We have 5 dogs (3 collies, a large cross and a leonberger puppy) and we would be really grateful for any advice / experiences about what to replace our lounge carpet with. The carpet needs replacing and we are considering laminate, tiles or vinyl (or anything else that may be fairly easy to keep clean and will last at least a few years.)

Our main reason for wanting something other than carpet is that our cross and the leo pup hate the warmth of the carpet and much prefer our concrete porch floor.

Thank you for any advice you can give.

Hi would not recommend laminate flooring, I regret the day I bought the stuff :( It is terrible for the dogs, especially when they are excited and try and run through the kitchen and dining room, they slip and slide all over the place and this is not good for their joints (I have 3 Bernese and 1 springer x).
I have had to put rugs dotted around the laminate to avoid any bad accidents and to help my dogs get a grip on the floor.
I am planning to have tiled flooring throughout my ground floor of my house, the rough type so that the dogs can walk with ease on it and also like your leo, mine prefer a nice cool area to lay on, and at present favour ever the hallway or the back porch that has already got tiles down.
We did try vinyl, but my puppy (who is now 16 months) took great pleasure in ripping this up! :)

I too am having to make decision on kitchen flooring - having my kitchen and dining room extended and knocked into one. While i want something easy to clean its got to be dog proof but look stylish at the same time.

Tiles are good but our last kitchen we had light tiles and grout and the grout got really dirty (5 dogs) and so had to be scrubbed with a bush. The tiles where slightly rough but again seemed to harbour dirt.

Wooden floor would be great and this is waht we really want but not hard wearing enough with dogs claws, so now we have looked pergo flooring which comes in a variety of wood effect or tile effect - fits like laminate but much much stronger and hard wearing. Think its ceramic type stuff, not cheap.

Was gonna vinyl in my new utility but not so sure if its easy for dogs to get up!

Tiles every where would remind me of spanish villas and are not cosy enough for me esp in winter but dogs like them. My springers have never been on carpet before we moved recently and now when they're in the dining room they just seem to itch so much.

Good quality natural material floors don't seem to cause the dogs to slip too much but are more expensive.

My brother has had a solid wood floor laid - it's sealed with wax rather than varnish so isn't slippery at all.  Doesn't seem to show scratches either (from the dog or their daughters tricycle)

We had a slate floor in a previous kitchen which never looked dirty (even when it was) - the grout was quite dark so didn't show stains either. Also non slip

Modern laminates can be lethal.  A friends daughter slipped in their house and broke her wrist, the doctor said it's a very common accident!!

I have oak flooring down through the hall and dining room, with a wax coating, the dogs do not seem to mark it much (a bit of age looks fine anyway!) Cushion floor in the kitchen and tiles (Rough) in the conservatory/dogroom. I do have carpet in the lounge but the girlies tend to only use that room in the evening with us and they are clean and dry then!! They often slope of out into the hallway as it's cooler for them. I would Never Ever use laminate...it spells disaster to joints espesially in my big breed. I work in an A&E dept and we have lots of laminate floor accidents to people, you only have to have a drop of wet on it and it turns into a skating rink!!!....dog drool (Kitchen essensual during treat time or some cooking exploits!) on laminate is like your worst nightmare for slipping up :( :(
Aileen

Me too!
Have to decide on which flooring to have.
I am so far going with tiles, real ones probably but cant make my mind up about which ones.... (it's okay the walls aren't even built on the extension yet).

Pergo is really nice too, but I dont know how practical with dogs and heavy use.

I like the look of some of the stuff in B+Q...the bamboo is great.
So I am watching with interest, as I need help.

Karen

I have rough ceramic tiles in the kitchen and conservatory and Karndean everywhere else down stairs.  I can't recommend Karndean (again with ridges) enough - so easy to keep clean and no problem for dogs, even Rough Collies who are notoriously bad on slippery floors. :)  I wouldn't have anything else now.

Definately Karndean. It's the best! Not cheap, but woth every penny.

Karndean, will look this up as not heard of it.

