We have carpeting throughout the house except for the front foyer,kitchen and bathrooms(ceramic tiles). The dog has ruined the foyer on the second level right in front of my oldest DS's bedroom door. I am constantly cleaning it and no matter what we do, we cannot get rid of the stains.:disbelief:.

We are seriously considering hardwood floors for the carpeted main areas.

Did it cost alot? Did you have carpet before?

Tell me about yours please.

Ours came with our house. They are the originals, installed when the house was built in 1948. They aren't sealed very well (dull finish) and the living room has some stains from the dog pee. There is an area rug there but if a dog pees and it soaks through the rug, it stains our floor.

If you are going to get them, make sure they are very well sealed.

Brooke...Are the dog messes hard to clean up? If you catch the accident in time will it stain?

Deb... Have you thought about the Pergo type products? They look like hardwood, but are much easier to maintain. Not sure about doggie messes though.

Brooke...Are the dog messes hard to clean up? If you catch the accident in time will it stain?
No. It's actually very easy to clean up. And if you catch it, it won't stain. It's when it sits all day while we're at work and has time to soak in that it stains.

One good thing, though, is that if it does get a small (not too deep) stain, you can sand it down and refinish it. Not an easy job with funiture but if you do it yourself, it's much cheaper than replacing carpet.

No. It's actually very easy to clean up. And if you catch it, it won't stain. It's when it sits all day while we're at work and has time to soak in that it stains.

One good thing, though, is that if it does get a small (not too deep) stain, you can sand it down and refinish it. Not an easy job with funiture but if you do it yourself, it's much cheaper than replacing carpet.
:woo:

Now where do we get the money to do it :lol:.

Deb... Have you thought about the Pergo type products? They look like hardwood, but are much easier to maintain. Not sure about doggie messes though.
Thinking about that stuff too :)

Costco has an off brand of laminate flooring that is the same as Pergo, just not the name brand. We used it in our kitchen at the old house and my mom has it in her kitchen and in her condo at the beach. It all turned out really nice (Darren and my dad installed it all). My aunt also has it in her living room, the same Costco brand.

It's cheaper and sometimes Costco has specials on it, like $5 off each box.

We've got the Pergo in our Foyer and walkway from our garage through the kitchen. Jim and my dad did ours. It's really easy too! Let me see if I can find a picture!

Here's the foyer...
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3cc22b3127cce836b1e4283010000001610 (javascript:openSlideWin(1, '67b0de21b3a751968409', 0);)

http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/23/23_28_112.gif (http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb001)

My mom got Pergo about 10 years ago or more and it's still going strong. It's survived my dad, dogs and 4 grandkids so far and still looks brand new.

My Dad is a carpenter and Pergo isn't looked upon too highly amongst the building crew.

Anyway, when we bought our house almost 3 years ago it had all carpet. My father flew out here (from IN) and installed hardwood floors for us. We went with Bruce's hardwood flooring. It's one of the most expensive on the market but supposedly the best.

We had concrete under our carpet so it was laid directly over that. The wood glues directly to the concrete. It's basically the same if you have a subfloor too. Anyway, installing it can be very time consuming, depending on how particular you are. My father spent alot of extra time cutting the pieces so that the joints (where the wood pieces meet) were all broken up. And it looks so much better that way!

Since my father (and DH) installed it, we saved a ton of money. I don't know the exact squre footage (but I can find out if you like), but we did a fairly large family room & all the hallways in our house and it was over $2300 just for the wood. If we would have had to pay someone to install it.. probably close to double. Rule of thumb with installing hardwood is it cost about 50% of the cost materials. It's costly to install b/c it's sort of a PITA and takes a long time. But the nice thing about it is that it does raise the value of your home so I suppose it's worth the investment. :)

Anyway, I've seen both Pergo and HW and IMO Hardwood is nicer. But Pergo looks good too and I'm fairly sure it's cheaper.

Here's a pic of what our floor looks like. This was taken over a year ago (about 2 months after it was put in) but it still looks the exact same.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4d828b3127ccebfa149f250c40000001610

We've got the Pergo in our Foyer and walkway from our garage through the kitchen. Jim and my dad did ours. It's really easy too! Let me see if I can find a picture!

Here's the foyer...
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3cc22b3127cce836b1e4283010000001610 (http://javascript<b></b>:openSlideWin(1,%20'67b0de21b3a751968409',%200);)
I sent the above to Jay at work and here is his reply:rolleyes:

"Cool! Have Jim and his Dad come up this summer. The “Canadian” beer will be on me."

:rotflmao:

We installed Pergo in our old kitchen. It did wonders for the small space and held up very well.

My DH and I are installing laminate floor (Shaw) in our family room this weekend. The carpet will be torn out. The kids and dog have ruined it. A total of 240 sq. ft. will cost roughly $900.00. I'll post some pics when it's done.

We had Formica flooring (similar to Pergo) put in our kitchen a couple of years ago. It's not as nice as hardwood, but it's much easier to care for and still looks good.

