Pet Friendly Flooring Options
For pet owners, our beloved cats and dogs are not just pets; they are cherished members of our families. However, with their playful antics and occasional accidents, finding the right flooring becomes essential to maintain a clean and happy home.
If you’re a cat or dog owner on a quest to discover the best flooring options that can withstand the challenges of pet life, you’ve come to the right place. In this blog post, we will guide you through a selection of pet-friendly flooring materials that balance style, durability, and easy maintenance, ensuring your furry friends and your floors can coexist harmoniously.
We’re going to ignore other types of pets – not because we don’t care, but because they’re easily answered. For fish tanks you’ll want it on a surface that deals well with water – Vinyl. For small animals they usually have their own cages, so flooring isn’t really impacted by them.
Last Updated: 13/04/2024
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Pet Owner Flooring Considerations
Dogs come in all shapes and sizes – you might have a gentle giant, an energetic and borderline feral softie, or you might have a handbag sized maniac. Cats however are usually a similar size depending on where they rate on the chonk chart. They range from independent “Feed me then let me out” cats to lazy, sleeps 18 hours a day snuggle babies. There’s no two pets alike, so we’ll lay down a general rule of thumb but your pet may differ!
Scratch Resistance
Dogs don’t cause damage the way cats do in terms of scratches – it’s a cat’s instinct to sharpen their claws and carpet is perfect for this. A dog however, can cause scratches but they’re more of the clumsy, accidental type. Carpets are typically fine with dogs around, but going for a smaller pile will make the carpet more resistant and will resist trapped hairs easier.
Laminate, Vinyl and LVT flooring are a great option for pets all around. If your dog’s on the heavier side or boisterous then opt for a type with a higher quality protective surface to resist those accidental playful scratches. If you’re wanting to opt for carpets even though you have cats, getting a scratching post can be a great way to save your carpet from feline damage!
Water and Stain Resistance
Whether it’s the accidental tipped over water bowl or its the excited bathroom mishaps when visitors come over, spills aren’t uncommon for a dog owner. Some cats however, are prone to spilling over our drinks and food as if they resent us. Carpets will not handle spills very well, so as long as your dog doesn’t eat on a carpeted floor you’ll be okay. You’ll want your dog eating close to the kitchen and both vinyl and laminate make sense here. If you’re a cat owner, then just bare in mind when you’re leaving drinks unattended that your cat might wake up and choose chaos that particular day.
With laminate you will get time to soak up spills but you can’t leave them all day or the wood will begin to expand in the cracks between boards. Vinyl, either tile, sheet or even LVT (luxury Vinyl Tile) will be absolutely fine with any spills. This range of vinyl, as well as laminate will offer you stain resistance too and you’ll be able to quickly sweep or mop up pet hair too!
Maintenance
Pet hairs can get everywhere so you’ll need to think about where your pet spends most of their time. Firm flooring is great at resisting scratches and spills but pet hair will show up fairly quickly and move around as small breezes naturally occur around the home through temperature changes. Vacuuming, sweeping or mopping are all easy ways to get this up, but opting for carpet that can cling to pet hair a little easier will mean you don’t have to vacuum quite as often.
Comfort and Grip
You want your flooring to be comfortable for your furry friend. Throughout the day they’ll likely be laid on a comfortable bed but we can give a quick run down of the comfiest flooring. Laminate flooring is the hardest, however they won’t be running back and forth all day so if you value laminate for its resistance to most pet issues, you’re absolutely free to side with laminate knowing that it won’t actually impact how comfortable your pet is all that much. Vinyl flooring provides slightly more comfort due to the foamy base layer which means it’ll be slightly warmer too – ideal in winter for any member of the family.
Carpet is most comfortable, but comes with the drawback of being damaged by pets.
Cost
This is an important point that all flooring shoppers must consider! We’ve told you about the benefits of laminate flooring for homes with pets, but it does tend to be more expensive than carpet and vinyl, both of which are fairly similar in price and are known for being affordable flooring materials. With our pay weekly flooring plans, carpet and vinyl both have the same £40 deposit (which comes off the overall cost of your flooring too!) whereas laminate has an £80 deposit. If you’re on the hunt for flooring, why don’t you get in touch and we’ll set you up with a home visit where you can see what flooring we have on offer, we’ll measure up the rooms you’re looking for flooring in and give you a free, no obligation quote!
Which is the best flooring option for Pet Owners?
So in conclusion, your pet is an individual. Some cats love to snuggle into a carpet, others won’t rest until it’s ruined. To take each recommendation with a pinch of salt.
Laminate is a great option for resistance and durability, but it’ll need sweeping or vacuuming more often than carpet.
Vinyl flooring is a great middle ground in terms of cost, resistance and comfort, but again you’ll still need to clean up the pet hair more often than carpet.
Carpet will give the pet hair something to cling to until you vacuum but any spills or stains will be harder to remove, and if your cat isn’t used to carpeted flooring then it may think it’s a giant play room for scratching.
High Quality Flooring, Low Prices!
Whichever flooring option you choose, it only has to cost you £10 per week. Easipay’s Pay Weekly Flooring Plans give you any flooring that we offer with 0% Interest, No Credit Checks and we’ll even throw in free underlay and fittings where needed.
With over 2000 5 Star reviews on Trustpilot from our very happy customers, who are able to budget around the cost of their brand new flooring, it’s quality and service you know you can trust. To get started and see what carpets, vinyl or laminate flooring we offer, Fill in the short contact form below!
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About The Author
Matt
Matt is a master at gathering relevant information and rolling it into a ball of digestibility. Fuelled by caffeine and metal bands, you'll usually find him in the office either writing blog posts with verification from our most experienced flooring fitters, creating new ad designs, working on our social media and website or finding ways to improve our customer's whole experience with us. Matt is part of the background force that keeps the Pay Weekly side of Easipay Carpets growing.