Pergo comes in 3 strengths for wear and tear and is suppsoed to be very good as does not scratch. Will have to check about the slippyness of it when wet.

extension walls going up now so need to decide soon!

another vote for karndean.  I have wood effect karndean down and most people think it is real oak but it is pretty much indestructable.  It isn't cheap and I think ranges from £40-75 per square metre but is definitly worth it.  If I hadn't carpeted the upstairs at the same time as I put tiles and karndean downstairs I would definitely have had it throughout the house - love it!

When I moved into my present house, I had a large extension built on to the existing kitchen.  I have a multitude of dogs, including a Border Collie and 2 Bearded Collies.  I looked at the more expensive vinyls, and plumped for one called Rhino.  It was dearer than any carpet I'd ever bought, and very thick, but the deciding factor was the fact that they reckoned stilleto heels wouldn't mark it.  So I reckoned it could withstand dogs running on it.

It never looks dirty, and my lot play chase on it.  It is really, really easy to mop over.  I had it laid by carpet fitters, and not once has any been torn up by dogs.  It's now looking shabby - but hey!  I had it fitted in 1992!!!!!  :-)

I have laminate flooring, great for ease of cleaning, but due to the fact it's easy to slip on (and the fact he's too big to be zooming around the house), the dog is strictly not permited to run in the house. When he was a pup we had large rug in the middle of the livingroom so he could have traction & not slip over, also a 'runner' rug along the hallway for the same reason.

If your dogs romp/lollop/loon around the house then laminate flooring is not a good idea.

we have rhino vinyl flooring too,a wood effect but modern and its slightly grained non-slip called loft walnut  and the dogs have found it much better this summer.i got it much cheaper than rrp and it was delivered within a day or so of ordering.worked out cheaper than carpet for me from this carpet firm who have discounted vinyl.pm me if anyone wants the name of them.

We've have non-slip tiles(cream colour - NOT GOOD) downstairs with underfloor heating (which is great).  From time to time the grout does look grubby so had to invest in an industrial type floor cleaner which washes/scrubs/dries all in one. My brother got the big squares of fake tiles which click together from Homebase. His are "quarry" style in colour with fake grout but it never looks dirty, & I would definitely consider these if I had to do a floor again.

Non slip tile, use dark grout.

I have put down laminate, but you cannot leave dogs that might have an accident unattended on it as it will lift if wet gets under it, unless it has been sealed.

After less than a year on not the cheapest version  I have a bit de-laminating where I suspect one of my offspring spilled coke and didn't wipe up right away (12 year guarantee, but got nowhere with trying to claim for it).  It's covered with a mat as of course it is near the computer furthest from the door and would require lifting two thirds of it to replace that piece.

Tried laminate (the one that looks like ceramic tiles), never again, took it up and it had cost a fortune (left it down in the conservatory and have a rug covering most of it) it was like an ice rink for the dogs. I have stone tiles in the kitchen which are wonderful and can be scrubbed with a deck brush (they are slightly ridged), and carpet in my adjoining dining room.
I am considering stone tiles in the dining room. I think with warm rugs you can get a very cosy feel, and as brainless said, use dark grout, you can get loads of different colours.

I put light, ridged ceramic tiles in a living room in the past and everyone said that they would be cold, but once they were done, everyone loved them, as I did, which is why I've now got hard floors (ceramic and Karndean) all through down stairs in this house.  I wouldn't have carpet downstairs again.

i have a friend that comes from phillopinnes (sp) and she has wondered why us british have carpets in our houses! She thinks they are a dirt trap and horrid! She lives just down the road from me and has wood flooring and stone tiles throughout her house! I do agree with her, i spend more time cleaning my carpets then i do cleaning anything else! :)

My old girl can't stand on tiles or wooden floors any more - she does a Bambi-on-ice impersonation. I need to put rugs in the kitchen so that she doesn't hurt herself. :-( So if you plan to have elderly dogs you'll need to make provision for that.

> wood flooring and stone tiles throughout her house!

What does she have on the stairs?  I have carpets upstairs but now having had Karndean, would also put vinyl upstairs but was told it couldn't be put on the stairs.  brushing the stairs is one of my least favourite jobs.

