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We’ve been renovating for a long time on a shoestring, and are hoping to finally realize rental income on this baby and move into the owner’s duplex upstairs very soon.

There is one last hurdle: flooring.

We will have a hardibacker subfloor over hydronic radiant heat (hardi is the thermal mass). In the future, when we have money again, we will be putting down a nice engineered wood floor, but it could really be awhile. We need an interim floor that is *very* inexpensive, won’t need to be taken up in order to put down the real floor, and will last up to 5 years, because who knows how long this economy will suck?

Cheap 4mm cork tiles seem like the way to go. They’ll stick to the hardi, are about the same thickness and material as underlayment, are supposed to be very resilient, and are only $1.49 a square foot.

I have only one doubt. One member of our family has some scritchy scratchy toenails and occasionally runs around in his bare feet, chasing balls and his tail and whatnot.

Anyone here have cork tiles (of any quality/price) and a dog? Does this work? It’s supposed to be an industrial-grade material that’s suitable for restaurants and hospitals and such, but I am skeptical.