Tiles and grout on floors for dogs-

[borzoimom]

Okay you all- I am hoping I can get some opinions here. We have a basement type with a family room, bath etc. Well its the last room to be replaced in carpeting. The people that lived here before had hunting dogs, and it had a obvious dog odor. Anyway- this past weekend my husband and his son took out the old carpet but the padding is glued to the concret slab ( just lovely.. :rolleyes: Anyway he brought this scrapper home and made short work of that.
We are in a debate- I was thinking indoor outdoor type carpeting- looks nice but can function as a room for the dogs to go into. He wants tile- he is thinking slate, or ceremic type. My concern is sealing the grout. When we had the old carpeting down there, I had thick rugs from india that would take the dirt off but functioned.
Anyone here have a tile type lower family room? Is it hard to keep clean? And the tile sealer- does it really work? Pictures would be nice.. It only has 4 windows, so it needs to be a light color. I also thought about wood floor- but really- that room can be a high traffic area.** edit- I only use that room to bring the dogs in if the stairs up to the screen porch are slick. We get snow flurries almost nightly so the morning is usually out the basement door. *

[GreyhoundGirl]

We have ceramic tile in our kitchen and halways and bathrooms. I like it. It doesn't get scratched by long toenails (not mine, silly :p ) and is easy to vaccum. It is easy to wipe up spills and it quite simple. The tiles are really durable. They rarely break. My clumsy family has dropped lots of stuff on it. We did, however, manage to break one. We dropped a piano on it. yep[, that would do it. :rolleyes:

The bad parts are if you get cold feet, it can be quite cold. It also gets hard on the feet if you are standing on it a lot.

***More coming later today***

[borzoimom]

hmm.. Do you know what they used to seal the grout? And is it a slick surface or one of the textured ones?

[cyber-sibes]

I would use a slightly textured tile for traction. There are very good commercial sealers that work well. I would stay away from terra cotta tiles and slate - both are very high maintenance. My husband installed a beautiful slate floor at our old house, and I found out that it stains, even when it's sealed.
An alternative you may want to look into is something that's becoming more popular - a concrete floor that has been stamped to look like tile. I've seen some really nice ones, and they are a breeze to clean. No grout lines, very durable.

[borzoimom]

hmm... Got any pictures?

[GreyhoundGirl]

My mom is ashamed of our floor. Me? I'm 13, I could care less.

Here it is, however. With Jenny on it, O' course. ;)

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j314/greyhoundgirl_2006/If-she-could-speak.jpg

Here's a close-up

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j314/greyhoundgirl_2006/Hate-this-trick.jpg

You see the previous owners of the house did a really crappy job, they split the grout all over the floor. :rolleyes: I mean, they missed the cracks!

[borzoimom]

I was going to ask you that. I love that. How hard is it for her to keep the grout clean? And Jen looks BEAUTIFUL!!!

[GreyhoundGirl]

Well, (earlier I was half way through a math test, lol ) Here's the rest of what I planed to say:

The floor, as I said is easy to clean and vaccum, but dirt and hair is really obvious on it. You CANNOT have a clean tile floor and a dog. Impossible. Well, we have a black dog and white floor and you can see and speck of hair and every speck of dirt and mud. If you're a clean freak, not the floor for you.

If you wear shoes indoor (not something my family does for this reason) you have to be very careful in the winter. The snow (and ice) melts and makes the tile floors VERY slippery.

If the grout is not put in properly (as ours is) it will come off in chunks. You can't scrape all of it off, so if you don't have it in properly in the first place, your floor will never be perfect.

But I like it, it's easy to vaccum and wipe up spills and it can look quite nice if it's done properly. And it doesn't get scratched by my wild girls paws.

[GreyhoundGirl]

We have white grout so if you stain it, it's almost impossible to get it out. However, because of the way tiles are not completely flat, it takes a while for any spills to leak into the grout. Being easy to clean, if you wipe it off soon after the spill it will not get stained.


Do you see in the second pic, you can see the chunks of grout coming out. Consider however that the grout was not put in properly and is getting old.

[GreyhoundGirl]

And, also important to point out. If you've got a lot of pieces around your house. Like tables, end tables, chairs, coffee tables, standing decorations, Tile would be a bad choice. As, if you look closly, you can see, under the table? HUGE clumps of hair, you have to move the table to get the vaccuum under. Same with her bowls, except not as much fur in there.

[GreyhoundGirl]

MORE ON CLEANING GROUT:

If you take a toothbrush and scrub it a bit, *some* stans will come out.

And if you move heavy stuff around a lot, it also isn't a good choice, moving really heavy things is about the only thing that will break tile floor. We have two broken tiles; one from droping the piano, one from droping a heavy-duty tool. (I can't think of the name, that thing where you turn the rod and it gets tighter... lol, we use it to crack coconuts :p )

BTW: we've also dropped the coconut itself, which didn't break the tile. :p

[borzoimom]

Well with 4 borzois, here hair is a given. I do not mind mopping the floor daily, but I am concerned about the grout. My husband said if we used a dark grout, you would not be able to see the dirt, and then seal it.
I do like the white with blue. I wonder what it would look like with blue grout.. lol.. I can put down my " snow rugs' - they are like a cheap but thick pilled runners I use to get the snow off their feet. I do the same for rain. YOur comment on being slick is a consideration. My guys do get a little silly when they come in. hmm.. Well its a good idea thats for sure!

[GreyhoundGirl]

One other thing: If you don't wear socks inside. Your feet will DEFINETLY be nasty. (inless you're willing to spend lots of $$$ on cream :rolleyes: ) they'll be rock-hard and full of callises. (sp?) Trust me, I know from experience. ;)

[GreyhoundGirl]

Oh, on tile floors a swiffer wet-jet will work wonders. It's my mom's best friend. ;)

Found another...

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j314/greyhoundgirl_2006/FunnyJenny.jpg


And I'm not sure if it's just tile, but black floors really kill the look of a room. If you're a person who likes things that don't look gloomy. :p

[borzoimom]

Your grout looks grey- now that would work... hmmm.. Mine is a very casual room..

[GreyhoundGirl]

Your grout looks grey- now that would work... hmmm.. Mine is a very casual room..

LOL it was white at one point. LOLOLOLOLOLOL :D Get white and be rough on it for a while. lololololol

[borzoimom]

lol.. GOOD POINT.. lol.. :D