Am I a genius or WHAT!

[GabrielDeafBlindPupFamily]

Yeah, or what!
I have GabrielDeafBlindPup who does not do an open wooden staircase easily. So he found a spot in the house where he consistently goes. I found a solution by tossing throw rugs, plastic shower curtains, sheets, on the spot, which I could easily toss in wash to try to save the carpet. I HATE the look, it is mid-way between DR & LR in an open floorplan. Looks awful, smells awful, and my house became a toilet, which I sorely resented, as I had waited my entire life, I was evicted, my late son was evicted, and I FINALLY had the wherewithal to buy an actuall house! So my house was a toilet... As critters and I say, our dream house has rubberized concrete floors with a drain in the middle ...
WELL!
Months ago in the early summer, I had bought a roll of clear plastic sheeting to try to lay across downstairs garage which is dirt and I had a BAD flea infestation. But the film was too 'filmy'. It has been sitting in storage ever since. It is a clear plastic roll of hundreds of feet for about $5. I got the brainstorm! I cut off about 4 feet, lay on the carpet where the Gabester goes, and I ball it up and TOSS in the GARBAGE when dirty! YAYAYAY ME! I am genius! My carpet shows thru the film, and I toss it. No more laundry, no more stink, no more beach towels and shower curtains in my living room!
YAYAYAYAY! I laid it tonight. He peed and pooed on it! In Mr. Trash he goes! The plastic, not the pup

[Jane Scott]

Hey Karen!!! Isn't there a saying "Necessity is the Mother of Invention" well... I say when you've got special needs pets like ours then "You are the Mother of Invention!"
Bravo and Happy New "clean" Year!
Jane

[Cindidoxiemom]

Good job girl!
I just bought a new house, and I ripped ALL the carpet out of the main rooms....and put down tile....bleach and a mop are my friends!
Hugs,
Cindi

[Barbara Boehmer]

Cindi,

Did you do it yourself or did you hire someone? Ripping out the carpet and replacing it with something that is easier to clean has been on my list of things to do for a while. I was planning to do it myself, one room at a time. I am trying to figure out what would be the easiest to install, easiest to clean, most durable, and have enough slight texture that it would not be hazardously slippery. I have also not decided what color. I like to sort of bring the outdoors indoors and use tones of brown and beige and green and natural things, such as wood and slate. I am also very conscious of fire hazards and tend to lean more toward something like slate than wood. I have a concrete slab foundation under my current rug and padding. I am leaning more toward some sort of peel and stick squares, rather than a sheet of linoleum or tiles with grout inbetween, just because it would be easier. When I bought the house, it already had some sort of no-wax single sheets of linoleum or something, not tiles, in the kitchen and bathroom that are light beige with a light brown natural-looking design that you cannot tell where it repeats and does not have any sharp angles, just a simple two-tone, easy on the eyes, not too bright, not too dark, hides the dirt well, kind of thing. There is also a small area just inside the front door that has a solid sheet of repeating squares of a beige and brown design that I also like and looks more appropriate for a living room area than a kitchen area. The rest of the house is carpeted and the carpet is quite old and worn now, definitely time to replace it with something. I would appreciate any advice you might have, based on your experience.

[critters]

I did exactly as you've thought, replacing the carpet with sheet vinyl; I didn't want to use sticky tiles because they pop up. I didn't lay Luan on top of the staples, nor did I pull them all up, so this was intended to be a relatively short-term deal. Now, 3 years later, my vinyl is still hanging in there!

[Cindidoxiemom]

Barbara~
I have porcelain tile. I chose a medium color grout. The tile has texture, but is not rough since Oscar has to scoot. I chose a tile that has several variants of beige in it. I put porcelin tile in my old house as well and was very happy.

You want to stay away from wood laminent since urine could cause it to bubble or warp. I agree with critters that peel and stick tile tends to lift up and curl at the edges. Sheet vinyl might be the best solution. Be aware of where your seems will fall. They are suseptable to urine as well. If you choose to go with tile that you will grout....get sealer and seal the grout and tile. It makes a WORLD of difference and is worth EVERY cent!

No odor...no stains...just a mop and bucket of bleach water...lol
Good luck, and if you have any further questions PLEASE ask!
Cindi

[Dianne]

Barbara,

Home Depot offers a free tile laying course almost every Saturday. I took it twice, then laid 700 sq ft. of tile in the kitchen and baths at my old house.

Choosing tile: Take a sample of tile home. Test a muddy paw print on the tile. Choose something that doesn't show mud easily. Never pick white tile or grout. Beige tones are good, as well as other darker colors.

Grout. I agree with Cindy that sealing grout is important. Also choose a color of grout that coordinates with the tile, but is either beige or darker. Once again, think "mud".

Depending on the type of flooring under the tile you may need "Denshield" a lightweight support product to prevent cracking of tile laid on plywood. If you lay tile on a cement base it is much easier.

Laying tile is NOT difficult. The hardest part was keeping everyone OFF it until it set- about 24 hours. Then you grout.

If you are prone to arthritis or have bad knees...don't consider laying your own tile or your knees will be worse.

My perfect house would have tile floors and a shower head in the ceiling with a drain in the center of the floor. It would make life with pets a lot easier.

Dianne

[critters]

If you are prone to arthritis or have bad knees...don't consider laying your own tile or your knees will be worse.

