I can't imagine what wood wore so badly so quickly. I have had as many as 5 dogs and 3 cats in my house. Granted, the dogs were about 15-18 pounds, but there were FIVE of them, thus 20 paws. I have site-finished hardwood floors that are stained and finished with high gloss polyurethane. It wears like iron. The only gouge is where a workman did not follow my advice and LIFT the very heavy 1948 stove, and tried to drag it out. Yes, it made a gouge.

I don't have personal experience, but a friend put the luxury vinyl planks in her beach house. A golden lab, sand, 5 grandchildren. It's worked out beautifully and the house really is lovely with many high end finishes. The flooring does not look out of place alongside her many expensive things and she's had no regrets.

We have two big dogs with a dog door so they are in and out frequently in a snowy climate so moisture is an issue too. Love our LVP and it is over radiant heat. Yes, we had hardwoods for 30+ years. White Oak, site finished with high glass polyurethane and we had to refinish every 10 years or so (and it probably needed it more often). We also had problems with elderly dogs slipping. Our LVP has a bit of texture and isn't as slick as poly finished hardwood, which matters with artic breed dogs with furry feet. Coretec Plus Blackstone Oak.

"...I have two giant dogs (one is 120lbs and the other is a 4 month old puppy weighing in at 45lbs)..."

Have you considered a pole structure with a dirt floor?

It's just a little joke from another thread. :-)

I have huge dogs too and we have vinyl plank in our walkout with a free access dog door to a large dog run from there In 11 yrs all I have ever done is vacuum and damp mop still looks like new and was not expensive flooring at all. Upstairs we have laminate that looks like slate not one scratch in the same length of time those would be my reccommendations for flooring. Our dogs are 2 golden crosses at 65lbs each and Great Pyrenees at 125Lbs and still growing.

Thanks everyone, this makes me feel a little better. My biggest fear is that we'll have relatively high end finishes throughout and I don't want the vinyl to look out of place. It often drives me crazy when people have super expensive appliances and laminate counter tops and I fear I'll have a similar scenario.

Well, if I were looking to buy your house and it had LV and not hardwood, I would quickly walk away. You need to talk to a realtor and find out what kind of flooring buyers expect to find in a home in your area.

I would recommend Provenza luxury vinyl planks....the Moda Living line...it's incredible in all regards...our standard poodle which has fine paws...can run around and not dislocate his hips...and it's wonderful with sound absorption! our color is "true story". good luck!!

Anglo - presumably if the flooring choice was factored into the price, the buyers could choose to replace the LVP with wood if they do choose with the cost savings. LVT throughout the house wouldn’t be my choice (I live in the PNW where hardwood still reigns supreme, and I love it) but it also wouldn’t stop me from buying a house. Tile throughout would stop me, however, given how hard it is to replace and how hard it is on feet/knees/backs.

Something that a flooring guy told me....

Dark LVP will *not* stand up to large dogs. At the time, I had a German Shepherd, and am now on a waiting list for a giant breed rescue (90 pounds are the female featherweights with these dogs; 170 pounds are the big guys, and my "hopeful" is a 20 pound overweight male... we are talkin' a LOT of dog, lol).

Flooring guy told me that because I want dark floors, I will see every scratch each and every morning, and throughout the day (my living spaces face south, with early morning eastern light coming in on the short side), and he assured me that I would hate it. And he's right. He recommended tile.

I kept the carpet. Sad but true, if you really want kid- and giant-dog-friendly flooring, carpet wins, unfortunately. It loses big time in the cleaning/maintenance department, but it's the most comfortable.

Or buy huge, seriously oversized comfy rugs with thick pads, covering whatever floor you want, and not worry about it (and also not really be able to see much of your floor, lol).

If you want a light or medium shade floor, I can't confidently speak to those.

I had a 120-lb dog with hardwood floors. The floors suffered more damage from my mother-in-law's walker than from the dog. I cut his toenails once a week or so - as soon as I can hear him clickity-clacking across the floor, I cut his nails. Not only does this protect the floors, it allows him to walk on his pads, not his nails, which improves his grip.

"... if you really want kid- and giant-dog-friendly flooring, carpet wins ..."

You haven't seen our year-old carpet in our great room. We have a Great Dane—a goofy, very energetic Great Dane who runs circles around our dining room table and leaps over furniture. Her giant toenails snag up the loops in the carpet in the spots where she changes direction.

We're replacing it with flagstone next summer (2020).

Joe T, your comment made me laugh out loud. I can just picture your dog.

I have a friend with and older, large lab. She just purchased Ruggable.com rugs to put over her hardwood and it helps the dog move around the house without slipping. Might be worth a look.

