# Wood floor suggestions?



## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

I am serious thinking of getting a wooden floor in the Living room/hall area. Any suggestions?


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## trueblue (Jan 22, 2008)

DO NOT get bamboo! I was so excited about getting it because of the "green" value in it, and I read that it was very durable...NOT.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

We have oak hardwood floors, which are pretty common in this part of the country. (probably the MOST common wood flooring) I think the floors in the older part of the house were put in the old fashioned way... put in place and then finished. In the addition, which we built after we moved here, but 20 years ago now, we used pre-finished oak flooring. It is installed exactly the same way, but the finish is applied at the factory. The advantages are obvious... you can walk on it right away, and no fumes!


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## ama0722 (Nov 28, 2006)

I would also say no to the bamboo. Our rental in LA had them and the doorways were worn down 2 years later. We just put in brazillian cherry and I love them


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## pjewel (Apr 11, 2007)

I have to agree, the Brazilian Cherry is beautiful, but then again so are many of the pre-finished hardwood floors. A lot of people are currently buying the wide plank and the hand scraped flooring. Maple floors are another beautiful option. It's really about preference.


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## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

I hear you on the Bamboo! Thank you so much for the replies, keep them coming! How do the Havs manage a hardwood with the RLH's?


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## Evye's Mom (Dec 16, 2008)

LOL. And I'm wondering if carpeting is easier upkeep than hardwood. My wood floors have constant paw prints and it shows EVERYTHING. Cleaning involves first thoroughly vacuuming and then washing the floors and it stays clean for 5 minutes. I know carpeting has a lot of hidden dirt...but it's the hidden part that I like.


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## Miss Paige (Apr 4, 2008)

I put Oak wood flooring in all my rooms-it was put in last summer-Aug while I was at the Nationals in Chicago. I can see scratch marks from the "kids" & when it rains no matter how dry you think their paws are they leave wet marks on the floor. I keep a towel handy for both the feet & the floor. The kids slide on the floor and "spin their wheels" when they start to run-but seem to not have any real problems.

And I do still love my floors just know there is a lot of upkeep with dogs and floors-but heck that also goes for dogs and carpets.

Pat (humom to)
Miss Paige
Mr Roman
Ms Frannie


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## KarmaKat (Feb 19, 2010)

I love my wood floors! I use an Oreck vacuum that auto adjusts from wood to carpet and has a long cord. It is great for cat hair. My carpets on the other hand have cat fur collecting on all the edges near the walls. It is very hard to get out. 

I do like the orange cleaner, but I have heard it is not good for Havs....? 

Guess I'll have to find another cleaner.


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## ksj123 (Jun 17, 2009)

We put pergo (laminate) wood flooring in our house, and love it. It's very durable. My only suggestion is, getting a medium to lighter color. I think the darker color shows more dust, paw prints, etc.. Have fun picking out whatever you get.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

HavaneseSoon said:


> I hear you on the Bamboo! Thank you so much for the replies, keep them coming! How do the Havs manage a hardwood with the RLH's?


Mine has no problem, but I also have large orientals in most rooms.


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## Maxmom (Jul 22, 2008)

I love my wood floors, paw prints and all! I got a satin finish on my floors so you don't see paw prints as well.


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## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

I planned on getting some small rugs here and there for the floors....and a hallway runner for the boys! As for the tips so far....the satin finish is brilliant! And, the medium finish is great! 

Yea.....I know....the stuff will show up faster on a hardwood faster than carpet, but, I am soooooooooooooooooooo ready for hardwood floors. 

I figure if I can wait another 6-8 months...potty issues will be 50 - 80% over, then I will need something else to do! Vacuuming the floor!


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## Lina (Apr 26, 2007)

Wide plank maple all the way! That's what my old apartment had and I loved it so much. Never looked dirty even when I didn't clean it. And it lasted SO well for the 2 years we lived in there. When we buy a place we'll definitely eventually go for maple flooring for sure.


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## Maxmom (Jul 22, 2008)

My wood floors are from Anderson Hardwood Flooring. They have great reviews. When the installers opened the box, they smiled and said installers love to see Anderson. They said it was easy to install and rarely any boxes needed to go back.


