I love linoleum flooring, aka vinyl flooring, that comes in sheets. It's totally waterproof and the patterns that look like slate or stone are very convincing and attractive. We just ripped out all our old carpetting and installed vinyl flooring in the lower level of our home, and I couldn't be more pleased. With a new puppy and an older rescue dog, both of whom took months to catch on to the concept of peeing outdoors, it has been easy cleanup and stress-free living. The old linoleum flooring in our kitchen has lasted for nearly 40 years. It does need replacing now, but it held up to lots of traffic and pet accidents spanning 4 decades, so this stuff is nothing if not durable.

We have wood flooring in our upper level, but it is softwood and there are substantial cracks between the floor boards. It looks pretty, but if I had it to do over, there would be vinyl flooring up there too. But since the pets spend very little time up there, it's not a big problem. I'm not sure about hardwood flooring, but I think perhaps the boards do not shrink as much, because they seem to fit tightly together.

I hope this helps.

Okay, I wasn't expecting someone to say linoleum for the living room! I have it in my kitchen and I love it. It's so easy to clean. I have a bathroom that's tile and I'd so rather have linoleum in there. It always looks dusty and you have to clean the grout strips. I contemplating putting tile in the kitchen when I re-did it; I would have ending up hated it. I put a textured linoleum in and it's actually soft on your feet.

I went out to the Armstrong site and they make linoleum that looks like just like hardwood. It looks convincing on the internet anyway! I've been looking at houses and most have hardwood or carpeting. I'm going to definitely keep this option in mind.

Laminate (the floating type) generally is not liquid friendly. You don't mop it like traditional floors; it's different.

If you think you're going to have a problem with animal waste, I'd stick with linolium. Inexpensive and easy to replace, you can clean it up easier than most other flooring types.

Oh, I'm going to stay away from that laminate then. That's probably the worst choice for cats. We had a cat with kidney problems toward the end. The house would have been ruined.

I was reading about the linoleum. There is a difference between linoleum and vinyl flooring. The linoleum is a natural product and vinyl is made from a pcv material. They vinyl can be installed yourself so I'd probably go that route. I didn't realize there was a difference. I put a vinyl floor in an upstairs bathroom and it was a piece of cake. From what I read though, it sounds like there is no flooring that truly won't hold odor. I have to read some more about types of sealers.

We have vinyl in our bathroom, just stick and peel that we got at home depot that looks like a stone product. Our old and sick cat that recently passed on peed on the floor multiple times but we just mopped it up, no odor, no problem. On one of Candice Olsens Hgtv shows she used a stick down vinyl in a living room that looked just like wood floors. Next time I'm going for that!

Wood has seams between the boards through which cat pee can seep into inaccessible places. The best thing I have of all the surfaces in my house is tile - though even that's not entirely seep proof depending on the condition of the grout.

Fortunately my cats rarely pee on the floor. It's happened with a couple cats when they got old and had health problems. None the less I have no carpet - more because of cat barf than cat pee. And general tracking of dirt by humans.

Thank you everyone for your input. I don't usually have an issue but my little one has hit the house a couple of times so far (she's 3 now) and I was trying to think ahead. Most of the houses I've looked at have hardwood but some could use refinishing. I'd hate to go through all that trouble and end up with a cat pee spot. I worry about them when they get older (I have 3 cats) too.

The Armstrong site has some really realistic looking hardwood floors in linoleum. I'm leaning toward that direction.

A word of caution--once a cat pees on a rug, the smell is almost impossible to remove completely. The cat will go back to the same spot and do it again and again. That happened to us a long time ago. Our only option was to professionally clean the rug and give it to someone who has no pets.

Of course there may be some "new technology" out there that really abolishes the smell. If you read of such a thing, make sure to confirm the claim through a impartial source.

Somthing else: cats who void in the wrong place are possibly sick and need medical attention. Or they may be unhappy with the cleanliness of their litter box. They're very fussy.

Try tile, you'll be happy :)

Kittens, I think it's just the carpet. Once you remove that, your problem may be over. That's been my experience. I have had three homes, and in all cases, once I removed the carpeting, the peeing stopped. I have rugs now, but no problems. There's something about carpeting.

