wood floors + cats = trouble??

Don't know if it can still be gotten, but I used to own a 150 year old house that had douglas fir floors that the finish had largely worn off on. I had four cats at different points that I lived there, three of them were Siamese with those particularly sharp claws, and I had no problems. It's a lot easier for cleanup for those little accidents when they get sick or have hairballs (one of the Siamese had a dietary problem and threw up if she got into the wrong food)

I know when I was looking into refinishing that you can get really good polyurethane finishes that can be touched up with a mop periodically so you might want to ask the flooring people about that.

It's really funny watching them play hockey with the toys and each other on the slick surfaces - one of mine learned to use the slide factor as part of his playing!

As the raccoon in "Over The Hedge" says to the squirrel - less claw, more pad!

Originally Posted by Baraka

It's really funny watching them play hockey with the toys and each other on the slick surfaces - one of mine learned to use the slide factor as part of his playing!

As the raccoon in "Over The Hedge" says to the squirrel - less claw, more pad!

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Oh yeah, I'd forgotten there is actually an advance to a hard floor for the kitties playtime, playing hockey is much easier. That balances out the running problem.

Gotta keep the kitties happy!

Originally Posted by StarryEyedTiGeR

My sister just bought bamboo flooring to put down in their master bedroom. I'll let you know how it works. (They have 4 cats)

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I was wondering about bamboo. I found a site where it says the carbonized is fairly soft and the natural is about as hard as oak.

We have Pergo that looks like a hardwood floor in the dining and living rooms. No claw marks and watching Butzie skid is hilarious.

I wouldn't worry about cats on wood floors. The most they will do is slip and slide on them. At least that's what Limerick did.

Originally Posted by mschauer

I need to replace all the flooring in my house soon. I'm thinking about getting hardwood but am concerned about scratches. Two of my kitties are very resistant to claw clipping so there are times when their claws are long. Soft Paws aren't an option cuz if I can't clip their claws I sure ain't gonna be able to get those on.

What experience do you guys have with this situation? Would wood floors just be a mistake? I've heard that a really hard wood like oak with a polyurethane finish might hold up well. Heard the same about bamboo.

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I have bought a new home with all wood but all hand scraped wood. It is very expensive but if you can afford it, hand scraped wood is the way to go. You will certainly never see any scratches.

Our cats don't have much problems on our hardwood floors, just a bit of slipping and sliding if they are running like mad and try to turn a corner or stop too fast. The floor dont get scratched very bad either, its mostly our big dogs who scratch them if they are running and slip. But we got them installed our selves and got a very thick finish and they are suppossed to be very scratch resistant.

My last house had old growth pine floors put into the house in 1884. The cats didn't scratch them but the dogs did. When they got to a point where we had to refinish them, we had a polyeurathane that they use in school gymnasiums and that sealed them like concrete.

We're looking at wood floors for our new house. If you do a google search on wood hardness, you'll see which ones stand up the best. Bamboo is way up there, but the vertical cut is stronger than the horizontal cut. When we finally save the money to do this, we'll go with vertical bamboo.

I had oak floors a while back. Trixie was around 5 at the time. She got around okay, but she did slide a bit. Harmless, cute and funny!

I'm not sure what kind of wood my floors are, but there's no damage. I do clip my cats claws though. They don't slide too much, usually they leap onto the cat trees and I have anti slip stuff under them.

These were the hardwood floors that i had throughout the downstairs in my old house, and i never had any problems with mine and the girls. They were WELL varnished and not once did they try to put their claws in.

They slid all over it when they were playing chase, but they still do on the laminate flooring that i have in this house

No problems here...our floors are 100+ year old fir and oak. They slide around on them...the high traffic areas have rugs/runners.

PS... love that picture of baby Sophie!

Boy I sure am glad I asked! I was sure wood floors would be a no go with the kitties!

Thanks for all the feedback! Now if I can just convince myself to part with the $$$...

We have oak floors in our living room...no problems with scratching. In fact, Tailer just loves to run and slide on them and batting toys around on them is just too much fun! Forest isn't as fond of them, but he has enough challenges staying upright without playing on the slippery floor.

We have a hardwood floor in parts of the house and we haven't had any problems so far with the cats or dogs. Like others have mentioned, the kitties just slide a little when they're running across it. It really does depend on the type of wood. Good luck with whatever you decide!

My Cat name is jenna, she is so rude she always slide on the floor, and several cliches are their in my floor now due to her these activities. My wife never hear anything when I complaint anything to her of jenna, as she love her a lot.. stuck wid my flooring now

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