versatile flooring types amongst all. Not just water-resistant, vinyl flooring is very much waterproof and scratch-resistant.

For heavy human traffic, vinyl works fine. For dogs traffic, it’s no exception. The improvement of vinyl floorings such as LVT and LVP, like many building use, already feels very cozy on our feet.

Besides, in case your dogs cause trouble, vinyl flooring is easy to maintain. The spill and the dogs’ paws are not gonna damage the floor easily.

Dogs, you see, they love a warm floor in winter and the opposite in the summer. Vinyl flooring can handle that because vinyl can get heat radiant underneath the installation.

Moreover, they have come in a thick wear layer and good design as well. To keep it shiny and new, you are free to clean it in any way possible. I think having this kind of floor for us and our doggies is just a perfect choice.

Nevertheless, vinyl flooring is constructed of synthetic material which is not so eco friendly. The quality of the printed photograph under the coating is also very possible to fade as time goes by.

2. Solid Hardwood

Just like us humans, what dogs love about solid hardwood is its warmth. The naturality of solid hardwood makes it very hard and warm on the surface.

However, its hard surface does not make dogs feel slippery or something. Instead, it’s kinda soft that they would probably scratch a lot, even gouge your wood surface and make some holes.

However, hardwood flooring can be refinished by sanding. Its ability to look new by sanding it is something special for solid hardwood. Therefore it is also not a bad choice to install solid hardwood at your house with dogs inside.

Solid hardwood sounds very much vintage but gold. However, some kinds of hardwood flooring are very easy to scratch and not very water-resistant unless you wipe the spill right away.

But still, there is a possibility that your flooring got damaged. Also, if you demand a good quality hardwood flooring which is gonna look very polished after standing, such as maple or ipe, that is quite expensive. You should prepare backup budgeting, just in case.

3. Engineered Wood

For you who would love to minimize the cons of having real hardwood for flooring, you’re lucky. There are alternatives to hardwood flooring that will look exactly the same as hardwood, but of course, they have different specs.

Engineered hardwood is one of the hardwood alternatives. This one is layered by plywood at the base and a transparent layer on the surface.

This feels similar to hardwood, but a little bit different. Engineered hardwood is thinner, but it comes at a lower price in comparison to real hardwood.

Installing it with petting dogs in your house is not a bad idea. But, your dogs can scratch the surface and gouge it.

Engineered wood is not constructed scratch-resistant, so the surface can still be torn. You can send it to repair the look, but unlike real hardwood, you cannot sand engineered wood flooring as many as you wish.

4. Bamboo

Bamboo flooring is another alternative flooring to hardwood flooring. This type of flooring is also a natural material, and it is harder than solid hardwood.

What’s good for dogs from bamboo flooring is that it has that warmth a natural wood can offer. Therefore dogs would love to walk on bamboo flooring as well.

This type of flooring can be quite cold in winter, in which dogs are not very comfortable. But the installation of radiant heating underneath the bamboo flooring itself is possible.

Bamboo flooring is natural and sensitive to moisture. It could damage the planks, but it is also very easy to clean. The key is to be very diligent in the maintenance.

5. Cork

You’re reading the part of one of the best wood family for flooring. Just like other natural floorings, cork has its warmth that dogs like.

Its surface also has that cushiony sensation that is very soft once you and your little puppies step on it. It is very comfortable for pets to lay down in cork flooring.

The best spec of cork flooring is that this one is anti-microbial flooring. That means it is very much less possible for you and your dogs to get a disease that comes from microorganisms.

This way, you can keep your dogs healthy and comfortable. It is also effortless to clean. You can even do up to damp moping on cork flooring.

However, cork flooring is only water-resistant, not waterproof. Once your dogs cause any water spill, wipe the water right away.

Otherwise, the water could warp and damage the plank. The gorgeous color from coated cork flooring also will fade if it gets too much sun exposure.

Therefore, make sure the sunlight is enough for your dogs and not too much for your cork floor.

6. Ceramic or Porcelain Tile

Some of you may have already known that ceramic tile comes in either glazed or unglazed. Both are comfortable for humans, but a little bit too hard for dogs. The best thing about ceramic or porcelain tile is that it is totally waterproof.

No matter how much water spilled on the floor, it won’t get damaged. The dirt or the spill is also going to be very easy to clean. The durability of ceramic tile is high as long as you install it in an even and balanced foundation.

Nevertheless, the glazed tile is very slippery for our furry friend. Dogs will get difficulty in standing after sleeping or lying down on the floor because it is very smooth and glossy. It has less traction.

But for the unglazed one, it is quite okay for the dogs because it still has that earthy texture, which has enough traction for their legs to stand and walk.

7. Laminate

Laminate flooring is okay and possible to be installed in the house whom the owner has dogs.

However, it is not the best recommendation. It has that scratch-resistance, which is very safe for humans because we want our flooring to keep in its best quality as we first bought it.

It is also water-resistance, and it comes in a relatively thick plank. Therefore, the sound is absorbed, and the level of scratch possible to be there is significantly less.

But if we see from the perspective of dogs, they don’t like slick surfaces like what laminate flooring offers. They have less traction, and their paws are not gonna feel comfortable to scratch and stand in a very thick and slick surface of the floor.

Once an animal, including our lovely pets, is not comfortable or angry, they will do something disturbing such as barking out loud or showing rebellion in some possible ways.

Further reading: Laminate vs. Vinyl Flooring

8. Carpet

Carpeting sounds very comfortable, isn’t it? It feels very soft and cozy to step, sit, even lay down. It sounds the same for dogs too! They love carpet flooring.

They could have maximum traction, a great warmth, and a surface to play around. You can play with your dogs comfortably in your carpet flooring.

The downside is in the damage and the heavy-maintenance homework you may have afterward. As we know, dogs have fur that could fall everywhere, all over the place.

Once a dogs’ fur has fallen and littered everywhere in a carpet flooring, it is gonna be nearly impossible for you to clean it all up.

Yes, you can still vacuum and sweep it harshly, but it’s gonna be there again the next day, and the next day.

Speaking of cleaning and maintenance, you’re gonna have to deal with dogs that drool a lot, and the possibility of any trouble your dogs can cause on the floor. That might be something that has to do with water.

Meanwhile, carpet flooring is not water-resistant. Once it gets wet, you can vacuum it or take it off and dry it. But the installation typically needs nailing or gluing, which makes it hard to dry.

Which Floor Suits Best?

All of the options above have pros and cons regarding dogs’ perspective as an animal.

What’s essential to note is that once you decide to have dogs or any pet in this regard, you have to be ready. You must be prepared for any trouble your pets may cause, including what would happen on your floor.

Therefore, to feel comfortable together with your pet, choose the best flooring for your house. You can choose one for only those your dogs can access, or for the entire house.

No matter where you want to install or how you would like to do that, maintenance is the key. You have to make your dogs comfortable, but make it possible to take good care of the flooring.