Hardwood floors and the kids

[Sheehan]

I thought that I had seen a post for this, but I couldn't find it. We are looking to get hard wood floors. How do newfies do with these? Or am I going to have not only skating girls in stocking feet but skating pups too. Also is there a good way to get fur up off tile floors. It seems like I sweep and sweep and sweep and sweep. There is no end to the fur. HELP. THanks Sheehan

 

[Erika]

We have tile and slate floors no wood,,we scatter some throws around to break - up the skating rink effect.as far as the fur,well welcome to the land of hairballs,you get to like them after awhile, they dance in the breeze,jump off your dust pan like divers in the olympics and you will chase them like they are fuzzy pieces of gold, we have 5 dogs who grow hairballs on our floors that look like BIG FOOt,welcome to land of fur, drool and dust....lol.sorry couldnt be of more help..lol

 

[TerriW]

Lots of grooming helps, especially this time of year when they're starting to blow their coats. I notice that keeps it way down. Also, gotta love a swiffer. They pick up a lot.

 

[Tobysmom]

I have to say, we have tile throughout most of the house, but the dining room and formal living room have hardwood. The few times that Toby has been in those rooms with the wood floors I had to help him up.. Literally! He couldn't get enough traction to get up.. I put my feet in front of his front paws, and he was able to push against my feet and get up.. And I'm pretty good about making sure the fur on the bottom of his feet is kept trimmed short.. I don't know if it's a problem with everyone that has wood floors though, maybe Toby is just clumsy??

I don't think I would put wood in the rooms that the dog is going to spend most of his time, unless a good portion of it is going to be covered with carpet.

 

[kmanthe]

Furball city. But I have one of those broom-like things that has rubber teeth and it works great driving the furballs into one area, and easy enough to use frequently. On the other side it has a squeegy for the windows! I love this thing, I bought it at a craft show years ago and it's still going strong.

As far as traction goes, Cleo doesn't have any problem getting around. But we have always had wood floors so she has never known a difference.

kelly

 

[Michelle]

Our dogs do horribly on hard wood floors. in fact, we have a rug under our desk and the dogs will both walk between the chair and the desk to get from the living room to the kitchen to avoid the hard wood in the dining room. We have an offer on a house now - its a ranch with no stairs and no hard wood! Just for the dogs!

 

[TerriW]

Originally posted by Toby's mom:
I don't know if it's a problem with everyone that has wood floors though, maybe Toby is just clumsy??

I don't think he's clumsy. Mine have problems too. It's why I like carpet. On hardwood I've learned to scatter small rugs everywhere; it helps them to get back up and down. (Plus I can toss them in the washer frequently!)

 

[N2N Mags Dad]

Ours do pretty well on hardwood. Kitchen is unfinished oak, its better than the finished oak.

Need to keep trimming the fur that grows in between each pad on each foot, though. And there is definitely more risk of slipping. A better setup would be rugs over hardwood.

Our carpeted areas are kind of nasty due to the dogs. Will replace with wood as soon as finances allow.

 

[johnwest53]

We replaced our berber rugs with bamboo hardwood. We have lots of scatter rugs, keep the feet trimmed, and have scatter rugs around. We haven't had a problem with the girls slipping or sliding. They like the tile in the kitchen best to lie on cuz it's cool. They actually had trouble with getting their nails caught in the berber before we took it out. We got the bamboo because it had a 30 year warranty versus 25 years on most other woods.

 

[ardeagold]

Well, we covered up all our custom oak random plank hardwood in the FR/Kitchen with big ceramic tiles. Why? Because the finished oak became unfinished oak in no time!!

Our hallway is next...we're just trying to figure out what to put on top of that.

We have sandy soil...and only three dogs use that hallway, ever. It looks like it's never had a bit of stain on it, down the middle. Yep...it's the sandblasted look!!

Make sure you have a zillion layers of polyurethane on it, and then cover it with lots of runners and rugs.

The dogs should do fine with the rugs in place, and I hope you have nicer soil (no sand) so the floors will fare well too!!

To keep the fur at a minimum...sweep, vacuum, sweep, sweep and vacuum again...every day!

It gets better once he's blown his puppy coat and the adult coat comes in. Then you only have to lose your mind in the Spring and the Fall!!

John & Di - Ohhh...bamboo...you lucky things! That's really gorgeous flooring!!

[ 04-16-2006, 11:43 PM: Message edited by: Ardeagold ]

 

[mulenag]

No hardwood flooring here, but I have to say that Swiffer is amazing. I have a "wand" thinging in the kitchen and in the laundry room that are constantly loaded with a cloth. Both of those rooms are ceramic tile. I used to sweep, sweep, sweep, but the Swiffer really does a good job.