If you have pets, deciding on the proper floor is a really significant part your interior planning process. Even though a lot of people imply that wood flooring isn't ideal when you have four-legged friends in your home, there's no reason why you need ton't be able to make hardwood flooring function for you and your pets equally. Here are our Top Three Tips for Selecting the Most Appropriate flooring for pets:
Invest in hardwood flooring, not softwood since your initial investment will pay off more term. More hard wearing than softwood, hardwood will stand up well to high traffic out of both pets and humans. Wood species such as walnut, ipe or walnut are perfect choices.
Opt for solid timber, not designed wood. Because pets' claws are likely to cause scratching to your flooring, it is important to get the peace of mind of knowing that you can sand your floor if you want to. Solid wood flooring will withstand significantly more sanding into its lifetime than engineered wood flooring.
Decide on a hardwearing finish for your floor. When it comes to pets, the two oiled and lacquered finishes have their pros and cons. Lacquered will show scratches more readily than oiled, but will stand up to wear and tear. Oiled solid floors at a house that has pets will probably need to be recoated more frequently than at a home which does not have pets, but is very likely to look less tired in-between times.
So, once you have made your choice of species of solid hardwood floors with a lacquered or oiled end, it's time to look at what else you can do help keep your floor looking great longer:
Maintain your pet's claws trimmed. Long, scratchy claws may play havoc with hardwood floors, particularly if your dog or cat is more prone to running about vigorously! For this reason, it is important to try and maintain your pet's claws well trimmed so that they don't damage your floor.
Dry your pet when they come in from the wet. Unlike (most) human beings, pets usually do not wash their feet before coming into the home, however many doormats you supply! Because of this, it's really important to ensure to rub down your pet when they are in from outside. In particular, the mixture of dirt, grime and moisture is bad news on your floor, so do make sure you're attentive in your attempts to dry off your pet before they come into your property.
Mop up any accidents promptly. Although elderly pets are not as likely to have small mishaps, if they don't occur, or when you've got a puppy or a kitten, do be sure that you spray any urine as fast as you can because urine can cause profound staining that could be difficult to remove. Effectively, it is the ammonia in urine which causes the wood to discolour and appear unsightly. In case you have urine-stained flooring you will learn how deal with it here.