We'll see. I think they like soft things to pee on so you might be right. I know I've read people getting their wood destroyed though. My little one has a behavioral issue and when upset about something, she pees. She's done it once per year for her 3 years now. The first time she peed in her little bed that was sitting on the sofa after I changed her litter brand (not gradually-duh-learned my lesson). It had one of those soft cat-mat beds inside it. Last year, they caught fleas so I cut them off going out to their kennel until the flea medicine worked. She hit the couch in the spare room - in 10 spots! I spent a fortune bringing them both in for testing (didn't know which one peed) thinking something was wrong with so much pee. I don't know what set her off this year but she hit the carpet. I suspect it may have been a new woodchuck that I saw coming on the porch. Maybe a territorial thing? Yuk and it's a royal pain to wash carpeting. If I get a house with entire hardwood, maybe putting soft throw rugs down would help. At least I could just pick them up and toss them if there was an incident. Hopefully, she's have a full yard to go out into so maybe she'll be less inclined to tinkle inside. I don't think there's a way to train her to not express herself that way. She never did it in front of me. I just try not to change her world too much! If we can get a new house, I'm going to bring them over for little visits before relocating them.

Hello, Everyone. I wanted to tell you all of a product I found and have used numerous times call Scoe10X. It is a wonder product and it truly does work IF you use it properly according to the directions. Short story-it is concentrated so you mix it with tepid warm water 1 part Scoe10X to 8 parts water, let it sit for 20 minutes (must let it sit for it to work properly) and then after 20 minutes, saturate the area and let dry normally. But remember saturate, saturate, so all levels of carpet are wet. I promise there is no smell and I have several cats. My friends with pets swear by it. Also, I, too, am leaning toward luxury vinyl off the Armstrong site. Just google Scoe10X.

vinyl (not linoleum!) or tile with sealed grout are probably the best solutions.

but you can still buy linoleum, and brand name Marmoleum. Nice, green product -- not good for cat households, though. Or hot weather parts of the country.

violetwest, is there some way in particular that linoleum is affected by cat pee? I know dog pee cleans up very well, no stain, no odor.

That is interesting to know that the old "actual" linoleum is still being manufactured. As one who is familiar with both actual linoleum (our old house had much of this original flooring when we moved in long ago) and vinyl, and both seem equally waterproof to me. I'm curious about why you would say that linoleum is not cat friendly. My experience was that it cleaned up easily and completely. That is the reason it quickly gained popularity as kitchen, bathroom, and hospital flooring.

Another unrelated comment: adding scatter rugs or runners that can be easily laundered, on top of waterproof flooring is helpful for older animals who need better traction to get around on a slippery floor. The rugs I have can all be thrown in a washing machine, either my own or a jumbo laundromat machine.

as I understand it, real linoleum is not a moisture proof product. I thought I read that on the Forbo flooring site, but now I can't find it, so I may be wrong. As always, don't trust random people on the internet and do your own research.

there are ceramic tiles that resemble wooden floors and very realistic looking ones too. Check those out.

violetwest, I don't think you're random :)

Forbo doesn't recommend Marmoleum Click (tiles) for wet areas like showers, but the surface layer is waterproof. It has to be installed properly, with heat welded seams for the sheet product. The backing is natural jute, so if something were to leak under the floor through a tear or a seam, it would be hard to clean.

ha!
I also read that it's not a good solution for hot climates (mine is)-- gets sticky or something.

I have four cats and the oldest-who is hyperthyroid and has lived with a lymphoma diagnosis for over two years, is very smart and very retaliatory, pees wherever he wants, especially when he is grouchy.He gets all his meds and I have always had enough boxes. I had to buy a house-I didn't think a landlord would ever rent to me again! I even had to pay to have the carpet torn up and removed from the rental when I moved. In the new place, I tore up the carpet. Sure enough, the culprit gave me a month's break, then started up on the wood floors--some of it is already black. In addition, one of my other cats pees over the box.

I had laid a piece of linoleum down under the boxes and it actually soaked through in spots and started to stink, although I was mopping the top whenever I saw pee.

