# Pine floors and dogs=problems



## ron schenker (Dec 11, 2005)

Customer of mine has pine floorboards throughout the main floor of their home. The floor is about 35 years old and in decent shape except for where the dogs have scratched it up. The subfloor is 1/2" plywood over 2x8 floor joists. Lots of movement and squeeks. They were considering installing a quality click and lock laminate on top of the pine. I urged them not to, for obvious reasons, and now they want to have it refinished and apply a few coats of polyurethane to help with the dog problem. Can this softwood ever be able to hold up? I told them to have the dogs nails removed:laughing: but they said no:blink:


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## Chris G (May 17, 2006)

No. Even with three coats of poly, it will dent and scratch. It won't expose any bare wood, (the poly will dent with it), so the pine will be protected, but it will dent. Unless it's really good heart pine. I love pine floors. But I've seen what a dog can do to them. 

The more the poly cures, the harder it gets, (like a month), but that involves keeping the dog off. It could look great for a while, but it will probably need to be redone or recoated in two or three years. Some people are okay with that if you let them know. It's the price of a dog I guess.


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## ron schenker (Dec 11, 2005)

Chris, is it trickier to refinish pine because of it's softness? I'm thinkin' the rental machines are not up to the task.


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## PrecisionFloors (Jan 24, 2006)

Ron, why did you advise against laminate? You say for obvious reasons....not very obvious to me.


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## justin savage (Apr 4, 2005)

They just need to have the dogs nails trimmed once a month- helps alot. justin


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## Chris G (May 17, 2006)

ron schenker said:


> Chris, is it trickier to refinish pine because of it's softness? I'm thinkin' the rental machines are not up to the task.


You could rent an orbital sander, (12" x 18"....I think, hmm, shows what I know...) and it will do a good job if you go with 40/80/120 grit or something close to that. You wont ruin the floor too bad with an orbital:whistling .

I would hire someone to sand them, and then you can do the finishing. Having sanded before, I would never, never, never do it again. Hire it out. And be the hero at the finishing stage. 

Lots of info here:http://www.woodfloordoctor.com/


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## woodmagman (Feb 17, 2007)

Is there any way to stop the pine from sqeaking or is it beyond fixing. 1/2" plywood seems a little thin for a sub-floor. How thick is the pine.


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## ron schenker (Dec 11, 2005)

PrecisionFloors said:


> Ron, why did you advise against laminate? You say for obvious reasons....not very obvious to me.


Because the 2x8 floor joists are bouncy and 1/2" subfloor is inadequate. The clik and lock will seperate over time with all that movement. They're an older couple with a very limited budget and to do the job right would cost too much.


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## ron schenker (Dec 11, 2005)

woodmagman said:


> Is there any way to stop the pine from sqeaking or is it beyond fixing. 1/2" plywood seems a little thin for a sub-floor. How thick is the pine.


The pine is about 3/8" thick. It was refinished by the HO about 3 years ago and at least once before that by the previous owner. The squeeks are caused by the movement of the joists. The floor below has drywalled ceilings. I'm not a flooring pro, but I think to firm it up would involve removing the pine and plywood subfloor and sistering up the joists then laying down 3/4" T&G ply. Lots of work and $$$


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## PrecisionFloors (Jan 24, 2006)

ron schenker said:


> Because the 2x8 floor joists are bouncy and 1/2" subfloor is inadequate. The clik and lock will seperate over time with all that movement. They're an older couple with a very limited budget and to do the job right would cost too much.


I gotcha...good call. Have you looked into a wood look vinyl? I installed some the other day that was textured and had a satin wear layer. It looked absolutely beautiful installed (which suprised the hell out of me) and is a very low maintenance floor.

If you need me to find out exactly what it was let me know. it comes in 13'2" width and can be loose layed or glued with a pressure sensitive adhesive, which is what I recommend.


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## ron schenker (Dec 11, 2005)

Precision...thanks for the tip, I'll run it by the HO:thumbsup:


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## ron schenker (Dec 11, 2005)

Today they decided on hardwood. I'll remove the pine, see how the subfloor is, and if need be screw down more plywood on top then nail down the wood.


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## dougchips (Apr 23, 2006)

I bought maple floors for my living room because maple is more dense that oak. My dogs did a great job digging at the poly finish. Odd thing is that when I used the scrapes for a bar top, my belt sander did not like the poly (used a 60 grit to remove it).


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