Anglo - while I understand where you're coming from, and that is a concern of mine, I think that buyers would be equally as turned off by hardwood floors that were gauged and destroyed and needed to be completely replaced.

To some of the others - trimming nails can help reduce damage, but with hardwoods that are slick and slippery, even the short nails gauge because they dig them down to try to get traction when they're turning a corner or hear the doorbell. Believe me, in our first house, my dogs nails were short, and my hardwoods looked like I dragged a piano with cleats on it through my living room.

I'm going to check out some of the recommended LVP's here in this thread, and I'm also going to explore the wood tile a bit more, as I've found a few brands that have treatments that increase slip resistance. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but I think its worth looking into - it just means more expense in installation, and also I would need in floor heating because I live where the air hurts your face from December-March.

We have two large dogs also (lab mix and goldendoodle) and they destroyed the real hardwoods in our last house. Medium stained red oak with multiple coats of poly that I was assured would hold up. It didn't. We had them refinished just a few months before listing our house for sale and had them coated with Bona Traffic. Again assured that it will hold up to anything. In just a few weeks, we had noticeable scratches.

So in our new build, we went again with real hardwoods (white oak) but chose a hard-wax oil as the finish. It is very matte and does scratch. But I love it, because it looks like it's supposed to be 'worn' so the scratches don't bother me. And instead of having to sand down and refinish the entire floors, you can spot finish an area and it blends right in. There is a very short drying time (4 hours) so no need to move out. I actually reapplied the oil/wax in a small area outside our back door and it looks as good as new. It's a different look than the traditional stain/poly but something to consider if you're considering real wood.

Be sure to get a sample of whatever flooring you are interested in and test it for scratching. I installed a "scratch-resistant" LVP in my family room and, before I got felt pads on everything, sadly discovered that the legs of the sofa, side tables, easy chair etc all scratched the floor in everyday use (like the act of sitting down). I expect that there are brands (such as those mentioned above) that perform much better, but check to be sure.

Site finished hardwood floors would not have to be replaced if you sold the house. The new owners would need to sand down, re-stain and add a few polyurethane coats or whatever finish they prefer. Very easy to do when they house is empty and before the new owners move in.

I have 3 dogs, 2 shepherd mixes and a smaller dog. Our site finished oak floors are scratched up, but can easily be made "new" again by refinishing.

You could even give an allowance for refinishing when you sell the house.

Gouges on wood floors are not "devastating"! They are the result of a full and active life being lived in the house and most people never notice when they visit.

Have you ever been in an old New England house with original wood floors? All kinds of patina and imperfections accumulated over 100+ years and those floors are unique and beautiful.

I would not be happy with any type of vinyl when shopping for a house.

You haven't seen our year-old carpet in our great room. We have a Great
Dane—a goofy, very energetic Great Dane who runs circles around our
dining room table and leaps over furniture.

lol

My house isn't big enough for a Dane (...or a Leo...) to run circles around anything inside! :-D Yay, my carpet is spared!!!

We are looking at Bamboo - Cali Bamboo or Ambient. Our friends had recommended it as they have it installed in their cabin and main home. They claimed to have had minimal scratches despite kids, dogs, and constant visitors running through both homes. Supposed to be off the charts on the Janka scale - but I am still a little skeptical. Trying to keep my expectations reasonable as there has to be some scratches and dings that happen along the way.

Just another option if you want to do “real” hardwood instead of LVP. We have two full grown labs so definitely know your plight.

We have three dogs and the occasional foster dog and we have concrete floors, they’re perfect. With radiant heat it’s great in the winter. I don’t know of any wood floor, no matter how hard the wood, that can stand up to big dog claws! Good luck.

"We are looking at Bamboo..."

I put carbonized bamboo in the lower level of our last house. Our Dane couldn't damage it. Note that with changes in humidity, it moves a lot more than regular wood.

"My house isn't big enough for a Dane..."

Our great room is about 33' x 17', and man-oh-man can she get a head of steam going in there

AnnKH , is spot on! Trimming your pups nails will let both you and the pup live on the wood floors with minimal issues. Lower gloss finishes like Bona Traffic will also help to hide any marks that all floors eventually receive.

Another vote for bamboo. Last year we put Cali bamboo in living room, dining room, stairs and will use leftover wood for the upstairs hallway. Husband choose natural color. I think any scratches would show more on darker floor. We tested before buying on the samples -- soaked in water, dropped things, etc. Very hard. No dogs, but have cats with claws. Very pleased with it. I don't see any scratches on our floor and DH doesn't normally take shoes off.
I think much nicer than any vinyl product. Get some free samples and put them through your own tests. Maybe click together and get doggies to sample, LOL!