So I am very interested in this cat-urine-proof-floor discussion. I want to lay in this flooring in the room I have designated as the "cat bathroom."

So far, sounds like there must be some heavy duty vinyl out there. I already looked all over for old fashioned linoleum area rug, as I knew this material to be quite thick. But it is not made any more.

Thank you!

PS--all those various enzymatic products never helped my rugs at my old place--as soon as it got warm and humid out, it really stank. The products did save some of the floor underneath, so must have stopped the catbrat from peeing there, but there was one large section that had stinky and black wood--and it was where I put the most enzyme stuff--I spent hundreds and hundreds on it in less than 2 years.

I'm leaning toward wood look porcelain tile for mine if I can.

WE have Armstrong Presidential Oak 12mm laminate throughout our house. We are also having problems with the edges lifting. An inspector came out and used azostix urine strips to test for pet urine. The test was positive. We had a VERY hard time believing this so we ordered the test strips from California and performed the same test on planks that were still in box. Sure enough they tested positive for pet urine. We found that the backing of the planks were made with a resin comprised of urea formaldehyde. Our problem is that the inspector will not take it off his report nor come back and retest the boards in the box. Is there any

ASTM test method which prevents these kinds of mistakes?

Several people with cats have recommended CoreTec wood or stone/tile look luxury vinyl on the flooring board here. May want to go over and check out that thread. It is very long, so lots of good reading! Lots of talk about cat pee and even how to caulk at baseboards so pee does not get under the floor.

I am a trained animal rehomer with 16 years of experience in dealing with families experiencing this problem. Cats pee and dogs pee is different. Cats pee is far more damaging, so dont compare. Kennel flooring sold for dog kennels can be guaranteed, few firms guarantee cat kennel flooring for this reason. Carpet, vinyl, vinyl stick on tiles, wood and laminate can all be ruined by cats urine. You can end up with urine seeping underneath all of them and the smell is awful.

Tiled floors are pretty waterproof but the grouting must be waterproofed. If urine does seep under and begin to loosen tiles and smell, it is the hardest, most expensive and most difficult job of all the options to redo the flooring. Painted floors and machine washable mats can be hardwearing and practical. Paint can seal a wooden, vinyl or concrete floor from urine seeping through. Garage floor paint is best but even that is not resistent to cat pee. However, painting seals and removes an existing smell and it is easier to repaint small areas. The directions on the tin need to be followed exactly especially on concrete. I have no experience of whether painted floors can be successfully sealed with any waterproofer against cat pee. I have conflicting reports of painted Epoxy floors. Someone needs to invent something as there is a market for it.

CVT might work if you can find it. But you'd have to maintain it more than most. It's what you see in grocery stores and the like. The wax is pretty odor proof and if there's a big enough accident you can just rewax the floor.

Lino as in vinyl....There is a cream carpet upstairs here in the rental that I keep covered in oilcloth, old sheets etc....

Luxury vinyl planks or tile. We put in Mannington Adura (glue down, the click stuff is not so good). It isn't cheap but it looks like real wood and cleans up beautifully. It is also very scratch resistant in addition to being waterproof. Love it! Visitors seriously think it's wood!

This may not answer your flooring problem, but my older cat seems to over shoot the box when she pees. My solution was to put a couple of white tall kitchen bags around the box, double thickness, and it caught the pee. I bought a box of 100 bags, because I throw them away after one use. This helped. About the flooring, I have laminate wood flooring with water proof seams. My contractor advised it when Intold him I had cats. My cat has peed on the floor before I figured out the kitchen bag solution. The urine did not soak in because of the type of flooring, ( and by the way, I did pay more for it. ) However, you still have to treat it for the odor. So just an FYI, there is waterproof laminate, and even with several accidents, my flooring has not swelled up or had surface damage. But, I do not recommend cheaper laminate with any liquid.

My leg injury cat sometimes accidentally pees outside of her box (while she’s in it) and it’s gotten smelly in there like it got past the vinyl and into the floorboards. Today I pulled up the Allure vinyl plank to check and sure enough the pee made its way through the plank cracks. The epoxy like stickers that made an impressive seal had broken down over time (she’s had this issue for the last 6 months) from cat pee and the seal had been compromised.
I’m here looking for alternatives to vinyl but sounds like it’s the best option. I’d recommend avoiding the plank and tile style though and sticking with the solid sheets of vinyl.

