Hi all,
Okay guys and gals - I really need your advice. We are doing a full remodel of our home (into a fairly rustic southern Spanish style) and adding about 1000 s.f. upstairs where we would like to have hardwood floors. We have HUGE dogs who like to run around and wrestle in the house. (they have turned our Maple floors downstairs grey along their play paths - we'll be replacing that with Saltillo tile). We would like the color to be medium dark to go with the style of the house and don't want a lot of upkeep. We are trying to decide between stained distressed Pine (on the theory that the dogs can just contribute to the distressed look) and a hardwood (we loved the look of Home Depot Expo's DBM traditional Rosewood - the more uniform looking one - but have read bad things about it). So my questions are, bearing in mind that we want to keep repairing and refinishing to a minimun while maximizing looks:
1) Distressed Pine or Hardwood?
2) If Pine, what kind, what finish and where do I get the good stuff, and how do we take care of it?
3) If Hardwood, what species, solid or engineered, and what brand?
4) Should I have put this in the "Wondering about Brand A" forum instead?
Thanks so much in advance for your help!

Read thread by Bo about 5 messages down regarding Bamboo flooring. We have discussed dogs in that thread

This is always a question I get about dogs and wood floors.

I discovered a product that might offer another way to go.

http://www.softpaws.net/

They also are available for cats. http://www.softpaws.com/

Read the testimonials this site is getting.