My perfect house would have tile floors and a shower head in the ceiling with a drain in the center of the floor. It would make life with pets a lot easier.

Hardshell well-padded knee pads are MAGNIFICENT!! IMO, RollerBlade makes the best, cushiest ones.

I don't want a showerhead, but I want a hose faucet in every room and tile, vinyl, etc WELL up the walls!!

[GabrielDeafBlindPupFamily]

FACE IT FOLKS!

Our DREAM HOME IS A DOG KENNEL!

[Cindidoxiemom]

Oh jeez.....your right..Hummmm that is going to make arranging furniture a challenge.
hehehehehehehehe
Cindi

[mydogfarted]

Whenever we buy furniture/rugs/pillows/etc., the first words out of my mouth are "how will that look with dog hair and cat vomit on it?"

We ripped out a lot of our carpet recently and spent the extra money to have someone come in a install a commercial grade vinyl flooring from Amtico. Looks like a wood floor but wears like iron and cleans up with a damp cloth. The best part is the top 2/3 of the products are clear, so as they do wear, you're only wearing down the clear. Not exactly cheap but it also keeps the house from looking like we're giving up and letting the animals destroy it.

[Jane Scott]

Hello Mydogfarted;
I'm going to google the Amtico vinyl flooring; the carpeting just has to go....
How slippery is the flooring? Harley is wobbly, and will slide all over the floor unless it has carpet on it.
Thanks Jane
Happy New Year!

[Barbara Boehmer]

I have bad knees and a bad back. I have tried knee pads for things like pulling weeds in the garden, but they were uncomfortable and tended not to stay in place. I got a big thick commercial-grade rectangular pad and found it is easier and more comfortable to kneel on that and move it from place to place as needed. Between my knees and my back and the fact that I will be doing living/dining room, hallway, and bedrooms, not just a bathroom or kitchen, and having to move furniture, I really need to be able to do this a small section at a time. I also don't want to disturb my elderly cats too much and would not want to confine them to bedrooms while I wait for something to set in the living room. So I am still leaning toward the peel and stick vinyl tiles. The last house that I lived in had peel and stick no-wax vinyl tiles in the kitchen and bathroom that did just fine for the four years that I was there.

I have been thinking about color and design. The dust that gets on the floors in my house is more kitty litter dust than dried mud, so it is actually more gray than beige. I have cats, not dogs, and there is only a little bit of mud that they can get into in the outdoor enclosure, which is part concrete, part grass, part stepping stones, and part dirt. So, I am thinking of multiple shades of gray, rather than beige. I am still thinking natural-looking, not geometric designs, so I am thinking of something like a gray marble design on peel and stick no-wax vinyl tiles. Although forest green would go better with beige, I think hunter green would go well with gray and might even be a little more soothing and mellow, rather than a bright contrast. My latest couch and chair slip covers are hunter green and I think it is a pretty standard color to find things in.

I can just imagine the conversation I may end up having with a salesman, explaining that I am looking for peel and stick vinyl tiles in gray marble, not as dark as charcoal gray or slate, but not heather gray, more of a kitty litter gray. Yeah, this ought to be amusing.

Testing has begun on self-cleaning public restrooms. I look forward to the day when we have such things at home. Wouldn't it be nice to just close the door, push a button, and have it clean and sterilize the toilet, sink, tub, mirrors, walls, and floor, all by itself, like dishes in a dishwasher?

[CarolC]

I can just imagine the conversation I may end up having with a salesman, explaining that I am looking for peel and stick vinyl tiles in gray marble, not as dark as charcoal gray or slate, but not heather gray, more of a kitty litter gray. Yeah, this ought to be amusing.

ROTFL and choking! Can you do it with a straight face?!

It sure would cut down on fleas, but nobody has mentioned how much the rooms echo without carpet.

I live Japanese style, with almost no furniture except what I bought the cats, so there's nothing to absorb noise. I have 4 cats, 3 dogs, and at the time I also had a rabbit. I brought home carpet samples and laid them down next to existing stains on the old carpet and selected the sample that was THAT color. The manufacturer calls it "Caramel", I called it "bunny pee brown". Actually, I hate the color, it's too cocoa-y, I'd prefer a light sand, and it doesn't hide the stains as well as I hoped. It got ahead of me when the two Katrina foster dogs were here (code names Piddle and Puddle).

I like it, it is a very dense, very low pile office grade carpet. You can feel the quality when you walk on it. I sometimes have to trim pulled loops where the pets galloped around a corner and their claws caught, but the pile is so dense it doesn't show. I can run the Bissell between vacuuming (I find it easier to vacuum than to mop). With low pile, there is little extra fiber (as with cut pile, shag, or berber) to treat with enzyme cleaner if there is a stain.

The trick with carpet and pets is to get the pad with the waterproof plastic top layer, so urine does not soak into the pad. You can spray enzyme cleaner on the carpet, but if the stain went down into the pad, it will come back to haunt you.

Jane, all I know is, my golden retriever can't stand on the kitchen linoleum and I had to buy mats to put everywhere. If we didn't have carpet, he'd be like Bambi on ice. Also, the carpet gives some insulation if you're on a slab, otherwise the floor is cold.

Here is Teddy (FIV+ early CRF) showing the carpet.

[critters]

I live Japanese style, with almost no furniture except what I bought the cats.

Good way to put it!