Almost every household has a pet of some kind, and while your fluffy companion is an essential part of your family, the damage they can do to a home is hard to ignore. Whether you have dogs, cats or even rabbits, keeping them indoors can mean that you have to pet proof your home. When you’re pet proofing your home, it’s a good idea to consider the flooring choices carefully.

If you want your home to be pet friendly, you do need to ensure that you’re picking the right flooring options. You need to pick an option that is long lasting and adds to the character and aura of the room. That’s why many people often opt for hardwood flooring or laminate flooring, engineered timber flooring. However, picking between these can be tough since they’re very similar in appearance and finish but have different qualities.

Luckily, we’re taking a closer look to determine whether glulam timber flooring or laminate flooring works better with pets.

A Closer Look at Hardwood Flooring

To start off, we’ll take a closer look at hardwood flooring. By doing so, you can have a more subjective opinion about this flooring type:

• Long Lasting – This is one of the main reasons why people pick hardwood flooring. Based on the wood type, your flooring can last you for one or two decades. With pets, this durability might be impacted, but if you have house trained them, you can bypass many issues that might shorten the life of this flooring type.
• A Unique Appeal – Hardwood flooring has a depth and warmth to it that not many other materials can provide. It can instantly elevate a room and make it appear more welcoming. Add a pet in the room and the cosiness level definitely improves. There’s no other way to make a house look like a home than by adding some glulam timber flooring to it.
• Very High Maintenance – Despite its amazing longevity, hardwood flooring is very high maintenance, requiring maintenance at least once every three months. When you add in a pet to the mix, you might have to increase your maintenance efforts to keep the flooring looking good. Additionally, you have to pick your wood floor polish wisely. These products can contain harmful fumes, which might be mild for you, but for your pet, they can be severe.
• Doesn’t Deal Well with Scratches – While not such a major issue, if you have cats, dogs, rabbits or hamsters, they can leave claw marks and unsightly scratches on the hardwood flooring of the room. Keeping your pet’s claws trimmed can help, but in some cases, that is not enough to save the flooring. You might have to use rugs, carpets or even restrict their access to prevent them from running around and scratching up the floor. Additionally, darker hardwood floors can show the scratches more prominently, so you should opt for lighter shades.
• Suffers in Accidents – When you’re house training a pet, there can be accidents when you’re unable to make them use the designated area to relieve themselves. This can cause moisture damage to the hardwood flooring. In many cases, the odour can also be difficult to remove from the spot. Additionally, if your pet likes to splash in their water bowl, the moisture can get absorbed and cause the flooring to either warp or develop mold.

As you can see, having glulam timber flooring with a pet can be challenging. However, if you are willing to put in the time and commitment, you can opt for this flooring option.

A Closer Look at Laminate, Engineered Timber Flooring

If getting hardwood flooring is out of the question for you, you can still opt for other alternatives such as laminated, engineered timber flooring.

This was designed specifically to overcome many areas where hardwood flooring suffers. We’re going to take a closer look at this flooring type here:

• Long Lasting – Compared to hardwood flooring, engineered flooring also has a pretty long life. There are cases where it has been said to outlast the durability of hardwood floors. Keeping this option in mind, you should pick a colour that you’re going to be happy with because you’ll be looking at it for decades!
• Can Mimic Hardwood – Engineered flooring is the closest match to hardwood flooring and is often the alternative that people pick. The flooring type is made of compressed plywood and has a finish made from hardwood. This allows it to give you the same warmth and depth that you get from hardwood flooring. In fact, many people can’t even tell the difference between the two.
• Not as High Maintenance – When it comes to maintenance, you can take a bit of a backseat with engineered timber flooring. It’s developed to be stronger and resistant to moisture, so you don’t have to constantly check on it. This ensures that you can go at least 4 to 6 months without having to retouch the polish
• More Resistant to Scratches – The laminate coating on engineered flooring also ensures that when your pets run around, the scratches don’t make an impact right away. However, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t trim your pet’s claws. It just means that it is a bit more resistant. Over time, if left as is, the claw marks can deteriorate the quality and finish of the flooring.
• Can Withstand Accidents – When it comes to accidents in house training or water bowl splashing antics, you don’t have to worry about the moisture damage as much as you would with hardwood flooring. Lamination makes the flooring more resistant, and you won’t get mold right away.

By taking a closer look, it is easy to see that laminate engineered timber flooring is a better option for pet owners to have.