Selecting a floor such as Hickory, Hard Maple or White Oak can protect your floor from damage, as these hardwoods are less susceptible to scratches than softer woods like Pine, Cherry or Black Walnut. Hardwoods with more dramatic grain patterns can help to hide scratches more easily.
The hardest and most scratch-resistant species, such as ipe, cumaru and jatoba, come from the tropics, and they typically score 3,000 pounds or more.
Consider engineered hardwood with the most scratch-resistant finish available. Go for the hardest wood you can find, such as teak, mesquite, or hard maple. Wood with a matte or low-gloss look will do a better job at hiding scratches. And be sure to finish your floor with a scratch-resistant finish.
Prefinished engineered hardwood floors are much more durable and longer lasting, however, and are a great option for dog owners who love the warm appeal of wood flooring. An engineered hardwood flooring like Nydree's Hardwoof will resist dog scratches and has a finish that goes beyond the floor's surface.
Generally speaking, the hardest wood for flooring is Ipe (or Lapacho). However, this is very hard to find, due to its rarity. This also makes it a very expensive flooring product. Therefore, more widely available, and hardwearing are Hickory and Maple flooring.
Tile Flooring
Porcelain and ceramic are some of the longest lasting flooring materials available, and they require little maintenance. Tile flooring is also moisture resistant, making it the perfect choice for areas where spills are common like bathrooms, kitchens, and laundry rooms.
Concrete is the most durable floor you can have in your home. Concrete floors are typically stained to order and can look quite lovely.
Scratch-resistant finishes
Given that the actual surface of engineered wood flooring is the same as that of solid hardwood flooring, the two are both equally resistant to scratching. Instead, the main factor in their scratch-resistance is how they're treated.
Pergo claims that the floors are scratch resistant but not scratch proof! We had the floors for roughly 3 years before we moved from our last home and I didn't notice any scratches and we WERE NOT EASY ON THEM.
Scratches, Dents and Other Small Marks
Due to the fact that engineered flooring has a top layer of solid wood it is actually susceptible to the same drawbacks of having solid hardwood floors such as easily being scratched and dented.
Hardwoods such as oak, maple or birch are denser, so they resist scratches better than softwoods. These woods are ideal in high-traffic areas, such as your kitchen or living room, where furniture is often slid across or dropped on the floor.
Wood Flooring will scratch. Being a natural product there is truly no way of getting away from this fact. Scratches however need not necessarily be looked at as a bad thing with wooden flooring. Many believe that these markings very much add to the character of the flooring - taking away from the pristine nature.
Luxury Vinyl Plank – Medium Scratch Resistant
Basically, the LVP proved to be more scratch resistant than the hardwood, but not more than the laminate.
Brazilian Walnut or Ipe
Whenever you want the hardest hardwood, domestic species tend to be the way to go. However, Brazilian hardwood flooring is universally hard and dense. Ipe, often called Brazilian walnut, is hard enough that it is even used on outdoor decks.
Maple is among the harder wood species, with a 1450 rating on the Janka wood hardness chart. As one of the densest wood species, Maple is ideal for high-traffic areas. Oak is slightly less hard – White Oak has a 1360 rating and Red Oak a 1290 rating.
Although it's a durable option, American walnut hardwood flooring is also relatively soft, which means it marks, scratches and dents easily.
Both flooring types are compatible with underfloor heating, although vinyl is slightly more efficient. Vinyl floors have the lowest thermal resistance of all Pergo flooring solutions and act as excellent thermal conductors.
Vinyl flooring is the most pet-friendly flooring option. The strong, hard-wearing surface layer of Pergo vinyl flooring is extremely scratch-resistant.
Pergo is a great affordable option for durability and look. For $2.27 / SF, It will give you the look of beautiful light colored oak flooring for a fraction of the price. The results are beautiful. While I do really like our Pergo flooring, there absolutely are better flooring options out there.
Engineered Hardwood Floors
The sub-layers of engineered flooring can be of the same species or of different species, while the top layer is always high-quality wood. The durability of engineered floors means that they can better withstand scratches from your pet's nails.
1. Hardwood Continues to Dominate. Hardwood has remained at the top of the podium for decades now and continues to dominate the home flooring industry.
Impact Resistance
12mm is much more impact resistant than 8mm. Sharp items that accidentally fall on a thicker base will have very little effect on it. That's the reason why people prefer 12mm laminate in high traffic areas.
Because laminate flooring is so durable, it's less susceptible to wear and tear from pets and foot traffic. While it withstands moisture better than hardwood, it should not be in a regularly wet area of the home.