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## Flynn Gentry-Taylor (Jan 17, 2008)

I like my wood floors and they have stood up well, however when I do replace the kitchen and entry floors I am going for Cork. I have a listing which has cork flooring in the large eat in kitchen and it is absolutely wonderful!!


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## galaxie (Dec 1, 2009)

Personally, I would go for the reclaimed wood floors. They're beautiful, and you can feel good about them! My grandparents recently redid their home with these floors and they are very happy with them!


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## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

Great tips! Anyone install their own floors?


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## The Laughing Magpie (Aug 20, 2009)

I have Maple flooring in my house it was built in 70 (my DH's parents had it built) I have had it redone and used oil base finish (not green I know) Nothing shows up. Since you live in NC we have a big seller of reclaimed wood for floors costs about the same and you can choose. This old type of wood will last years longer and can be refinished many times.


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## The Laughing Magpie (Aug 20, 2009)

Flynn, I plan to redo my walk out basement with cork it is wonderful. I tell people here and they act like I'm touched!!!!! If I have a flood it will be fine. It's easy to clean. absorbs sound, and looks great. What more could one ask?


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## hartman studio (Feb 14, 2008)

We have hickory floors- they are beautiful!!! Everyone that walks in our house comments on them. It is very durable,too. I also love the wide plank and reclaimed pine look. After watching floors installed I don't think I would attempt it myself unless you buy prefinished floors-way too much dust!


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## trueblue (Jan 22, 2008)

The Laughing Magpie said:


> Flynn, I plan to redo my walk out basement with cork it is wonderful. I tell people here and they act like I'm touched!!!!! If I have a flood it will be fine. It's easy to clean. absorbs sound, and looks great. What more could one ask?


I wanted to use cork too! I love the look of it, and I hear its very durable.


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## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

Ok..............What does the floor look like when the kids come back in from outside? How much vacuuming are you guys doing? 

Any pictures of floors post Havs? That is with all the grass, leaves, twigs, wetness, etc.,?


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## Lina (Apr 26, 2007)

Wide plank maple after 2 years of us living there - 1 year 9 months with Kubrick and another 4 months with Hitch.










This is what it looked like 6 months after we moved in (3 months post-Kubrick arrival)... notice how it looks JUST like it did 1.5 years later above. It held up incredibly well.










Oh and I'm pretty sure neither or those pictures were taken after cleaning, so you can see that it doesn't show dirt that much at all!


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## LuckyOne (Sep 3, 2009)

I put in Brazilian Cherry floors last summer and the pups run and run on it and it still looks perfect. Very hard on the Janka scale.


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## MopTop Havanese (Sep 25, 2006)

We are tearing up our carpet and tile this Spring. But we are going to acid stain our concrete. We are going to do it ourselves unless I can convince Posh's Mom's hubby to come do it for us!! (maybe I can bribe him with a puppy?! teeheehee)


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## Evye's Mom (Dec 16, 2008)

Perfect timing Linda. Almost ready for floor cleaning #2 of the day. I cannot believe I am posting my dirty floor on a public forum. Very embarrassing. :redface: Hopefully it will help you decide what color NOT to get (spice). We do have different circumstances here. Bermuda grass that goes completely dormant in the winter and until it greens up again, it is viney brown grass that sticks to their coats and then all the little blades break up and fall off (on the floor), the vines stay stuck to the dogs. I am ready to vac and tomorrow morning it will look exactly the same. If it looks like a scratch...it's not, just debris !!! Fortunately it has held up to their claws but it shows EVERYTHING. :redface:

I could take a pic in about 10 minutes when it's all clean and pretty. I am a pretty clean person but my dogs are not.


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## susieg (Aug 28, 2009)

Funny that I read this post today, as I just selected hardwood floors for my new house yesterday! I choose Andean Pecan. 

The "wood guy" I met with yesterday was very helpful. He basically told me that all wood is going to scratch and have wear and tear. He explained to me that its not necessarily the hardness of the wood, but the finish/color/sheen that you should focus on. A dark, high sheen wood floor that is smooth with no distressing will show more scratches than a wood that has a satin sheen and some distressing & variation in color. Basically its like carpet....they will all wear similarly, but the dark carpet with a slight pattern will have better soil hiding properties than the light carpet with no pattern.