Dennis

In our last home we installed 500+ sq ft of Pergo (did it ourselves.) It was Pergo brand laminate flooring (the pattern was beech block) and it looked great. However I would not have put it in if we had dogs with long nails or anything like that--I've seen laminate flooring ruined because of dog nails.

Our current house has a lovely hardwood floor in the foyer and we love it. We're currently looking into having hardwood (not laminate) installed in the kitchen and the dining area in the family room. The new hardwood will meet up with the old hardwood in one doorway.

We had someone come out to measure and he noted that the subfloor in the kitchen will need to be torn out so that the new hardwood doesn't end up being higher than the old hardwood. It costs $40 an hour to do prep work (like tearing out old subfloors) and he said it would take about 1.5-2 hours to rip out the kitchen floor.

They charge $2 a sq ft to rip out and cart away old carpet and I think it is $2.50 or so a sq ft to install the new flooring (I can't remember the exact cost.) Plus the cost of the wood, of course.

We would install the new floor ourselves, but Brian works heinous hours now and has no time.

Thanks everyone for your input!:bighug:

We had the 3/4 inch prefinished hardwood floors installed in our home and we love it! They are very easy to maintain because you don't ever have to wax or sand these. They'll stay nice and shiny all the time. My mom had the same floors put in in her house over 8 years ago and hers look just as good as my "new" floors. As for price, the total came out to $6400 and that was for approx 600 sq.ft. and 13 stairs (which cost a lot more than just the floors).

We have Hampton Laminate flooring in our living room and it is wonderful (all except the builder put the wrong color in). There are some brands that are scratch resistant so if you have dogs it will not scratch. I believe to have it installed was $4.99/ sq. foot but it was included in the price to build our house.

We have Hampton Laminate flooring in our living room and it is wonderful (all except the builder put the wrong color in). There are some brands that are scratch resistant so if you have dogs it will not scratch. I believe to have it installed was $4.99/ sq. foot but it was included in the price to build our house.
We installed Hampton Laminate this past weekend. It is beautiful and I love it. I'm sore and tired but the satisfaction that *WE* did it is so worth the pain. I will post pictures soon.

We have hardwood in two bedrooms, but it was original to our home built in 1927. The previous residents had 15 cats and multiple dogs, and the carpeting was nasty...especially because our dog felt a need to 'mark' her territory in the middle bedroom. DH ripped out the carpeting and we were thrilled to discover the floors weren't in too bad of shape. There were some dark dark stains from years of cat urine, but he hand sanded them and added 3 coats of polyurethane.

I don't know about all dogs, but most dogs will not mess on a hardwood floor...they can't detect an odor there to 'mark' their spot. My parents have hardwood (all original, their house was built in 1874) all throughout their house, and their dog and mine have never had an accident there. Minnie (my dog) hates the floors, but she hasn't marked her spot in either bedroom!

We had carpeting on the whole first floor and ripped it up to put in hardwood floors - we did the "real" unfinished wood and had them finish it. A little long and messy, but so well worth it. I find the floors much easier to maintain than carpet too.

Alot of places are having sales on hardwood and laminates I have noticed. I just have to get Jay to go and look at places with me now.

Thanks for all the input everyone!

Amy~Thanks for that input about the dogs and hardwood :kiss:

Finally posting before and after pictures

Before
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4d934b3127cceb212c52ac3250000001610 (javascript:openSlideWin(1, '67b0de21b38e6337a4f7', 80);)

After
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4d934b3127cceb212c41083870000001610 (javascript:openSlideWin(1, '67b0de21b38e6337a4f7', 78);)

That is gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!

We priced out how much it would be for the living room/dining room/stairs and upstairs hall...and the stairs alone would cost MORE then just the flat part.:disbelief:

We are contemplating doing the flat parts and leaving the stairs as carpet...think that would look ok?

Deb, our hardwood goes around through a small hall into the entry way that meets the stairs. I think it would look great to keep the stairs as is. Plus, I think kids are less likely to slip. I wish we would have stopped at the end of the hallway, but my DH ripped out the carpet before I knew it so :rolleyes: we had to continue with hardwood.

I think leaving the stairs carpeted would look fine.

We have hardwood in the living room, dining room, kitchen, 1/2 bath, and music room. Upstairs we have plank flooring in 2 bedrooms, the den and the hall. (we have an area rug that covers Wiggie's floor and tile in our bathroom.) I'd never get my floors carpeted. We have a baby and 2 dogs and I use Murphy's oil on them (damp mop) or a dust mop.
We just had them all refinished ( I don't think it's been done since the house was built in the late 1800s) and they're going to last another 100 years, I'm sure!
Our one dog has IBS and sometimes has accidents. Honestly, it's super easy to clean up! Our other dog (when she was younger) peed on Wiggie's rug and I won't even let him play in there. It has to be replaced.
So.. there's my experience with them! I just love them!