Vinyl flooring as a temp flooring would be ideal. I would never use wood with pets who have accidents. It will ruin it.

hollysprings,

The renovations include moving walls, and as a result, about half the flooring on the main level will need to be replaced.

Are you suggesting that I install temporary vinyl sheet flooring wherever I will need new floor (living room, hallway, and family room) and leave the other floors as is for now. Or, is there a way to install the hardwood floor and then "cover" designated pet area with a temporary vinyl floor?

I'm with holly on this one. Put in the flooring that you want for the long term and buy inexpensive sheet vinyl to temporarily cover part or all of it. You can just lay it on top of it, don't glue it down or anything.

It won't look great, but it will accommodate your pooch.

We have had wood flooring for over 21 years with dogs who do get sick, have accidents, or are just young and untrained. It really is not much of a problem to clean the floor when events happen, and there has not been damage to the floors. I think many folks do not appreciate the durability of wood floors; our have not been adversely impacted by either the pets, lots of mud and sand, and lots of kids. After about 15 years we had the floors refinished, and they looked like new; the refinishing removed the scratches that dog claws leave when running around, and some of the dings left when heavy things fall. We probably would not have even bothered then with the refinishing if we were not putting new kitchen cabinets in, and wanted to make sure newly exposed floor looked like what had been out all those years already. The wood floors easily outlast carpet for us, and look much better than vinyl would, in my opinion.
Renais

We installed Marmoleum and absolutely LOVE it. It's a 'green' solution, the new linoleum. It is not cheap however. Google Marmoleum - awesome colors, super tough, easy on the feet, warm, etc etc etc. Honestly, we just love it. I've dropped a ceramic plate and it bounced! Truly.

polyurethane on wood floors will protect the wood.

People think that a site finished poly floor makes it "waterproof". Not so. Wood expands and contracts. The only way that you can stop that is to 100% maintain stable 30% humidity levels in your home year round. Even then, with a consumer grade humidifier and AC, you'll get seasonal swings.

That means that the wood will not maintain a solid sheet of finish where one board ends and another begins. You will always get cracks in the finish there. Always. You may not be able to see them if you have good humidity control, but they are there.

And they will let in moisture. A small amount of moisture if it's only on the surface briefly, but if you let that sit on the surface for a lengthy period, it will penetrate the wood fibers on the edge, and even below, to the sub floor.

Just ask any flooring professional. They've been there when the floors that looked undamaged to the homeowner's eyes were removed. And underneath, there was penetration of the moisture, and damage to the wood. And it can be pretty gross on a floor that's been down a while and the owner has had pets long term.

If this is a frequent enough occurrence, the consumer will start to see the damage be visible on the surface. The edge fibers will swell, and because they can't swell as much as the fibers would like to, the edge fibers get crushed. That edge crush creates an even bigger gap. That lets more moisture in the next time your pet has an accident there and it sits for half a day waiting on you to get home and clean it up.

Vomit is even worse. It's much more acidic. Cat hork will eat away the wood fibers on the edges eventually if it occurs enough at the same spot. And it will damage the poly coating eventually as well. It's hydrochloric acid, pure and simple.

Wood floors can be a great choice as long as you do not expect them to remain pristine when you have pets. And you have a contingency plan for dealing with more than the occasional accident. Or you resign yourself to spending a lot of money and then damaging that investment beyond it's ability to recuperate.

If it were me, and I am in a similar situation with elderly pets, I'd wait for their passing before putting in new flooring. Some washable area rugs, and vinyl remnants provide a stopgap surface for my oldsters to hork on, and I need not worry about damaging a new investment.

"If it were me, and I am in a similar situation with elderly pets, I'd wait for their passing before putting in new flooring"

That is exactly what we did. Our elderly dog went completely blind soon after we started our remodel and indoor accidents occured more frequently. She would have been miserable confined to a "pet-friendly" area of the house, and so would we (and I don't think a dog would find confinement to be "pet-friendly" at all, not unless the rest of his "pack" was confined with him). Our little dog lived for two more years after that, and doing without the new flooring was a pretty small inconvenience for us, especially considering what she was going through.

Yeah, i would wait for the dog to pass before installing newflooring or restrict where the dog can go.

I'm thinking about using engineered wood instead of solid wood flooring on the main floor. Then I can leave the porcelain tiles on the kitchen floor because I won't need to put a subfloor over the slab.

If I'm using the same wood species, will it be noticeable if I use engineered wood on the main floor, but solid wood on the 2nd level (bedrooms)?

I prefer to do the remodel now rather then postpone it for a few years. It's a major renovation, not just a change in floor covering.