I wanted a more contemporary look, so I choose something with minimal distressing but the wood has a lot of grain & variation in color that will help to disguise scratches & wear/tear. There were some really nice looking distressed floors that would have hidden wear & tear even more, but I didn't want a distressed look.

If you really want to know the hardness of a particular wood species, you can look up the wood species on the Janka Hardness scale. Google it and lots of info will come up.

I have inexpensive, blond wood floors in my condo now and I HATE them, they are so scratched up and you can see all of the scratches because the wood is so light. I'm hoping by choosing a higher quality wood floor in a darker color my next house will be better!

Lola does have a hard time with her RLH's on the wood. She prefers the carpet downstairs.


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## Evye's Mom (Dec 16, 2008)

I had my floors pre dogs. I probably would have done something differently but maybe not. You just don't know until you have them. 

Are my pictures gone? I'm seeing this picture has been deleted.


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## pjewel (Apr 11, 2007)

pictures are gone.


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## Evye's Mom (Dec 16, 2008)

I think I know why. I have to download everything to photobucket before I can post to HF. I didn't particularly care to have dirty floors in my photobucket photos so I deleted them. I didn't realize they would be deleted from EVERYTHING. Oh well, there will be more dirty floors tomorrow. At the moment they are clean but that won't last.


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## pjewel (Apr 11, 2007)

Evye's Mom said:


> I think I know why. I have to download everything to photobucket before I can post to HF. I didn't particularly care to have dirty floors in my photobucket photos so I deleted them. I didn't realize they would be deleted from EVERYTHING. Oh well, there will be more dirty floors tomorrow. At the moment they are clean but that won't last.


I'm so disappointed. I didn't want to be the only one with dirty . . . everything, come to think of it.


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## Evye's Mom (Dec 16, 2008)

pjewel said:


> I'm so disappointed. I didn't want to be the only one with dirty . . . everything, come to think of it.


I promise I will take more dirty floor pictures so you won't have to feel alone. Next time I won't delete them. I didn't realize that would happen. Live and learn.


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## Evye's Mom (Dec 16, 2008)

As luck has it, they are still stored on my camera. I can repost dirty floor pictures. :redface:


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## Evye's Mom (Dec 16, 2008)

:redface: :redface: :redface: Uggh...looks worse in pictures. But they are clean now.


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## Missy (Nov 6, 2006)

I am so glad to read about the bamboo not being good. I was thinking about it for our kitchen. But I will probably try and match the oak in the rest of the house. I LOVE maple flooring it is gorgeous. 

I find wood hides a lot of flaws and dirt and looks good even if it isn't pristine.


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## Phoebs (May 28, 2009)

HavaneseSoon said:


> How do the Havs manage a hardwood with the RLH's?


We have hardwood in most of the house with area rugs. The kitchen (huge part of the house) is marmoleum. How does Phoebs handle the hardwood? Did you ever watch the Flintstones or any cartoons in the 1960's???? Where the cartoon characters scramble and scramble and don't move forward? That's how a Havanese handles the wood/marmoleum. The converse is also true: she's learned the hard way that her body will continue to move forward a long time after "she" stops running. Whumph into the fridge/wall etc. 
She now focuses her RLH in the tiny living room and aims for the couch or large poufy chair. She adds in a lot of leaps and does ping pong back and forth across the room onto the couch/chair. When she runs between the living room and front room, she leaps from carpet to carpet, missing the hardwood in between.


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## Rita Nelson (Jul 13, 2009)

Missy said:


> I am so glad to read about the bamboo not being good. I was thinking about it for our kitchen. But I will probably try and match the oak in the rest of the house. I LOVE maple flooring it is gorgeous.
> 
> I find wood hides a lot of flaws and dirt and looks good even if it isn't pristine.


Trying to match the existing hardwood in our house also. Not an easy task since it deepens in color over the years. The solution we can up with is to use red oak (that's what's in the other rooms) and do a border of brazilian cherry about 1 1/2 feet in to distract from the slight color difference in the entryway and use a decorative threshold with red oak, brazilian cherry and one other wood. Downstairs the dining room was carpeted. The rest of the downstairs is hardwood/tile. Can't figure out why the previous owner would chose carpet instead of hardwood in the dining room. Anyway, I find it easier to take care of hardwood instead of carpet with a dog and grandchildren. We're also have the stairs redone in hardwood along with the bedrooms. That will be our birthday, Christmas, anniversary, Mother's Day, & Father's Day present for the rest of our life.


