I ditched the carpets years ago and have currently got vinyl flooring which I love. It has been great. or has been until the arrival of Tess. Tess has discovered the joys of ripping it up  and it just cannot stand up to her attentions. I really need to replace it now. Obviously I am reluctant to replace with more vinyl flooring in case she shreds the new floor. I don't like laminate as I find it noisy, slippy and I worry about liquids leaking through the joins. Carpet is completely impractical with dogs so I am looking for something like vinyl flooring but considerably tougher. Is there any such thing?

I'm having 'Tegola' fitted next week. It's a vinyl-laminate hybrid, so tough and waterproof (to an extent)-it clicks together like laminate does, too. Here's a bit if info on it. It's £29.99 a square metre from Carpet Right.

A friend has,
Altro
www.jrflooringdirect.co.uk/altr
in her kitchen, bathrooms & even down the wall of her shower in place of tiles, 'obviously' water proof, hard wearing but not under foot, looks great & fantastic choice of colours. Yes I know it's the material used in hospitals & probably your vets but when we have the kitchen/bathroom floors done again this is what I'll be choosing, l'll even ask for it to go up the skirting board for a couple of inches.

Just had a look at Altro and notice they even do wood effect flooring, so have sent for samples. I was thinking about tiling, as I, like the OP, have chewers/diggers and worried about vinyl lasting. However the cost of tiling was putting me off.

We tiled the kitchen years ago when we had new units put in and have never regretted it. We had to have tiles as there is a wood burner in the room which occasionally spits out hot bits when more wood is being put in. A vinyl floor would have had to be replaced several times over by now. It's been a godsend for the dogs, easy to clean, non chewable and nice and cold for hot dogs. The main drawbacks are cost and if you drop anything it invariably breaks!

I love my Karndean flooring but not sure how it would stand a digger.

I've lived with ceramic tiles in my living room before and liked them too.  The non slip tiles weren't expensive but the fitting was.  So I contacted a tiler who was happy for me to do the middle and he came for half a day and cut all round the edges, which wasn't a lot at all!  I then grouted and it looked good.

I would only ever have ceramic tiles in kitchen, bathrooms etc. I've never considered it for a living room, although I know that a lot of warmer countries have this. Tiles do make a room echo/be noisy, so you would need rugs down which would still get chewed/damaged (although cheaper than a whole new floor :) ) Yes, things do break if dropped on tiles - we made the mistake of buying ceramic handled cutlery years ago :) Fortunately, my OH does all our tiling so not too expensive.

We've got Karndean all through the house, and it's a big success.    Wish we'd had it years ago.    None of ours are serious diggers, but it's still as good as when it was laid 5 years ago, and looks fit for many more.

Jo

@mumkeemojo

I've been considering something like your tegola for our kitchen.  It has a different name here.  I don't see how it can possibly have water proof seams?  The tile itself yes, but the seams?  What's going to happen when the critter's water bowl tips over or my dishwasher leaks, or the snowballs on doggy underparts melt off, or heck, when I use too much water to damp mop?  Isn't that moisture going to seep between the seams and then warp my plywood floor underneath?  Have you put it down yet?  Do you like it?

> I don't see how it can possibly have water proof seams

If a dog is sick/has the runs, how would you clean thoroughly ?

Jetstone Jewel - it's not down yet, but will let you know what it's like. Not really thought about the joins! We've had laminate in the kitchen for over 10 years, so I don't think we'll notice much of a difference-can't say I've ever noticed and gaps or damage from spilt water etc. It's going over concrete, so at least if water does get underneath, it won't do too much damage.