Our old cat with arthritis used to do this. All four legs in the box but standing up when peeing and shooting over the edge. I put puppy pee pads around the box and replaced them as necessary.

But if you have to change the flooring sheet vinyl is definitely the best option.

As far as over-shooting the edge of the box: a project for the crafty.

I bought a package of cheap flexible cutting boards. They are just about the length of the long side of a litter box. I set one along the inside of the long edge of the litter box, one on the short edge,overlapping at the corner. I used a drill to drill two holes in each corner, through the cutting board[s] and the edge of the litter box. I threaded a cable ties through the holes to hold them in place. cutting board sides went against the walls, as cat always urinated back to the wall.

My last male cat had trouble getting pee to land in the box.

Vinyl and LVP.

If you have cats, you’re going to have issues with your floors. Whether it’s carpeting that catches every single cat hair and thrown-up hairball, wood floors that stain if your cat pees or vomits on them or any number of other problems, keeping your floors in good shape is certainly a challenge. Here are some tips on getting the best flooring for cats:

Tips to keep in mind when choosing flooring if you have cats:

1. Carpets and cats don’t mix

If you have carpets, you already know why I’m recommending this. I don’t know about you, but my carpets have endured just about every kind of cat mess possible. Carpet is very difficult to clean, especially if your cat urinates on it, because the urine goes through all the layers of the carpet and sometimes even into the underlayment and floorboards beneath. This makes the smell almost impossible to remove.

2. Avoid porous flooring if you have cats

Hardwood floors are beautiful, and they’re very popular for that reason. The trouble with hardwoods is that they are porous, and if a cat urinates or vomits on them, it will leave a stain that’s almost impossible to remove. Add to that the fact that if there are any gaps between the floorboards, the urine or vomit will sink into the cracks and stay there until you remove the flooring.

3. Use area rugs that can be easily washed

If you need carpeting for noise abatement or comfort purposes, use area rugs that you can easily toss in the washing machine. Carpet tiles are another good option because you can easily replace soiled tiles before any liquids soak through to the flooring beneath.

4. Invest in litter and food mats

If you don’t want your cats tracking kitty litter all over your house, invest in some good-size litter mats — at least a foot longer and 6 inches wider than your litter box. Also use inexpensive, easy-to-wash, 3-by-5-foot throw rugs as litter mats. Put mats under your cat’s food and water dishes to avoid problems from spills there, too.

5. Flat flooring is best if you have cats

Any time you can use a flooring material that doesn’t have cracks or crevices, you’ll have better results. Some of those choices include poured concrete (this must be sealed, otherwise you’ll have a porous floor that will trap odors and liquids), terrazzo and even vinyl/linoleum.

And the best flooring for cats is…

1. Bamboo

This is a great choice for homes with cats. It’s stain-resistant, harder than the hardest of hardwoods and completely renewable. Although it may cost a bit more up front, you’ll save money in the long run ناصر پلاستیک because bamboo is so durable.

2. Cork

Another green choice, cork is antimicrobial, so it will reduce the growth of mold and other allergens. It’s sound absorbent and will help to calm the thundering noise of cats at play. Although it’s also water-resistant, you should still clean up any urine, vomit or other liquids quickly.

3. Tile

Whether you go with stone, porcelain or ceramic, tile is a great choice because of its water-resistance. Some porous types of stone, such as marble, slate or travertine, should be sealed in order to avoid staining.

4. Vinyl

I know — if you’re of a certain age, vinyl floors are the stuff of nightmares. But vinyl and linoleum have come a long way. You can buy vinyl flooring that looks like hardwood, for example. It’s scratch- and stain-resistant, low in allergens, easy to clean and maintain. An extra bonus: It’s quiet to walk on.

5. Laminate

Laminate is popular because it looks like traditional hardwood floors. Because of the way it’s made, it may be more stain-resistant than hardwood. It also tends to be scratch-resistant, so it’s a good choice to avoid damage from kitty claws.