Best wood and finish to tolerate urine/pee

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Q: I’ve got 2 small dogs and a son with autism who pee on my carpets. I am sure by now that everything underneath the carpets are soaked in urine and need to be removed, even though I’ve had the carpet cleaned over and over again. What kind of wood floor and what kind of finish would you suggest?

Scratching and denting are not even a concern – just the urine.

A: I think I would suggest quarter sawn white oak, site finished with either a top quality polyurethane such as Poloplaz Primero (using their Fast Dry Sealer as a base coat) or a penetrating tung oil finish such as Waterlox. I did a water test on 2 boards, one finished with polyurethane and one with Waterlox. A spoonful of water on the board surface. Hours later the water had not penetrated past the surface on either sample. The bigger problem will be seepage between the boards. White oak, quarter sawn is more dimensionally stable though. Maybe that is why they make wine barrels out of it.

http://www.poloplaz.com
http://www.waterlox.com

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