I don't know if my dog's incontinence will improve as his bladder heals. It's been about 2 weeks since he had surgery.

I bought puppy 'Pee" pads today; I put one on the floor and he used it. They are absorbent and have a plastic liner on the bottom - I think that will work better than vinyl flooring - which would puddle and could be slippery.

We were/are in a similar situation. We decided to lay a wood grain tile on our entire first floor to avoid transitions.its durable, moisture and pet resistant. You just got to choose a seeming less grout or narrow to no grout...we love the look and feel of wood, so we are redoing all our carpet floors upstairs and the stairs itself into solid wood floors...in long run I would always be careful putting wood flooring in an area with monitored i.e. Bathroom or kitchen...I had both at one of our other homes...at one time the hot water heater that was adjecent to the kitchen leaked in...ended up ruining all flooring in that area...I can imagine something like that happening to a refrigerator or dishwasher...you just never know...as I said it did not happen to me in the kitchen...but moisture will damage your wood floors...so tile wood be a better choice for kitchens and bathrooms...there are beautiful high quality wood grain tiles that are also laid in planks...most start at$7-$8...if you go to a quality tile store...no Home Depot or lowes...their batch numbers of tile often do not match...

We rented a house for a short time in AR, think hot and humid. The home owner had a dog. The wood floors reeked of urine on the hot and humid days, which is most of the time. There is nothing you can do to stop urine from seeping into the cracks.

Our dogs, 1 large and 2 small, do not have health issues and don't have urination problems at this time. We are now in PA and our home is under construction. Our dogs are aging so I have done a lot of research on flooring.

Our home is very rural. I am thinking dirt and grit on floors.
Our final decision is to use a natural cherry with an oil finish throughout most of the home. The oil finish will be easy to touch up when needed. (for scratches etc)

The laundry room where the dogs will be coming in and out. "Their" door is where they end up vomiting, and dragging in the most dirt....when they are sick they head for the door...sometimes we get there in time and sometimes we don't.We are going with a radiant heat and porcelain tile. This is the flooring I intend to run in the hall by the back door and probably all of the bathrooms.

The best option I have found for pets is porcelain tile and the new grout. I don't remember what the new grout is called but it is more resistant to staining, perhaps that makes it more resistant to odors as well.

Some of my thoughts along the way with the decision making.

The new faux wood porcelain tile does not bring the warmth that I am looking for so I am still using wood. Plus tile is hard, this is going to be our retirement home. Tile is not that comfortable for aging dogs. So, after considering running porcelain throughout the entire home I ditched that idea and we will use a combination of the porcelain and wood.

I looked into several other options that really did not even come close to making the final list. We do not want too many flooring types in tour home. We want a continuous flow. This is a very open floor plan. Every situation is a little different. Good Luck, I hope some of this was helpful.

We rented a house for a short time in AR, think hot and humid. The home owner had a dog. The wood floors reeked of urine on the hot and humid days, which is most of the time. There is nothing you can do to stop urine from seeping into the cracks.

Our dogs, 1 large and 2 small, do not have health issues and don't have urination problems at this time. We are now in PA and our home is under construction. Our dogs are aging so I have done a lot of research on flooring.

Our home is very rural. I am thinking dirt and grit on floors.
Our final decision is to use a natural cherry with an oil finish throughout most of the home. The oil finish will be easy to touch up when needed. (for scratches etc)

The laundry room where the dogs will be coming in and out. "Their" door is where they end up vomiting, and dragging in the most dirt....when they are sick they head for the door...sometimes we get there in time and sometimes we don't.We are going with a radiant heat and porcelain tile. This is the flooring I intend to run in the hall by the back door and probably all of the bathrooms.

The best option I have found for pets is porcelain tile and the new grout. I don't remember what the new grout is called but it is more resistant to staining, perhaps that makes it more resistant to odors as well.

Some of my thoughts along the way with the decision making.

The new faux wood porcelain tile does not bring the warmth that I am looking for so I am still using wood. Plus tile is hard, this is going to be our retirement home. Tile is not that comfortable for aging dogs. So, after considering running porcelain throughout the entire home I ditched that idea and we will use a combination of the porcelain and wood.

I looked into several other options that really did not even come close to making the final list. We do not want too many flooring types in tour home. We want a continuous flow. This is a very open floor plan. Every situation is a little different. Good Luck, I hope some of this was helpful.

I have prefinished wood floors (mirage red oak) installed several years ago. These things are tough and are holding up well to all things that 2 cats and 2 dogs can do to it.