Protecting hardwood floors from dog urine

Hi Everyone- I am redoing my kitchen and breakfast room. My contractor is suggesting hardwood floors throughout. I have four dogs with the occasional marking or peeing. I am so afraid of this. He is suggesting to seal the hardwood with four coats of exterior polyurethane to protect from the urine. I have searched the Internet for assurances that this would work. Does anyone have floors finished like this or any comments/ suggestions to put my mind at ease?

vraimentda

in Flooring 9 years and 9 months ago

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lowelkasey | 9 years and 3 months ago

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I strongly recommend porcelain tiles For your flooring. And then i bought materials for my construction building from [dakahaventures.com](http://dakshaventures.com). They are offering all kinf of construction materials.

lb11215 | 9 years and 7 months ago

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I think you should use Stone Tiles for Flooring. In my pet dog’s living room, I installed “Golden White Paver Stone Tile” (which are available in stores like whole tiles). This stone still looking good even after peeing on my dog. So you may try this.

rh | 9 years and 9 months ago

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CMU, 8 over 30 years? Novice. I currently have 9 in my house, 2 were grabbed off the street this year alone. Multi cat households tend to get nuts. And yes, they are all spayed and neutered. A couple have chronic urinary problems but some are just assholes. I love them, but they are assholes.

cmu | 9 years and 9 months ago

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On any discrete flooring, how can you seal the gaps? Won’t some urine always soak in between planks? Maybe you can get your dogs trained? And I disagree about cats..having had eight over 30 years, never had a pee-marker, even as kittens, all spayed/neutered as adults of course.

ihhsitbcjyvev | 9 years and 9 months ago

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I think you need to go with Bamboo flooring, which is an excellent choice for homes with pets, for many different reasons. It?s harder than the hardest hardwoods, meaning it will stand up to more traffic. It is stain resistant, so people don?t have to worry about accidents or spills. I have some sources as well, which helps you to choose the best one among all types of flooring. http://porch.com/advice/4-kinds-of-pet-friendly-flooring-youll-drool-over/ http://www.homeflooringpros.com/blog-guides/best-flooring-dogs-pet-friendly-floors/

ihhsitbcjyvev | 9 years and 9 months ago

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I think you need to go with Bamboo flooring, which is an excellent choice for homes with pets, for many different reasons. It?s harder than the hardest hardwoods, meaning it will stand up to more traffic. It is stain resistant, so people don?t have to worry about accidents or spills. I have some sources as well, which helps you to choose the best one among all types of flooring. http://porch.com/advice/4-kinds-of-pet-friendly-flooring-youll-drool-over/ http://www.homeflooringpros.com/blog-guides/best-flooring-dogs-pet-friendly-floors/

rh | 9 years and 9 months ago

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I assume your dogs are all fixed. Right? Not sure why they are marking. Cats are assholes, but in my experience, dogs don’t really mark unless they aren’t fixed.

peaceout | 9 years and 9 months ago

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Once your dogs urinate on a spot, they will forever use that spot (kind of like tree outside). Nothing will mask the scent, especially if is is wood/porous. You can try porcelain tile, however the grout will absorb the scent. A dog’s sense of smell is far more superior than a human. Also, if a friend brings their dog into your house, do not be surprised if their dog ‘marks’ its spot as well. In summary, not knowing your dogs, perhaps a dog walker a few times a day and crating to possibly prevent this from happening?

thetinkerswagon | 9 years and 9 months ago

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the other thing is, ask a real floor guy. the contractor may have ideas like I do but a guy who has been doing floors for as long as we have been walking on this earth will know more than we do. Steve

thetinkerswagon | 9 years and 9 months ago

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check to be sure the exterior poly is ok for inside use or floors. many exterior products are actually much softer than interior products (so as to give and take with heat/cold) and will wear off, especially with the dogs’ nails. also, too much poly can chip easier. my thoughts? I would put two coats of sealer on first. the first coat I would mix 70% spirits/30% poly and soak that stuff into all of the cracks. the second coat I would mix 50/50\. then I would apply two more coats of straight poly. I do not see the plus of putting more coats on. also, maintain the floor. when it wears, have someone screen it and recoat it. the blue color that occurs on oak floors is a reaction between the wood and the urine. Water will do it as well (with red oak; an old wood worker told me that is how to tell red from white oak). that blue color does not really come out once it is in the grain. Steve

rh | 9 years and 9 months ago

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If you’re definitely going to install new flooring and it’s in the kitchen, then I agree with anotherposter. If you have wood flooring already, then the multiple coats will be ok for awhile, but anything you put down will need to be replaced over time if they go in the same spots continually. I’ve always had rescue cats who sometimes refuse to use litter boxes. Whenever we’ve renovated a home where bad cats have been, we’ve had to not only replace the flooring in areas, but sometimes it soaks through to the floor boards and even the joists. Because cats spray, we’ve even had to cut away at the walls and patch those areas. If you do have bad “accidents” and you’re taking up the floor, you may want to prime the joists and floorboards and caulk between molding and floor so that it’s protecting the entire area, not just the floor.

anotherposter | 9 years and 9 months ago

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Even if the coating could protect the wood (and I don’t think it will), coatings wear off of wood floors pretty quickly. I’d suggest porcelain tile. You can get it to look like wood if you want that look. It won’t feel quite the same, but is easy to clean and will hold up far better than wood to urine and the dogs’ nails.