# Accidents & Hardwood Floors



## brendaman (Mar 7, 2006)

I've posted a few times that we are "nesting" until our puppy arrives next month. Well, we're actually getting our kitchen renovated and having the carpeting in the adjoining dining room and living room replaced with hardwood floors. When we first planned this, we still had our beloved Shayna, who accompanied us to the design meetings. Now the contractor just told us that with a puppy which could have accidents, it would have been better to have unfinished floors as the stain and urethane protection would also cover the crevices between the wood planks. Because the hardwood floors they've installed are pre-finished, if the puppy has an accident, the pee may seep in those crevices and our new hardwood floors may turn black. WhahwhahWHAT??!! :blink: :smilie_tischkante: Sure, if it gets to that point, we can always re-finish the floor, but that's more money. Ugh!

We'll purchase some plastic or vinyl to lay down on our new hardwood floors, but we can't very well cover everything! We'll have to be extra dilligent with the housebreaking. If the puppy does have an accident, we hope we find it quickly before it has a chance and ruin floors. But we're not even sure if the deodorizing/cleansing sprays we'ved used (e.g. Nature's Miracle) are safe for hardwood floors.

Does anyone have advice and experience with pee accidents and hardwood floors?


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## maltese#1fan (Feb 20, 2012)

I don't have any advice for protecting your floors, but I can confirm that your hardwood floors will turn black if you don't catch the accident right away. Years ago I had an elderly cat that when he got sick was using a spare bedroom as his "litter box". Since I never went in that room, I didn't realize he was doing that for quite some time. At that point the floor was ruined. 

Good luck with your new puppy.


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## mostlytina (Jan 3, 2009)

Yikes!!! :blink: I thought if you catch it "early enough"... it would be okay... 
How about keeping the puppy in your kitchen? (assuming no hardwood there???) and on your lap? 
Does the older puppy sound pretty good right now??? :innocent: (just kidding...)


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## Patsy Heck (Jun 10, 2011)

I have hard woods in my kitchen where the girls stay. They use their pee pads but don't always "hit the mark". I guess I've always caught it in time because no black floors here. I use multisurface cleaner. I'm not even sure I'm supposed to but they seem to be holding up just fine.


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## The A Team (Dec 1, 2005)

I have hardwood floors and plenty of "accidents" :blink: 

I just spray some nature's miracle and wipe it up. Looks ok to me....


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## LJSquishy (Feb 27, 2008)

The contractor is correct. Prefinished hardwoods aren't protected well in between planks, so liquids can seep in and dirt can eventually jam into the crevices. I would have highly recommended site-finished floors.

I have hardwoods that were finished on-site so I haven't had any issues. It shouldn't be a big deal for you as long as you notice a spill or accident right away. If something sits overnight, I would imagine it would warp the floor.


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## StevieB (Feb 2, 2012)

Is it too late to change to site finished floors or are they already in? Is so, you'll just need to be extra diligent with her potty training. If you get a few extra dark spots it will just add character!


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## Ladysmom (Oct 19, 2004)

With any luck she will arrive housebroken from Josy like Bailey did. I was shocked that he was already potty trained at just 12 weeks. As long as I didn't let him get too far from his pads he would run right over to them and pee.


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## Maidto2Maltese (Oct 19, 2004)

Is your floor plan such that you can just make the hardwoodlfoor area off limits and keep the pup confined to tiled areas only?


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## Nervusrek (Apr 17, 2012)

Don't worry too much. Just enjoy your new floor. 

My boys have had accidents on our pre-finished hardwood floors. Since we do not allow them to roam freely in the hardwood areas w/o constant supervision, we are able to clean up accidents immediately. We've never experienced any warping or staining. 

And just so you know...Nature's Miracle DOES have a product specifically for use on hardwood floors. I use it & have had nothing but good results.


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## brendaman (Mar 7, 2006)

Thanks, Everyone, for all the reponses. Unfortunately, the hardwood floors are already installed in the kitchen, dining room and living room. We'll probably puppy-gate the puppy into the bathroom on the floor, and thankfully, it doesn't have hardwood floors. If we had to do it again, we'd get those unfinished floors. And we thought getting them pre-finished was saving us from having all that dust all over the house! Live and learn; mostly learn.



maltese#1fan said:


> I don't have any advice for protecting your floors, but I can confirm that your hardwood floors will turn black if you don't catch the accident right away. Years ago I had an elderly cat that when he got sick was using a spare bedroom as his "litter box". Since I never went in that room, I didn't realize he was doing that for quite some time. At that point the floor was ruined.


Karen - Did you have to replace that part of the floor? I was told you could have it refinished, but I guess that's before it turns completely black.



mostlytina said:


> Yikes!!! :blink: I thought if you catch it "early enough"... it would be okay...
> How about keeping the puppy in your kitchen? (assuming no hardwood there???) and on your lap?
> Does the older puppy sound pretty good right now??? :innocent: (just kidding...)


Tina - Yes, the older puppy may save the new floors! We'll see.



Patsy Heck said:


> I have hard woods in my kitchen where the girls stay. They use their pee pads but don't always "hit the mark". I guess I've always caught it in time because no black floors here. I use multisurface cleaner. I'm not even sure I'm supposed to but they seem to be holding up just fine.


