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4 Ways to Maintain Hardwood Floors with Indoor Pets

A home with a wood floor installation
Posted on May 11, 2021 by fivestarwood

The allure of a hardwood floor is compelling. It looks great, makes a great sound when you walk on it, can be cleaned easily, and gives your house an elegant look.

However, if you have pets, particularly an active dog or cat, you may wonder whether it’s a good idea to get hardwood floors installed. You wouldn’t want your new floors to be scratched up within days now, would you?

Well, here’s what you can do to ensure that your hardwood floors and pets can co-exist:

Trim the Nails

When your pet runs across the house, playing and roughhousing, their nails will, of course, scratch up your floor. By trimming their nails, you ensure that they continue playing around the house.

Use Rugs

If you have an active pet that likes running around and dragging mud and other outside elements into your house, then you know it can do a number on your floors.

Placing rugs at all the house entrances and training your pet to clean itself off can help you prevent any damage before it happens.

Pay Attention To Water and Food Containers

As your pet eats and drinks from its bowl, there exists a risk of the contents spilling or the entire bowl being flipped over. No matter how high quality the floor is, water damage is sure to affect it.

There are a few solutions to this: you can use a heavy bowl that is harder for the pet to throw around and place a mat under the bowl to make sure the spills don’t reach the floor.

Be Careful When Choosing the Floor

A lot of your problems can be solved just by picking the right material for your floor. There are a lot of options for hardwood flooring. Here’s what you should do:

  • Use harder types of wood. The harder the wood, the more resistant it will be to the pet’s nails.
  • Pick lighter colors. Think about it; the darker the color, the more likely it is to showcase any scratches. A lighter color will better hide any scratches that do exist.
  • Don’t go for glossy options. Try to pick a matte finish that is less likely to be scratched up easily.
  • Pick higher quality wood that can be sanded down again to look like new. If you go with some of the lower-end options, then it may be difficult to re-sand it over time.

A rug outside a home with hardwood flooring

 

Get Hardwood Flooring in Seattle

At Five Star Hardwood Floor, we provide all sorts of hardwood flooring services in Seattle.

Whether you’re looking for new hardwood floors or just want to get some dustless refinishing done, give us a call,

Take a look at some of the great work our engineered wood flooring have done so far.