What Is The Most Durable Hardwood Flooring For Pets?

Mirage Imagine Old Hickory Barn wood

Many Canadians are dog owners and dog lovers and if you are like me your dog is part of the family! Does this mean you cant have a hardwood floor? Well... not necessarily, although I do not recommend hardwood flooring to most dog owners, there are some hardwood floors that will scratch less than others, along with other hardwood looking options.

Type of Finish & Finish Lustre 
This is the most important part of this blog post, although others might start by recommending a rock hard type of wood, this is not as important as the quality of the finish, as in most cases it is the finish that scratches not the wood itself. I generally recommend the Mirage Nanolinx HD  because it has proven to be 5 times more resilient than the nearest competition. I would also recommend that you pick a low luster finish like the Cashmere or DuraMatt option from Mirage or Oil FX that Seasons Flooring offers. All of these options are low luster finishes that are designed to look like an oiled finished floor without the maintenance and other disadvantages of oil and is the most practical wood finish for families with children and pets. I personally love the Mirage cashmere finish on a nice wire-brushed product.

Style

Mirage Imagine Collection Old Hickory Seashell 

The Style of a hardwood floor is also a very important decision, personally with pets I always recommend a wire-brushed or distressed product like Mirage Imagine Old Hickory Seashell. Wire-brushing and distressing a floor will actually give you a floor that has been marked, nicked, and well... wire-brushed, this means that if and when your loving dog scratches your floor, the scratch will be less visible because your floor will already be marked up. There are also many other  quality distressed lines available like the Mirage Imagine Collection, Kentwood Floors,  Seasons Winery Collection, Wickham Mountain Home or one of my personal favorites the Vintage Hand-scraped.


Type Of Wood
Yellow Birch, Red Oak, White Oak, Maple & Hickory are all very good hardwoods to use as a flooring product with animals, they are all very hard types of wood. My preference is actually yellow birch & red oak, although they are the softest of the five woods, yellow birch & red oak seems to be the best wood species for flooring because of its combination of hardness and elasticity.

Brands
You will notice that I suggest the Canadian made Mirage hardwood throughout this blog post, if you are wondering why, it is because Mirage is the best hardwood flooring manufacturer in the World and if you read What Hardwood Flooring Brand Should I Choose? Blog I am confident you will see why. I also mention Canadian manufacturers like Wickham Flooring, Seasons Flooring and Vintage Flooring, I do this because these companies are also wonderful Canadian made products that are built to last and are generally more affordable than the #1 Floor in the World, Mirage. If you want more information about Seasons Flooring, check out this blog post Seasons Canadian Made Hardwood.