Inside Dogs and Hardwood Floors

“How should I look after my floors when I have dogs?” or “How do I stop my dogs from scratching the hardwood floors?” are questions we regularly get asked. Dog lovers and hardwood floor lovers are constantly trying to find a balance between enjoying their lovable pets and caring for their pristine floors.

Maybe you’re in the same situation.

So what steps can you take to ensure your wood floors and dogs can coexist together?

How to Choose a Hardwood Floor Finish – Part 1

One of the most common questions we get asked is – What type of finish should I put on my hardwood floors?

That’s a great question to ask for two reasons, first because it can greatly affect the overall look and color of your floors, and second because it has a great impact on the durability of your floors. So obviously choosing the appropriate finish for you and your floors is very important.

How to Choose a Hardwood Floor Finish – Part 2

Choosing a hardwood floor finish is not an easy or obvious decision. As we discussed in Part 1, there are a number of different types of finish systems available – surface finishes, penetrating finishes, waxes and hardwax oils – with many sub-categories in each.

To make things even more complicated, there are other factors that you need to consider about each of these finishes as well apart from just their category. Things like durability, looks, UV resistance, VOCs, maintenance and dry times all need to be considered before deciding on a final choice.

How to Choose a Hardwood Floor Finish – Part 3

Here we are in Part 3 of how to go about choosing a hardwood floor finish system for your floors. In Part 1 we talked about the different types of finishes available. In Part 2 we discussed the many different factors involved in choosing a finish.

In this article, we put all these factors together in a chart and see how all of the finishes compare to each other side-by-side. Below are all the different finish systems and most important factors to consider when choosing a finish.

How to Choose a Hardwood Floor Finish – Part 4

This is the final article in a 4 part series where we’ve been discussing how to choose between ALL the hardwood floor finishes out there. This is obviously an issue with many people because I’ve had quite a few messages about when this final article to the series would be ready… sorry for the delay over the holidays and thank you for your patience.

In the last article we compared all of the finish systems side-by-side and ended up choosing the 3 best by process of elimination. But that still leaves the field pretty wide open as there are many different brands and products among those three groups.

Rubio Monocoat Pre-Color Easy

This month I thought I’d introduce you to a newish Rubio Monocoat product that we haven’t had a chance to write about yet. It’s called RMC Pre-Color Easy and it is a very cool addition to the Rubio Monocoat line.

Basically it’s like a stain or dye that you apply to the wood before applying the Rubio Monocoat Oil Plus 2C. But, unlike normal stain, because its specially developed to be used with the Oil Plus 2C, the molecular bonding of the oil to the wood (as we talked about in this blog post) is still guaranteed.

The Dangers of Hardwood Floor Refinishing

A few months ago there was another unfortunate incident where a house was almost burnt to the ground during a hardwood floor refinishing project.

Stories like this really upset us. For one, people die in these scenarios and two, they are completely preventable if you take the appropriate precautions during the floor refinishing project.

You can read the newspaper write up here: