You love the look of hardwood floors, but you have a dog. Hardwood flooring is out of the question, right? Luckily, that’s not the case. Your pet can live in harmony with your hardwood flooring. You just have to be sure to select a hardwood floor that will be pet friendly.
The hardness of the actual wood you are using for your hardwood flooring is very important. Harder wood species will be less likely to dent and scratch than softer woods. Some wood species to avoid would be North American walnut and cherry. Hardness of the wood alone isn’t the only factor to consider when choosing a pet friendly hardwood floor. No matter how hard the wood, it will still dent and scratch. In addition to hardness, there are several other factors to consider.
Choose a Rustic Hardwood Floor for your Pet
It is inevitable that your hardwood floor is going to get damaged with normal wear and tear. The key is to choose a rustic hardwood floor, so those dents and scratches will add to the character of the floor. On a perfect floor, especially a dark hardwood floor; dents and scratches will be more noticeable and will look like defects and take away from the overall appearance of the hardwood flooring.
Opt for a Lower Sheen Finish
A glossy finish will magnify each and every dent and scratch in your hardwood floor. Although lower sheen finishes don’t eliminate dents and scratches, it will make them less noticeable. This higher the sheen level, the more this damage will be magnified in your floor, this is especially the case with dark shiny floors.
In addition to a lower sheen finish, we also offer specialty finishing options that will make your hardwood flooring very pet friendly.
Opt for a Distressed Hardwood Flooring Finish
Before the flooring is stained and finished, it runs through a large wire brush. This wire brush tears out the softer fibres in the wood providing a more textured surface. The combination of removing the softer wood fibres and the texture makes this hardwood flooring extremely durable and low maintenance. The wire brushing really helps display the unique patterns and medullary rays found in quarter sawn and live sawn oak. We only finish the distressed in our Matte finish. Finishing the distressed in a higher sheen makes it look like plastic. The distressed is very versatile, because depending on the stain colour and grade of flooring, it can work in any setting. The best part about the distressed finish is that it is already textured so dents and scratches only add to the look of the floor.
Opt for a Two-Pass Flooring Finish
The two-pass finish is very unique. All of the boards are stained entirely black and then refinished and stained a different colour. This provides and incredible rustic look which is especially popular in wide plank floors. On species with very little grain like maple, the two-pass mostly just turns the bevels of the boards black, which really showcases the board’s width. On species with grain like oak and hickory, the black stain also highlights the grain patterns in the wood by turning it black. On our live sawn white oak, the two-pass finish does an incredible job of bringing out the unique grain features like the medullary rays. On two-pass floors we also offer the option of having “nail holes” put in your flooring. Before we stain the wood black, we hit the surface randomly with a pin hammer. These marks soak in the black stain giving the appearance of nail holes or worm holes. The two-pass can also be done with a white base instead of black like in our champagne and beach sand floors.