Wall-to-Wall Carpet Solutions for Pets

How to live with carpets and with pets in the same house

MetPet.com Staff Writer

Wall-to-wall carpet is both the worst and the best floor covering for pet filled homes. 

Pros
- Soft and comfortable
- Sound-deadening
- Warm and insulating
- Wide range of prices, materials, colors, textures and patterns
- The least expensive choice for floor covering today
- Easy and fast removal and installation
- Widely available
- Great for lying on and playing with the pets
- Scraps make terrific covers for scratching posts (turn inside out for the best scratching, but we digress)

Cons
- Difficult to keep clean without removing shoes and wiping paws
- Home to dirt, grime, parasites, smells and allergens
- Carpet cleaning products and professional steaming only partially successful
- Liquids and grime seep into padding and subflooring
- Replacements usually required for the whole house at the same time
- Easy for puppies to mistake for toilets
- Easy for bored dogs to pull up off the carpet tacks
- Some weaves can be pulled out by bored cats
- Carpet on stairs easily mistaken by cats for horizontal scratching posts

Here are some compromises that may be just the solution that keeps pets and a clean, well-maintained home together.

Carpet tiles, carpet squares, modular carpeting
This carpeting comes in interlocking square pieces that fit together like Legos.  Individual stained or ruined pieces can be replaced as necessary.  You can also mix colors and patterns for truly unique looks.

This type of carpeting comes with an adhesive backing that you peel and stick to the clean, dry, hard surface floor of your choice.  You can use it to carpet an entire room or as a secure area rug. 

Although some carpet tiles can be as expensive as hard-surface floor coverings, some diligent searching can turn up over runs and discontinued tiles at bargain prices.  If you are not that particular about the color and if you are willing to mix-and-match, you can find an affordable solution.  Just make sure to buy enough so that you have extra replacement pieces for the future. 

Covering the carpet
For everyday use, consider placing lightweight rugs, plastic runners, plastic chair pads or roll-out carpet protectors over the highest traffic areas.  Coverings that can be washed in your washing machine like the foam-backed fabric runner shown here, are ideal. These can be packed up and stored in the closet or garage when company comes and are easier to deal with in a pinch than steam cleaning the carpet. 

Coverings are available at home centers (often cut-to-order in the length you need), office supply stores and on the web.  Although it helps to have entry mats, they are frequently too small to pick up dirt unless everyone is diligent in scraping their shoes and paws.  A carpet runner that is 6' or more in length is necessary to pick up most of the dirt off shoes and paws.

Removing shoes and wiping paws
This is becoming more and more common in the west and can be found in many homes where carpeting, pets and children collide.  Place a small shelf near the back door or one in the front hall closet to collect outdoor shoes and store your indoor clogs, mules, slippers and thick socks. 

A hallway bench with storage underneath or inside the seat makes switching shoes easy and automatic.  Once the habit is formed, it becomes strange to wear shoes indoors.

This custom is sometimes difficult to explain to friends and neighbors but, who knows, you can just be at the head of a trend.  If you do insist on visitors following suit, it's best to keep guest slippers in a variety of sizes on hand. 

Self cleaning and professional cleaning
Most spray or foam carpet cleaners have approximately the same effectiveness.  Once you have selected the one you like, try and stay with the same formulation.  Some cleaners can interact with each other and reduce their overall effectiveness.  All of them require some elbow grease and do the best job on stains that haven't set in yet.  Other than that, most commercial carpet solutions do similarly good jobs. 

Pet droppings leave invisible scent markers so, after cleaning the visible stains, it is important to use a cleaner specially formulated to neutralize pet odors so that pets can't smell them.  Some even come with black light kits in order to see stains which are not visible in normal light. There are always new and interesting home carpet cleaners on the market including one which does the scrubbing on a stain all by itself. 

There are also steam cleaners available for rent in many supermarkets.  Steam cleaning large areas of carpeting is hard, hot work.  If you have lots of wall-to-wall carpeting, it's best to have a professional cleaner come in periodically and do a thorough steam cleaning.

Installing a  high quality, durable, dark brown, textured carpeting
Although a smooth light beige, wheat or ivory carpeting shows off a house to its best advantage (rooms look large, light and inviting so these are a favorite for realtors), it is the most difficult carpeting to maintain.  The smooth texture shows up footprints and vacuum tracks while the color highlights every bit of grime.

A dark brown carpeting with a prominent texture will help hide everyday wear.  It is not the style choice of most homeowners, but it is practical when living with pets.