Dog Friendly Flooring {A Science Fair Project}

Our grade school alternates years between doing a history fair project and a science fair project. This year was science fair year -- and the first time in six years that we have only had one child doing one. As with every other year, there were some tears and arguing, but this one had to be the most uneventful one yet.

Squirt is becoming more and more like her oldest sister, meaning she organizes her time and is very self-motivated. It also helped that this was a topic that she was very interested in.

I will let Squirt tell you a bit about her project.

For my project I was testing which flooring was the best out of hardwood, bamboo, cork, laminate, vinyl flooring, vinyl composite, vinyl plank, and ceramic tile. I found out that the tile was the best because it does not warp or change in water(soaked all pieces of flooring in water for 24 hours and checked at various amounts of time up to 24 hrs) or dog urine (same procedure as water except this time with ammonia added to the water to imitate dog urine), and does not scratch.

Although tile (which was correct in my hypothesis) is the best flooring to have with dogs, it is very cold on your feet and in appearance, and can be hard on your legs -- especially when standing for long periods of time. 

All three vinyl floorings were a close second although they did get scratched. The way a dog walks across the floor is not the exact same as how I tested it. I dragged a rake across the flooring with varying weights on top. The way a dog walks is different so it would probably (and does as we have vinyl flooring in our home) leave less marks. So vinyl is a very close second and an other good choice. 

Another important observation I found if that if you spill water on your laminate, cork, bamboo, or hardwood floor you have about 2-5 hours to clean it up with little damage to the floor, whereas with dog urine you have 15 minutes to clean it up. 

Over all even if something looks really pretty like a hardwood you may have to do some testing to see if it is actually going to withstand your family and pets (if you have them) daily wear and tear. 

I am in love!! :o) Image source: Hucker Floor Coverings 

It was a fun and interesting project to do. In 100 years  another ten years or so, when we are ready to put in new flooring, I'm pretty sure we will be going with one of the vinyls again. Although I love hardwood, the vinyl floors have proven their durability and they are now available with virtually any look you want such as hardwood.

A special thank you to Hucker Floor Coverings for all their samples and additional information!