We all love our fury friends, but what kind of damage and wear and tear are they causing to your floor? I will outline some issues that our pets cause and give you some tips to minimize damage.
We will take a look at 3 different types of common floors in everyday households.
Carpet, is most common.
Tile and grout, is very popular.
and last but not least
Natural Stone floors i.e. (travertine, marble, limestone, granite).
CARPET
DOGS : Lets start with Fido (aka Dogs) and their damaging effects on your carpet. If you own a home or even if you are just renting, we all want to protect our investments. In this case our floors. None of us want to come out of pocket to replace or have repairs done due to our animals. Dogs come in many shapes and sizes, long or short hair, lazy or playful, chewers or non chewers and some that love to slobber (Turner and Hooch) and some that don't slobber at all. These attributes are all determining factors on what kinda of wear and tear your carpet will experience. All Dogs shed both hair and dander regardless of their behaviors. All that fur and dander gets trapped inside your carpet fibers. This can cause respiratory issues especially if you are someone who has asthma or struggles with allergies. A simple way to combat this is to vacuum on a regular basis with a vacuum that is of good quality and working properly, meaning the canister or bag isn't overfilled and the brushes are working efficiently. No hair clogs. If your dog likes to chew on everything make sure they have an alternative toy or chew bone to gnaw on instead of taking it out on your carpet. We recommend to have your carpet professionally cleaned at least twice a year to combat against every thing stated above. Even quarterly if you have multiple pets or a SUPER slobberer. We also suggest adding a carpet protectant such as scotch guard or shield plus to help minimize staining and damage.
CATS: Now lets talk about ole Whiskers here (aka cats). These fury felines like to sharpen their claws on our precious things especially nice beautiful carpet. They also use a litter box which tends to make a mess as they are jumping in or out of it, tracking that delightful (sarcasm) sand all over the carpet. If you don't feel like replacing your carpet anytime soon I suggest you get them a scratching post of some sort. Even an old rug dedicated to them just for that purpose. For the litter I suggest a small portable vacuum to keep under the sink to get the litter up asap. As the sand can be very abrasive on your carpet fibers breaking them down much faster than you would like. Cats also shed their hair and dander more than dogs so having your floors professionally cleaning two to four times a year is also recommended here as well.
TILE AND GROUT
Tile floors are one of the most durable floors on the market today. This type of flooring holds up quite well against all types of pets. The problem isn't the tile itself but the grout the separates the tiles. Grout is very porous like sand and will absorb anything it can get its hands on. With that being said, this becomes a problem when sparky decides to slobber all over it or spike has an accident in the corner. The dogs or cats water bowl also becomes an issue since the animals drink with their faces and don't use napkins, there tends to be a big mess and a water trail next to the bowl. The easiest way to stop your grout from absorbing all of this chaos is to get it professionally cleaned and sealed. Preferably a color sealant since the color sealant is an acrylic urethane meaning it is virtually stain proof. This comes in quite handy dealing with those pet accidents. This ensures that nothing will be absorbed by the grout, dirt, water, slobber, urine , NOTHING! It just becomes a surface stain that you can easily wipe up with a microfiber rag and some hot water. There is no need to seal the actual tile, due to the fact, it is not porous. Note: For pets, a water and food bowl mat also will help minimize the mess .
NATURAL STONE
Last but not least we can talk about natural stone. This floor type is the hardest to maintain when you are a pet owner. WHY? The reason being is that it is a very porous surface making it susceptible to ALL of the damage mentioned above and more. The softer the stone the easier it is for your pets to damage. Limestone and Travertine are softer than Marble or Granite. Either way those floors can be damaged if you're not taking the proper steps to protect them. These floors can be etched by urine, stomach acid, or even dog slobber that has been sitting for to long. These can be scratched by claws and nails. On top of that the grout lines are also porous making it even harder to protect from pet damage. There are a couple things you can do to help prevent these mishaps. Area rugs are one but who wants to cover up all that beautiful stone. The most important thing you can do is have a professional
(LV Floor Restoration) clean, polish and seal it. We can remove any etch marks, stains or scratches that your pet or you might have created. A Heavy Duty penetrating sealer will be applied after we polish to ensure that it will be protected against all of that high traffic, spills, slobber, pee accidents, scuffing, etching and more. This is the only real way to protect your natural stone floors. But once its done it will be so much easier to maintain. Making life that much simpler.