When the love of your life becomes old and can’t control its bladder anymore, your flooring is going to take a beating. The love of your life that I’m talking about, of course, is your pet. A new pet that is housetraining will also damage many types of flooring. Constant mopping or laying of newspaper is only a temporary solution.
If you’re a pet person and are considering making your floors more ‘pet-friendly’, this post will help you decide your best option.
Avoid these non-pet-friendly floors
Before we look at the best flooring types for pets that have accidents, let’s consider which floors will suffer most from pet pee:
- Carpets literally suck up dog and cat urine. You can tackle the smell, but you must act fast (see our post ‘The ‘purrfect’ way to remove cat urine odor from carpet’ for more information). If your dog or cat is accident prone, you’ll spend most of your average day lifting and cleaning.
- Wood floors will be stained by pet urine – even if you think you’ve dealt with the smell, your pet’s senses will seek it out. Both dogs and cats tend to urinate where they have before, so you can guarantee it will pee in the same place time and again. Even if your wooden floor has been treated, most treatments won’t stop pet urine by being absorbed by the wood.
Our advice is to avoid carpets, rugs and wood. Instead, choose vinyl, laminate, or tiles.
Vinyl flooring: the optimum choice for pet-owners
Without a doubt, vinyl flooring is the best option for pets that have accidents. Luxury vinyl floors from Mannington come in a wide range of designs. Its slate and stone patterns look just like the real thing, as does its wood-styled laminates. These laminates are waterproof, though not all are.
Luxury vinyl flooring is thick (it feels great underfoot), and must be glued. Cheaper vinyl simply needs sticking. The glue helps to give luxury vinyl its waterproof quality – it’s cheaper, but won’t stop pet urine attacking the floor underneath.
Laminate: almost as good as luxury vinyl for pets that pee
If you want the hardwood look with a more waterproof quality, laminate flooring could be the best choice. It’s softer ad warmer underfoot, too, as well as being highly scratch resistant. Unlike tiles, there is no need to grout.
A treated laminate floor will be water resistant. If you mop up a pet accident within a couple of minutes or so, the spill won’t have had time to seep in (sometimes such laminate is called ‘spill-proof’). However, if your pet is prone to urinate while you’re out of the home and the urine could lay for a few hours, you might have a problem.
Tiles: not quite the waterproof flooring you might think
Most people think that tiled floors are waterproof, but they’re not. Marble floors, especially, will absorb pet urine. The nearest to being waterproof are porcelain and ceramic tiles. If you do lay tiled flooring, be careful to grout between the tiles to seal and help your waterproofing efforts. Check the grouting regularly, to make sure that none has chipped or fallen away through natural wear and tear.
So, there’s our choice of the best flooring for those with pets that have accidents:
Vinyl, with laminate a close second, and tiles not too far behind. Steer clear of carpet and wood.
If you are considering changing your flooring, contact Porter's. We’ll help you choose the best floor for needs, tastes, and home.