Why I just love living in a bungalow now, it's wonderful! no child/dog stair gates, no silly stairs to hoover!  We have quarry tiles throughout the main living space apart from the diner part of our kitchen diner which is a wood-effect laminate and as it has a grain it isn't too slippy, in fact the tiles are more slippy as they are smooth.

i too need something dogproof!i think iwill have to settle for laminate,as its cheapest,not too bothered about looks,so i dont mind having rugs down for grip.this carpets wrecked!puppy weed on it(bad trainer!)and i plan another pup next year.its either laminate or vinyl!- - -

> i too need something dogproof!i

Laminate isn't as wee will get under it.

have had laminate before hated it as it was too slippy for the dogs . I now have real wooden flooring through hall kitchen and living area sooooo easy to keep clean, not slippy, dogs like it because it cool  and you dont get that doggy smell after time.

I personally prefer carpet to walk on and like it to look at but not with 3 hairy beardies.

Hot tip

I use my dogs slicker brush on the stairs fantastic :)

got to be as cheap as poss,broke here!mabe vinyl and a nice big rug then!

Westcoast
I had a look at Karndean, and some of the wood effect look fabulous. Is it non slip though, or just a bit less slippy because of the ridges? I'm really quite beginning to fancy that :)

By the way, I have stone tiles rather than ceramic, so completely non slip.

Pergo laminate in the lounge, it has a matt finish and the dogs know they are not allowed to play in there. 

Slate or limestone elsewhere, which they cope with fine.

I chose this one http://www.karndean.co.uk/site/products.cfm?product_ID=1029 because it is ridged and really non slip.  Some of the others are smooth.  My local retailer/fitter has a large area done with all different types of Karndean.  I took my dogs - a breed notorious for not liking shiny and slippery floors - into the showroom and walked them round for half an hour with no problem on any of it before I ordered. :)

You can order samples on line and start to make a choice that way before going to a showroom.  I had the downstairs done for under £40 sq m supplied and fitted, which actually compared well with decent carpet and underlay fitted.  It's been down for about 18 months and is soooooo easy to look after, and it always looks good.  Nobody believes that it's not wood until they bend down and touch it!

My daughter had Amtico (the posher version!) in her previous house and it was a good when they sold as they day it was put down and it sold the house for her it looked so good.

how bizarre westcoast - I have the same one and it looks amazing.  I kept it plain and didn't add borders or anything else and I always get complimented on the floor.  What great taste you have westcoast ;)

Why thank you cheekychow! :) :)  Mine is plain too. :)

And us we are having a kitchen/ diner/ lounge all in one. I think a tile in the kitchen area but a reclaimed wooden floor possibly in the rest as its already "scratched" as such then waxed. I did fancy black slate but OH siad it would have to be sealed annually. I have gone through three carpets so far since we had the dogs 2 years ago, never carpets again.

>I have gone through three carpets so far since we had the dogs 2 years ago,

How?

One of my breeders had the coating put down on her floors which they use in kennels through her hallway. It doesn't look great but does the job very well as you can imagine.
She has laminate type flooring in the lounge which is grooved and saw her dogs run in and out on it with no problems. Again these are large breed dogs.

I like the idea of flagstone, but not even ventured into the cost of these yet.

> Amtico

Just had a look at their website, really like the look of their products so have ordered some brochures.

When we got the dogs we had pale cream ! changed that for a green again quite plain and what with mud and accidents it left it with patches, even with a vax I could not get it really clean. This one is a motley browny colour a lot more wearing but with a BC and Cocker the hair seems to stick so I spend time on my hands and knees with a plastic flip flop picking up hair. Next flkoor something completely different. Ive ordered the Kardean (sp?) brochures look very good.

A slicker brush will get more hair up than the flip flop, especially off shorter pile.

I can also recommend Karndean. Had it in the kitchen, hall and 'dog's room' for 4 years and it still looked great when I ripped it up last week (what a job that was). Am getting a new kitchen, took away part of a wall etc. and thats the only reason it came up.
Am getting new Karndean down as soon as all the kitchen work is done.
I find that as it is textured, the dogs can grip it better. Laminate just caused them to slide.
You can also 'strip' and recoat your Karndean if you feel it is getting a bit dull.

Westcoast: that is GORGEOUS