This is one of those questions that really only you can answer. It sounds like such a simple thing, but in the end it comes down to how you personally value things/what matters to you vs. what doesn't.

I personally couldn't possibly care less what anyone else thinks about my choices for my own home. :) Also, unless I knew I was selling in the very near term, I also couldn't possibly care less what some mythical "future buyer" might think.

I have owned a few homes in my decades, and have had many dogs through that time as well.

I've had solid, site-finished wood floors, engineered wood floors, wood-look laminate, and LVP. Every single blessed one of those choices has their pros and cons.

I have installed LVP in a vacation home at the beach and I love it. From a distance it looks like wood (sort-of), but once you're walking on it, it's clearly NOT wood. For my home at the beach it is a far superior choice to "real" wood and I'm pleased with its performance. My dogs haven't made even a dent in this stuff. I love it.

My regular home is in NY. I have wood floors there. I currently have 2 small dogs (~20 pounds), I keep their nails trimmed, and yet my floors are starting to look like I run a wood chipper over them. The reason? It all comes down to how your own dogs walk/run/play inside. My older dogs were not hard on my wood floors, but I now have a youngster who feels a need to run like a maniac and practice cornering/stopping on a dime. On my wood floors. It's de-lightful. ;) But in this particular house I just don't feel LVP would look right for me, and so I've decided to try to embrace the "patina."

So anyway, sorry for writing a book - but I just wanted you to understand why no one can really answer this question for you, but you.

I don't really have anything intelligent to add, only to say we have the LVP, I can't for the life of me think of the brand right now, nothing too expensive. I looked at the Karndean to begin with though. The "color" is Barn Dance, I remember this b/c that's what I wanted it to look like, a barn floor. It has some texture to it, and is a matte finish.

5 dogs (30 - 120#), 5 cats, lots of random teenagers and farm life. I've been pretty darn impressed with it. It's 5 years old. I have a couple actual scratches, but one of them I did myself!! I have to say, we don't have anything close to what I would call "high end" in the house though.

I only wish our poor pine trim was holding up as well as the floor! The pine is beautiful, but just too soft for the wear & tear of our lives.

Good luck! :)

ETA: also I just wanted to be included in the dog talk lol

We struggled with the same decision on our house which is currently being built. Decided to go with polished concrete due to it's durability. Time will tell how it works out but we're optimistic.

Ben, many horse farms use concrete for their barn floors.

look into Provenza LVP...the line is Moda Living....we bought the color True Story, and everyone is goo goo ga ga over it! and it feels real under foot and our standard poodle doesn't slip when running around!....BTW ..we got it for $3.50 sft at Nebraska Furniture Mart!!!!

Thanks Leading Design, I was looking at provenza lvp but saw some really bad reviews stating that there was a lot of bubbling, I'm guessing you haven't experienced that?

Yikes! I haven't seen any of these bad reviews you're talking about nobodyhasthisname2 can you link to those? I'm pretty excited about the idea of these Provenza floors- but that makes me nervous!

Look at Provenza's "Moda Living" line!! all of the colors, textures, movement are beautiful and very realistic for each one! I just installed the color "true story" for a client and they are very happy so far. The pad is attached so there's no sliding or bunching and it's more stable...

oh I forgot I still have the sample board here at my house!!! here is Provenza's moda living in color called true story.... front and back of the board.... and it's reasonably priced!!

Hi nobodyhasthisname2.... I don't know about any bubbling or other problems because we just installed it a week ago....Dallas is a good city to test these kinds of materials because our climate is all over the place so we'll see how this works out. just make sure your installer is insured and get a copy of their policy.

emaldrich, the bad reviews are on the Provenza Flooring inc. facebook page. there are quite a few reviews that are less than stellar and Provenza hasn't responded to any of them.

I was really excited when I saw the colours and the fact that they look fairly realistic but I'm a bit worried now that I've seen some of the reviews.

nobodyhasthisname2

Looks like they just barely responded to the guy with the bubbling floors just two hours ago on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ProvenzaFloorsUSA/reviews/) three months after he complained. And they never responded to the guy who complained back in 2017... so that's a little shady as far as customer service goes. (They also seemed a little immature in their response to me, which means they just need more training when it comes to angry customers.)

They did bring up a valid point possibly though- stating that they don't have any record of him buying from an authorized dealer, meaning this guy could have bought knock off flooring off the internet thinking it was the real deal. It looks like they've had some real issues with this since they devoted a whole page to it on their website that you can see titled Internet Scam Alert: https://www.provenzafloors.com/company/InternetBuyingPolicy.aspx

There they list all of the websites online that are selling knock offs of their floors. Super sad for this company: "Provenza Floors, Inc has become increasingly concerned that what is being advertised as Provenza Flooring by these companies is NOT, in actuality, a GENIUNE PROVENZA FLOORING product! When it comes to buying Provenza Flooring online, BUYER BEWARE!!!"