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## trueblue (Jan 22, 2008)

Missy said:


> I am so glad to read about the bamboo not being good. I was thinking about it for our kitchen. But I will probably try and match the oak in the rest of the house. I LOVE maple flooring it is gorgeous.
> 
> I find wood hides a lot of flaws and dirt and looks good even if it isn't pristine.


Missy, check out the cork flooring...it's so cool! I'm not crazy about the patterns that they are laid in on this site, but a solid color would be nice.

http://www.corkfloor.com/colours.html


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## Flynn Gentry-Taylor (Jan 17, 2008)

The Laughing Magpie said:


> Flynn, I plan to redo my walk out basement with cork it is wonderful. I tell people here and they act like I'm touched!!!!! If I have a flood it will be fine. It's easy to clean. absorbs sound, and looks great. What more could one ask?


Well, it deters all insects, resists molds, mildews, it is THE flooring to have, but I agree, when you mention Cork people generally ignore you or act as though you are TOUCHED!!!
It is also SOFT/giving on the feet!


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## pjewel (Apr 11, 2007)

Rita Nelson said:


> Trying to match the existing hardwood in our house also. Not an easy task since it deepens in color over the years. The solution we can up with is to use red oak (that's what's in the other rooms) and do a border of brazilian cherry about 1 1/2 feet in to distract from the slight color difference in the entryway and use a decorative threshold with red oak, brazilian cherry and one other wood. Downstairs the dining room was carpeted. The rest of the downstairs is hardwood/tile. Can't figure out why the previous owner would chose carpet instead of hardwood in the dining room. Anyway, I find it easier to take care of hardwood instead of carpet with a dog and grandchildren. We're also have the stairs redone in hardwood along with the bedrooms. That will be our birthday, Christmas, anniversary, Mother's Day, & Father's Day present for the rest of our life.


Would it help to scrape the existing floors and have them refinished to match the new floors you plan to install?


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Missy said:


> I am so glad to read about the bamboo not being good. I was thinking about it for our kitchen. But I will probably try and match the oak in the rest of the house. I LOVE maple flooring it is gorgeous.
> 
> I find wood hides a lot of flaws and dirt and looks good even if it isn't pristine.


I'm glad you said that.<g> Ours are CERTAINLY not "pristine"... they original to the house, which is 40 years old (22 years old for the family room which we built). They don't look like the floors I've seen in the pix in this thread, but they are a whole lot older too.<g> It isn't dog wear & tear on ours, it's BOY wear and tear. Robbie is in college now, and when Timothy leaves, I want to have every floor in the house refinished. I still love my "old fashioned" oak floors though.


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## ama0722 (Nov 28, 2006)

Sharlene- that isn't dirty LOL  I think the solution is to keep one drapping with coat so that way she sweeps and mops after the others! Mine bring in so much stuff as our house backs into the woods so keeping the backyard clean is impossible as well. The only time I hate having hardwoods is when right after I clean them and it is wet outside. You see the paw marks immediately. But with the red clay and cream carpet for a month... that was a nightmare and we decided to just do the floors.

Linda- we installed them ourselves. It saved us a lot of money however, it was a big project and I wouldn't recommend it while working full time and having a rescue dog as there were a few nights we wanted to strangle each other! We actually had to remove the subfloor first-made it a lot bigger of a project, cut all the door jams, etc. We actually turned our dinning room into our masterbedroom and worked at night. However, they turned out gorgeous! But if we had to do it over again, we would probably have paid someone to install it (I know DH wouldn't say this but I will!) I just loved the brazilian cherry as the pieces are so different and rich and it meshed very well with the house. We also went with a wide plank cause they said it would make our space look bigger (not sure if that is true). We went with the thicker wood if we need to sand it down a few times we could but now someone told us most people redo their floors before it is time so mayb we shouldn't have... they are guaranteed for like 50 years though!


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## Evye's Mom (Dec 16, 2008)

Thank you Amanda for telling me my floors were not dirty. There had to be ????? 100 pieces of the outside inside. If I had to do it over again....what would I do differently? At a loss.


