Hello - I have a flooring dilemna - this room in my 40 year old house has been through multiple variations/renovations.

When we first moved in it was just a laundry room and we put down a pretty standard 12x12 tile.

About 2 years ago we renovated it to be a dog-kennel/mudroom. We converted part of our garage (an alcove) into this room also so we would have lots of space for our current rescue and future foster pups.

At that time we put down a wood-look porcelain tile over Durock. What we didn't know at the time is that there were water damage to the subflooring from years of an old-leaky door. Our contractor doing the work was not the best and took a few shortcuts and missed that also. About 9 months in the porcelain stiles and grout started cracking.

We have a new contractor who is really detail oriented - he pulled it all up about 4 months ago - repaired the sub-floor - put down Hardie Backerboard and then laid tile on top. The tile job is gorgeous - however the tile color and surface we picked is HORRIBLE for a dog mud room.

It shows EVERY dirt/paw/mud/you name it that can be - impossible to keep clean or look clean.

We need to put something else down - we thought about these options:

1. Put down a Vinyl plank over top - we got Nucore from Floor and Decor - in our testing water was able to get onto the backing even through the tight seams - I worry that it will trap water under and never dry out.

2. Put down Pergo Outlast - which the contractor says he used elsewhere and it worked well - I am leary of a laminate for dog room - but it does seem to have a stronger click-lock connection in my testing?

3. Put down a new porcelain tile over top? This may be the right option but is hard to deal with AGAIN.

Suggestions? Any other product we should consider? Chalk it up to bad decision?

Thank You

Roberta