It looks like they're only recently jumped onto twitter, but they're aren't any bad reviews there which is a good thing. https://twitter.com/ProvenzaFloors1/with_replies 

So I kept searching. Nothing on pissedconsumer.com

I'll keep looking, but I'm thinking those couple of bad reviews might just be from a few knock off brand "provenza" floors, or from bad installers.

I'm going to keep looking. There are a few other threads on here with people who love their provenza floors from the Moda Living line, that I can find and link to if you want.

Leading Design, could you post photos of your installed flooring? Loving the Provenza samples I have here. They are super scratch resistant, passing my key scratch test and love that they are waterproof. From what I gather, the bad reviews about bubbling are from an older engineered wood line or possible knock offs. Reviews on the new Moda Living line are overwhelmingly good.

Nobody, what did you decide to do about flooring?

We don't have dogs (we're owned by a feline) but author David Rosenfelt has many dogs. Here are some photos from his Facebook page that show a few of his not-so-small dogs on what appears to be a wood floor. An undamaged wood floor. You could possibly contact him and ask what flooring he has.

Holy Dogpile!

Kathi - I haven't decided yet. We're still in the early stages of planning our build so I have some time. I'm trying to find somewhere local that has the provenza vinyl samples - the only places that carry Provenza here have hardwood but can get the vinyl if we want it, I just don't want to order sight unseen.

In our searches so far we found a company called beckham brothers and some of their vinyl samples look incredibly realistic - but those are the darker colours and they re not very forgiving.

The search continues.....

Keep us posted. I fear in a couple years I will need to replace my flooring. It is Bruce laminated hardwood. It has been finished twice now and it looks meh. I have 6 different flooring types if you stand at my front door. It used to be the fashion to have different floors for different rooms. Apparently, not any more. Now it is all the same flooring thruout. So, when we get to the point of thinking about selling, I am sure I will have to bite the bullet. We have an 85 pound German Shepherd. She is a sweetie, but her nails are black and the people that Dremel them are very good with her. But, it only lasts for about 2-3 days, and then she is clicking again. Drives me crazy!! So, I am following your post in hopes to learn something. Thank you for sharing!

We just replaced our whole house with this SPC republic flooring. I have two dogs but not huge breeds. That said they run around like maniacs. But this SPC feels and looks like real wood and is water proof which is a HUGE thing since one of my dogs is elderly and pees in the house whenever it rains!
I researched for a year on this vs engineered wood vs tile and so far we are thrilled with our decision .

I have an overweight (he’s on a diet right now) Bernese Mt Dog and a full sized collie. They are 6 & 8 years. In that amount of time i haven’t seen any appreciable damage to my hardwood floors of Hickory. They are natural with poly.

Irish Wolfhound @ 190# and a Great Pyr / OES mix @135#. We live rural, rain and mud are constant. There are no leash laws here, the dogs are free to cover about 40 acres...and do. Porcelain plank tile has worked well. Tile allows for the use of rubber-backed area rugs without any damage to the tile. Big exterior fabric mats at both entries help to "dry" their paws before they hit the tile.

Hi All, I see a lot on this thread about both Republic SPC and Provenza LVP. Is there a big difference in durability between these two?

I would go LVP. We have it in 2 rooms with 2 dogs and it still looks new. We have cali bamboo in 3 rooms and its the worst decision we ever made. 10 years later it looks terrible, faded, the wear layer has worn off all over the place, some buckling. Never again. I just started my new house and I am going Flooret LVP for the whole house.

Not sure if you’ve already made your decision or not. We put in wood tile in 2017 and I’m still very happy with it. I choose a more “distressed” type so the dog’s don’t seem to slip unless running full speed. It’s far less slippery than the oak flooring that we replaced. It’s tile so some good floor mats in the kitchen help. It’s nice and cool in the summer and I wear socks or slippers in the winter. But I don’t live in a cold climate. Tile still looks great. Glad I didn’t choose wood....

Queen ofPricnesses What distressed wood tile do you have? I've been researching this look for awhile now and haven't loved the options I'm seeing. Thanks you!

Savvyla,
We chose Daltile Saddlebrook Farmhouse with Bostik Latte grout and colored sealed it the same color. Dogs, kids, things being drug across and dropped...no chips at all.
They just aren’t super expensive tiles so they do have a bow and need to be laid by someone who knows what they’re doing