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## pjewel (Apr 11, 2007)

Sharlene, that definitely doesn't qualify as dirty in my world. When my floors are dirty, they're muddy black from my little piggies.


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## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

Great replies! My son-in-law installed his own wood paneling floor in his first house and it was beautiful! He was a first time floor installer, he is so precise and so consistent, we cannot go wrong with letting him help out my husband. I will just need to stay out of the way and play with Dexter and Jack! I can do that. 

We have a fireplace insert with a solid rectangle piece of metal on the presenting carpet...has anyone changed this piece to something else? Or built it other way ton enhance the the floors.


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## Rita Nelson (Jul 13, 2009)

pjewel said:


> Would it help to scrape the existing floors and have them refinished to match the new floors you plan to install?


That would be an option, but an added expense also. In time the new floors will darken also. There's not a big difference in color and a new threshold in different woods will help. The people at the decorating store said that most people wouldn't notice the difference unless we pointed it out to them.


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## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

We do not have existing wooden floors beneath the carpeting. Not floors to save, it is just a sub-flooring.

Also, I was wondering.....now, I do not know what I was wondering....I got side tracted.

Oh my the way Sharlene! That is one clean floor! Imagine what it would look like with carpet! HIDDEN DIRT!!!!


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## Evye's Mom (Dec 16, 2008)

Geez, maybe I'm not so disappointed in my floors afterall. Obviously the camera did it some justice because it was not clean from where I was standing. The wood tone might be good for not showing dirty paw prints but it sure shows every piece of grass, every leave and any little speck of lint.

Transition strips do a lot for helping floors match up that were installed after the original floor. We added on to existing hardwoods floors in our other home years after. I could tell if I looked hard enough but no one ever noticed (or kind enough not to mention.)


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## Evye's Mom (Dec 16, 2008)

Want a picture of my floors now???? This is a repeat of Friday. First time, shame on them. This time, shame on me !! Dogs will go out one at a time to do potty....or potty pads in use until after the grass has dried.


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## ama0722 (Nov 28, 2006)

Linda- we had to put transition strip around the marble part of the fireplace and it turned out very nice and those touches are what I think makes the difference of whether it looks professionally done or not. The problem we had is the builder put down two pieces of subflooring where they did carpet and only one piece where there was wood flooring already. We didn't know this until we removed the carpeting and wood flooring. It created some hoops in our project but you will have those with any home project (I have learned this!)

Sharlene- I want to get them off that rug asap!!! That was the color of carpeting throughout the house when we got it. We had some wood floors but we couldn't match the color or size and we couldn't add a transition strip in the middle of the entry way so we just opted to remove them. Mine show just like yours all the little pieces of stuff they bring in. I think finding flooring that does that is impossible though.

I do love that your tile matches the red clay though! I want to put dark slate in the kitchen (next project!) as when we had it in our old home it hides everything 

You can still see the leaves attached in Dora's paw. I am sure they are somewhere on the floor now!


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## Evye's Mom (Dec 16, 2008)

That area rug is the most forgiving thing. When it's dry I'll vac it and it will "look" clean again. It's just busy enough to camoflauge. I love my tile floor as far as dirt hiding goes !!! I wish I had it all through the house. I wish it had more of a sheen but if it did, I would be right back to showing every little speck.


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## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

Sharlene, I have grass like you do in the winter. Dead grass is everywhere on the carpet and on the kitchen floor from being tracked into the house. When the grass collecting started last year is when I bought my little vacuum cleaner for the kitchen. 

The suction is so good on the vacuum I can get a quick pick up on the carpet. 

Oh! The early morning grass is terrible! Dexter just get wet feet, but Jack get a wet body! 

Anyway..... :focus: Hardwood floors.


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## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

One more thing before going back to topic....

Amanda! Great picture! Good going on the training!


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## mimismom (Feb 15, 2009)

Lina said:


> Wide plank maple all the way! That's what my old apartment had and I loved it so much. Never looked dirty even when I didn't clean it. And it lasted SO well for the 2 years we lived in there. When we buy a place we'll definitely eventually go for maple flooring for sure.


Lina, I am curious about your current apartment. I am looking at getting some darker flooring, like the one in your avatar. Do you like it? How is the darker flooring compared to your old apartment? What type of stain is on the floor?


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