Patsy - What kind of multisurface cleaner do you use? Something like multisurface Windex or 409?



The A Team said:


> I have hardwood floors and plenty of "accidents" :blink: I just spray some nature's miracle and wipe it up. Looks ok to me....


Pat - Good to know. Yes, the volume of your "accidents" must be up there. But maybe your floors weren't pre-finished when installed?



LJSquishy said:


> The contractor is correct. Prefinished hardwoods aren't protected well in between planks, so liquids can seep in and dirt can eventually jam into the crevices. I would have highly recommended site-finished floors.
> 
> I have hardwoods that were finished on-site so I haven't had any issues. It shouldn't be a big deal for you as long as you notice a spill or accident right away. If something sits overnight, I would imagine it would warp the floor.


Lisa - I guess we can't leave the puppy on any hardwood area while we're away at work. "Overnight . . . may warp the floor." What about during a 10-hour workday? Luckily, DH often works from home, but there are times when we're both out of the house for 10 hours. We do have a dog walker who will walks/exercises during these long days.



StevieB said:


> Is it too late to change to site finished floors or are they already in? Is so, you'll just need to be extra diligent with her potty training. If you get a few extra dark spots it will just add character!


Celeta - Unfortunately, it is too late. But our floors do look FABULOUS.



Ladysmom said:


> With any luck she will arrive housebroken from Josy like Bailey did. I was shocked that he was already potty trained at just 12 weeks. As long as I didn't let him get too far from his pads he would run right over to them and pee.


Marj - Was Bailey also trained to go outside at 12 weeks? 



Maidto2Maltese said:


> Is your floor plan such that you can just make the hardwoodlfoor area off limits and keep the pup confined to tiled areas only?


Terry - We plan to gate her to the bathroom which has linoleum or vinyl, but we're also planning on having an x-pen set up on the hardwood, but with some kind of lining (plastic liners or something like phish pads) on top of the x-pen area.



Nervusrek said:


> Don't worry too much. Just enjoy your new floor.
> 
> My boys have had accidents on our pre-finished hardwood floors. Since we do not allow them to roam freely in the hardwood areas w/o constant supervision, we are able to clean up accidents immediately. We've never experienced any warping or staining.
> 
> And just so you know...Nature's Miracle DOES have a product specifically for use on hardwood floors. I use it & have had nothing but good results.


Bobbi - After I told DH that Nature's Miracle has a product for hardwood, his response was, "let's order it right away."


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## Ladysmom (Oct 19, 2004)

Brenda, Bailey wasn't outdoor trained at 12 weeks because he hadn't finished his shots. Josy litter box trains her puppies, but it was really easy to switch to pads. When he was 18 weeks and finally finished with his vaccinations, I started taking him outside. He instantly knew to potty outside, too. He is cross trained now like Lady was - the best of both worlds IMO.

My biggest concern about getting a puppy was the housebreaking and it was a non-issue. He had maybe 3 or 4 accidents when he first came home, all my fault for giving him too much freedom so he got too far from his pads.


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## LJSquishy (Feb 27, 2008)

If you plan to keep him in a pen during the day while you're at work, I would suggest lining the entire area of the pen with pee pads or at least put down some sort of liner, even a plastic shower curtain liner so spills or accidents don't seep through just in case.


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## Ladysmom (Oct 19, 2004)

How about covering her area with Pish Pads? 

Pish Pad -Dog Housebreaking-wee wee-puppy training


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## Patsy Heck (Jun 10, 2011)

I do use windex multi surface floor cleaner. We bought the house with wood floors so Im not sure if they were prefab or whatever.The sellar did say they had polyurethene. We've refinished floors in some houses we've flipped. Some we resanded some had to have the wood replaced. Our guy ws able to do that without too much difficulty without replacing the whole floor. Most of the bad ones have been from carpeted floors where dogs or cats have peed and it gets to the pad then stays wet.


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## jodublin (Sep 27, 2006)

Lots of accidents on my floors to .My boy dogs don't always pee on the pads. 
always keep a mop on hand it helps


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## shellbeme (Mar 1, 2011)

I can see this being an issue if pee is left on the floor for a very very long time or if the floors were not sealed correctly, but if your contractor did it right and you stay on top of the new pup  I would be surprised if an issue ever came up.


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## maltese#1fan (Feb 20, 2012)

brendaman said:


> Thanks, Everyone, for all the reponses. Unfortunately, the hardwood floors are already installed in the kitchen, dining room and living room. We'll probably puppy-gate the puppy into the bathroom on the floor, and thankfully, it doesn't have hardwood floors. If we had to do it again, we'd get those unfinished floors. And we thought getting them pre-finished was saving us from having all that dust all over the house! Live and learn; mostly learn.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## Mia'sMom (Mar 23, 2012)

We had just put in pre finished hardwood floors and our lab peed a flood in the living room. I didn't even see it until a few hours after she had done it in the middle of the night. The only thing it did was leave little lines at the end of a few boards. Like it had been wet. No biggy. Just watch him and take him out every 2 hours and he should be fine.


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## Lacie's Mom (Oct 11, 2006)

If the floor are well sealed, it shouldn't be a problem, imho.


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