Hard flooring for muddy household

[Sweetpea1989]

Currently undergoing renovation and have a big knock through kitchen diner, 5m glass doors overlooking the garden, new shaker kitchen quartz/wood tops with island.

We live in the country and walk/garden every day with german shepherd and a 4 month old. Mud is always finding its way in and I want to find a floor I don’t feel looks dirty if it’s not mopped 3x a day. I do like a light/sandy limestone but can’t afford underfloor heating (I think)

The floor needs to run from the entrance Front door right through kitchen / diner.

Anything slippy would be a no go.

Any advice from any muddy boot families would be so helpful!

[Sweetpea1989]

Interesting replies, thanks everyone I’ve looked into some of the products suggested. There’s something in me that wants a natural product so it would have to be real wood of wood was the option. I quite like the idea of reclaimed wood, has anyone done a floor with that before?

[CMOTDibbler]

We have two large dogs, 3 cats, bikes, and chickens that sometimes make it into the house. We have Karndean Macrocapra through the dining room (main route into garden), sitting room and hall, and tile effect in the kitchen. It was put down 10 years ago, and in spite of our best efforts it still looks great and I've been thankful everyday. It has enough texture to not be slippy, and nowhere for dirt to collect

In our last house we had engineered wood and it was so noisy it did my head in, and dented so easily

[ChocoTrio]

It's so hard choosing flooring! You need something that lasts a long time so you don't have to re-do for a while because it can be disruptive.

Can you get a good mat to go over the flooring? Replace from time to time.

[Dinosauraddict]

We have LVT flooring throughout the entire downstairs - we have 3 Ddogs. We found that with our old oak flooring they dropped toys etc and dented it. They slip on laminate. I find tiles without UFH quite cold.

[countdowntofriday]

We'd planned to get flagstones, but we're swayed to get LVT (luxury vinyl tiles) in a greige concrete effect. Absolute win for us. Warm, looks good, reduced our plate breaking and copes with mud brilliantly.

[alpinia]

Wood effect tiles over underfloor heating. Cosy, non slip, super easy to wash and very hard to damage. They look great too and are always being mistaken for real wood.

Things do break more easily but not enough to be off putting. Think an extra mug or two a year.

[PragmaticWench]

We're also rural with a muddy dog and children. We have a medium coloured solid wood flooring and it's great!

It gets dented but you don't notice and any scratches blend in within a short time. I hoover daily (dog hair) but only wash the floor once a week. Mats in-set by the doors take off most of the mud.

[m0therofdragons]

I ruled out tiles recently after smashing my phone screen at a friend’s house. I have 3dds who will soon all have phones! We’ve chosen Karndean flooring wood effect which we already have as it was in the house when we moved in. It’s 18 years old and looks fine apart from the leak we had which gives me a good excuse to replace with the colour I’d prefer. It feels nice under foot, not slippy and looks nice.

[Loofah01]

Flagstones and stretch the budget to UFH!

[didireallysaythat]

We have porcelain tiles in grey (look a bit like slate maybe?) - very practical, the robot vacuum hoover's them every day, not slippery but not textured so easy to brush, mop or steam mop. We have underfloor heating with them, and no regrets.

However I'm not sure I'd recommend the colour for you. The colour means that crumbs show up, as do wellie footprints. I've got fairly low standards and don't have a crawling baby to think about. A similar role but in a paler colour might work.