Spotted gum flooring and dogs compatibility

Hi,
I am needing advice in relation to my flooring choice of spotted gum in my new home, this needs a final decision this week!!
I will have an area of 125 sqmts in my living areas to be covered. I have 2 devine French Bulldogs who live inside 24/7 and my concern is what impact they will have on the spotted gum flooring. In my current home we live with tiled areas, but I don't want that in my new house.

I have though about bamboo flooring as I believe that it is hard and may tolerate the dogs better, but I would prefer spotted gum for aesthetic appearances.

Please help if anybody has dogs living with either floor type and advice re best choice, floor impacts.

Cheers stressed purrfect1

Hi, here's some of the ratings on typical timber floors. The higher the Janka number, the harder it is.
Species Janka (kN) rating
Bamboo (strand woven) 16.1 Grey Box 15.0
Ironbark 14.0 Grey Iron Bark 14.0
Mahogany 12.0 Jatoba 12.0
Santos Mahogany 12.0 Copper Cherry 11.6
Spotted Gum 11.0 Brushbox 9.5
Kempas 9.2 Blackbutt 9.1
Karri 9.0 Sydney Blue Gum 9.0


Your choice is to either go for good quality bamboo (strand woven, as the others aren't as hard) or be prepared to sand and re-seal your gorgeous spotted gum floors every two years or so to keep them looking good, especially if your dogs tear around inside as well.

Personally, I would get the spotted gum (love it!) and hope for 2 years plus at least!! I have a chichuaha and a shih tzu and with a daily walk, they don't use the house for their play time. But if your dogs are still puppies, play can be anywhere, anytime. . .

Hi,

The issue here is not at all about the hardness of the floor, as that refers to the dent resistance. The dogs are not going to be denting you floor, they are going to be scratching it. That is reflective of the surface coating.

So in terms of that, you could have anything installed and if it had a similar coating, it would scratch. Aluminium Oxide coatings are harder than the usual acrylic and PU coatings, but because of that are also harder work to resurface later on. In saying that, only a tiny % of people ever resurface a floating floor anyway.

The other thing to consider is spills of water bowls and accidents in relation to your dogs needing to go to the loo Water and timber or timber like floors do not go well together.

The most suitable floor actually would be a high quality laminate floor with a minimum of an AC4 scratch resistance. That would give you the most protection against the damages your dogs may cause. At around 12-15 times harder than a kitchen bench top, they top the charts when it comes to scratching. In other words the floor would look the best longest. The question though is whether you like any of that type of floor.

We would suggest that you consider a click profile, regardless of what type of floor. The reason is that if you have a water spill or an accident you can unclick your floor and replace a panel here or there and remedy your damaged floor.

Best wishes for your flooring project.

Heres the simple version, spotted gum is as hard as a cats head!

Hahah. so how hard is a cats head ?

Why were posts removed from this topic????

Your dogs will not dent your boards ....... but they will scratch it, as will people in traffic areas wearing shoes. The last floor I did was in water based polyurethane (the one before that was 2 pack), and a satin finish. It requires many more coats than 2 pack to build up thickness BUT you can resurface sections without sanding, just give it a good wash, and add a new coat. You can't do that with 2 pack, need to do a whole room. The flooring guys charge more for water based but it's a great DIY, dries fast, no smell. Flooring guys don't like it becasue to get the same thickness as 2 coats of 2 pack, takes 6 coats of water based... time is money. The material costs about the same but you need more coats.
The new house I'm building will have timber floor ....... and water based finish again. I fisrt got onto it after reading that they used it in a church that gets 2000 visitors per day ....... reason was it is easy to recoat, BUT still extremely durable. I usually get a professional sander in, but finsih the boards myself. Also the water based products don't yelow from the sun, the 2 pack products need UV stablisers added or you get yellowing where the sunshines in the most eg westerly windows.

I'm looking at iron bark .... I never take my shoes off when I get home initially, can't ask guests to take their shoes off if they visit, and I have a 6 year old and he rides his bike inside the house and is always dropping diecast trucks and toys...... hence I will be getting impact check plaster board ..... for the bike crashes.

The posts weren't removed, the dope asked the same question in two different forums and unfortunately you and I replied in the other one.

Sorry, new to this and the first time so wanted all the advice I could get

So have you made a decision? I hope they aren't getting thrown out! I looked them up on wiki and they look like nice little tackers.

They currently live inside so there are obviously no toileting issues, just keep the food and water bowls on a mat on the laundry tiles or out the back door. No probs.

I hope they enjoy their new floors.

Thanks. I think we will bite the bullet and go with the engineered spotted gum. Re their water bowl, I had the same thought, as you suggested, water bowl in the laundry on tiles. When they drink they continue to drip/pour after they move away from the bowl, and even though we currently have that on tiles on a rubber mat the surrounding floor has a wash. Hey, but love them to bits and wouldn't part with them for the world.
Will post a photo or two later when time permits so you can see the little gems!!!

I am in the same dilemma as you are but I believe I have solved the problem. We are getting engineered spotted gum floorboards in a few weeks, after our kitchen is completed. We have 2 small=medium size dogs. I was stressing out re them scratching the new boards on day 1. They run around and chase each other. So after much thought, I decided to buy the dogs a pair x2 of doggy booties. They are great. They look really cute on them and do the job. No scratching of the floor. I will probably get their nails cut as well but will not let them in the house without their booties. Hope this helps, good luck.

Whatever you do, if you go for laminate be wary, We did heaps of research, went with a well rated product recommended by the staff, it looked fantastic when it was first laid - within months it was flaring at the edges with any moisture even when you dry it straight away- walk in with wet boots - flared within 20 minutes and stays that way, really really awful. The product is rated (supposedly) AC3 which is Heavy Duty residential, Light Commercial even ok for in bathrooms and kitchens - this is an international rating - if the product fails even one test (such as the moisture test) it doesn't qualify for a rating. Don't believe this product matches the rating and don't be fooled by the 25 year guarantee - It doesn't mean the retailer will back this product even though they are happy to sell it with an international rating and guarantee. Go to a reputable supplier who will back their product, best to know someone with the product who is happy with it after at least 6 months?