I don’t think we have a pet thread so I’m hoping this thread can give me some firsthand advice.
Our older dog has started to have accidents in the house. He also sometimes vomits up water. We are thinking about getting a carpet cleaner. On Costco they have 2 Bissell pet carpet machines. One is large and a good price, the other is more portable. I’m assuming they both have pros and cons. The larger is likely more powerful but heavy and likely not necessary for spot cleaning.
Would love any suggestions.
Have you tried Nature’s Miracle? It has its own smell you have to deal with, but it eliminated the smell form when our old diabetic cat peed on our sofa. (And the product smell went away too - I used way too much and it took a couple of weeks for it to go away).
I think this needs its own thread, but that’s my opinion.
This is from an old thread. But my DD recently bought a Spot Bot which I think is the same as the Bissell Green Machine. I believe my kid got hers at Costco also.
“ Well, I absolutely love my Bissell Little Green machine, a sort of spot cleaner for carpets (I also bought their special carpet cleaner made specially for pet stains). Got it at Costco, and when I was buying it, I had two shoppers come up and tell me that they had one and loved it.”
I have a bissell portable and it works great. The one I have let’s you either let the machine sit in one place and it automatically uses it’s round brush, or it lets you use a hand held wand. I used the stationary round brush function on carpet stains, and I used the wand to periodically clean the sofa. Although my dog never had accidents on the sofa, she used to sleep on it and it was amazing how dirty it could get, even though I thought my dog was clean.
We do allow our dog to enjoy our couches. There are two he chooses to use. 
I invested in two $20ish lap blanket type blankets, one for each couch. Color is complementary to the room or couch. I fold them in half and tuck them around the cushions of the pup couches. Easy to pick up once a week and throw in the washer. Protects against doggy dirt, hair and provides a couch shield if pup should have a hack up on the couch.
When people are coming over (depending who they are!) I remove the blankets temporarily. I even have 2 that are fleecy for cozy in the winter and 2 that are a light quilting material for coolness in the warm weather!
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We do the same with the blankets. So much so that when we are traveling, the dog waits for us to put down “his” blanket before going up on any furniture ; )
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Thanks, I’m going to pick up some Nature Miracle and consider the Bissell Spot machine. He doesn’t go on the furniture and I lay out old sheets all over our bedroom floor each night. We also close the door so he can’t wander the house at night. He is super stubborn and hates to go on a walk about in the evening. We have a hard time getting him to pee. I think it’s uncomfortable for him as his hips are really bad.
Greetings home reno pros (I read months of posts, so yeah - PROS!!)
One question: House is raised ranch. Kitchen, then DR, then LR, then master bedroom/master bath. All in a long row.
We will replace vinyl in kitchen and master bath, and replace bedroom carpet. But there is red oak flooring in the LR/DR that we will just refinish.
We should definitely not use plank vinyl wood-simulating flooring for the kitchen, bath and carpet areas, right?
We are not high-end. We aren’t putting in tile or slate or whatever. We are never putting in carpet ever again. We won’t put real wood in a kitchen.
So our choice is vinyl, whatever form - tiles/sheet.
And while there is lots of nice enough, real-looking “wood” vinyl out there, none of it would work for us because of the actual real wood floors that are right next to the to-be-replaced areas.
Right?
So then the question is which is best for a high traffic area like a kitchen, and a wet area like a bathroom? Planks, sheet, tiles? Brand?
And related question: the old vinyl in our kitchen I would never do again because it was textured, and no matter how much cleaning there was, within a couple years the “pebble” look got grimy and impossible to get clean. So I want smooth as glass. I don’t like marble looks but I like the look of the faux slate floors. However I think they’re all still textured. I’m at a loss here on this one. I do not want to be looking at grimy faux slate in two years. (We are hard on kitchens; cook from scratch every night and have a mondo vegetable garden, so there are just lots of ways to get the floor dirty)
I have hard wood in my kitchen and have for over 20 years. Just sayin’.
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Linoleum? (Coming back in vogue as a sustainable material).
We have a type of vinyl tile in our kitchen that has lasted over 20years! Black and white tiles in a pattern (mostly whites). It is no longer made, unfortunately. At the time, it was a new Armstrong product. The whites have slightly yellowed over time, but still in great shape overall. VERY easy to clean.
Try to choose a commercial grade product vs. most you find at a big-box store.
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I also have hardwood in the kitchen. I’ve had it in my last three houses and it’s been the most comfortable and durable material.
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Maybe find one of the faux slate floors that is not too light in color. Something more mid-gray or other color so that you won’t see every drip or minor build up. What color are your kitchen cabinets???
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No fake wood IMO. If going with vinyl, my preference would be sheet vinyl, no gaps or “grout.” Is there a Floor and Decor store in your area? Id go there and check different materials out for texture etc.
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Thanks all - Definitely no hardwood. I am not kidding about our beating up flooring. Hardwood is out for the kitchen.
I like the idea of a darkish slate.
Cabinets are maple. The kitchen is 22 years old and the cabinets will probably outlive us. Walls are offwhite/beige. Formica counter. There is no budget for a (sorely needed) renovation beyond the floors, not this time. But floors will be doable in the next year, so I’m starting to think about it.
Sounds like you have two areas in need of new floors, and the areas are separated by an area of oak floors. If your bedroom area is off the main living areas and is closed off by a door, like a typical bedroom, you might be able to put wood-looking LVT or sheet vinyl there. I assume the kitchen is more open to the areas with wood floors, so that would call for a non-wood pattern on the vinyl flooring. Some slate-pattered and tile-patterned vinyl does look good.
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Thanks, yes, that’s the layout.
I’ll take another look at wood-look vinyl for the bedroom/master bath. Maybe if we did something so starkly different it would not be jarring.
Back in my salad days, I bleached wood floors in a NYC co-op. It looked great. And then everyone went to dark wood for everything and it looked very dated. And now, I think, it’s back.
So maybe something that different would be OK
You might also consider commercial-type carpet in the bedroom. We have some of that down in the basement, and it is very easy to keep clean unlike carpets with plush pile. Also does not show traffic areas as easily.
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For commercial vinyl/carpet flooring, where does one look, as opposed to the big box stores?
I am in the sticks. There are no high-end anythings here. HD and Lowe’s and a couple local outfits (and I am extremely dubious of the tradecraft around here, having suffered through several disasters borne of our desire to “shop local”).
Do you have a ReStore near you??? You can enter your zip code on this page and find the nearest one. It’s through Habitat for Humanity and open to the public. I don’t know if they are country wide
I visited ours this weekend looking for a random item I didn’t want to purchase new and was shocked at all the stuff they had and the so very reasonable if not downright inexpensive prices. Stuff comes and goes but if you have some time (you mentioned doing this project with in a year) you could keep an eye out.
They had furniture, appliances, windows, lamps, light bulbs, bedding, tools, blinds, flooring - basically anything for the home that is donated - and often it is surplus stuff.
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We used Costco flooring service to redo carpets in our bedrooms upstairs. The sales guy brought a van full of carpet samples including the “commercial” stuff. Costco contracts with reputable local installers, and I hear your concerns that the locals did not deliver, but our experience was quite good.
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