Wood Floors vs. Laminate Flooring

Need someone advice. I am getting new carpet put into our basement (TV Room/Play Room). But after the week we had with a sick dog (I won't go into detail) all our carpets upstairs (Living Room, Dining Room, Hallway) need to be replaced ASAP. I think after this past week we are deciding not to do carpet. I have a 9 month old daughter and the carpets are such a mess that I won't let her crawl on them. We are thinking about doing either wood floors or laminate flooring (ie pergo) with area rugs. My problem is that we have two crazy 80 lbs dogs and I am afraid if I invest the money in wood floors, they will damage them too quickly. So I was wondering if you could share some of your experiences with wood floors vs. laminate flooring. I have heard both negative and positive things about both floors and dogs!

Thanks in advance for any information you can share.

Message edited 9/12/2005 4:19:02 PM.

Re: Wood Floors vs. Laminate Flooring

My parents had Wilson Art Laminate wood in their kitchen. They had to have it replaced after having a bad flood and losing everything on the first floor. They are going to put down Wilson Art laminate tile in the kitchen. My dad once cut a piece of wood with a SAW on the floor and NO SCRATCHES!

However I know someone who has pergo and had to have the whole thing replaced (by pergo) cause it got really scratched up. I might stay away from Pergo and check one of the other brands.

We have been looking around at this. Saw BJ's Has it for you to buy in boxes and install yourself. We want to do most of the house if not all of the house

Re: Wood Floors vs. Laminate Flooring

Wood floors will definitely get scratched up with dogs - especially of that size - but I personally like an aged look to wood...so I would do wood without hesitation. Maybe a high gloss finish would protect the floor more than a matte finish?

(I am not a fan of laminate flooring so that's not an option I would consider.)

Re: Wood Floors vs. Laminate Flooring

my dogs are waaaaaay smaller than 80 lbs & we love the laminate. They have unfortunately ruined alot of the natural wood flooring just from running around, so we are covering them with laminate. We have already done the kitchen & the living room & we love it. Very easy to clean, and you never have to refinish & resurface it.

Re: Wood Floors vs. Laminate Flooring

I love real hard wood but we didn't have the $$ to invest it where we live right now. If I were in a house I would probably invest in real wood.

That said we have laminite flooring and I LOVE it!! It looks great, is very easy to clean, and so far with a 2 1/2 year old that likes to throw his toys ( esp big heavy model cars) all over the floor.. we have not had one problem yet.

Re: Wood Floors vs. Laminate Flooring

Thanks for the information, what type of laminate flooring do you have?

Re: Wood Floors vs. Laminate Flooring

Message edited 9/15/2005 11:32:56 PM.

Re: Wood Floors vs. Laminate Flooring

hi we just did our whole house with laminate flooring and i have to say i love it I used to have wood flooring in my old house and the laminate is easier to clean and with kids and dogs like me its better. I bought traffic master from home depot and my husband laid them down. so my opinion and advice is laminate. hope that helps

Re: Wood Floors vs. Laminate Flooring

If you have dogs, I say go for the laminate flooring. It is more durable in terms of the dogs.

Re: Wood Floors vs. Laminate Flooring

Our house had Pergo when we moved in. We have it in our office and hallway. The office floor looks great and has held up wonderfully. The hallway does shoe some signs of wear- but only to me, I don't think anyone else would notice it. The hallway is also a high traffic area and it has held up.

Re: Wood Floors vs. Laminate Flooring

We did our office with laminate flooring that we purchased at Costco. So far, no scratches and we have a small dog and chairs moving around.
In our living room and dining room we installed pre-finished hardwood floors (real wood). I don't see many scratches on that either. AT least none from the dog. There is one small scratch that we got from moving furniture.