In the near future we hope to replace our carpet with something new. However, we have 5 house cats, who are extremely rough on our walls and carpets to start with. We have an ancient old shag carpet on the floor that is so gross. Have heard that Berber carpet is probably the best if I am dead set on getting carpet.
I have also heard that berber is best for rugs in households with cats. I read that we should choose colors for decorating that mimic the color of our pet's hair. My cat is charcoal so that would be the color for my rug and sofa. If your cats are white, I'd try for almost white as the color of my carpet. I think the natural colored berber type rugs would be ideal.
We have two orange and one black kitty. We recently got rid of carpet and put in glueless laminant. It comes in hard wood or tile patterns. We installed it ourself, 1 room per day. Cost was less than the carpet I was looking for. In the past, some of the patterns looked fake but they've come a long way. I'll never go back to carpet again. I do have a few "throw' rugs but I just buy inexpensive ones and when they get worn out I pitch them. I can not tell you how much cleaner our house is now that we have hard floors.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
We have three cats who sometimes claw at the carpet even though we have a couple of sizable alternate places they can scratch that have been sprinkled with catnip in the past.
The place of most offense is at the base of the sliding glass door. When they see another cat just outside the glass, they threaten by engaging in a clawing frenzy. Because the carpet is worn and stained in other places, we want to replace it for Christmas. What type of carpet would you recommend that could withstand clawing, but still would be comforting underfoot? We will not declaw them, because the process lamed our first pet cat, now deceased.
By Vivian P.
Trimming their claws will help them to not scratch things as much, but it won't stop them completely. When their nails are too long, it's uncomfortable for them & they will scratch even more. Scratching posts help some too.
I can't tell you what type of carpet to get, but I can sure tell you what NOT to get! Don't get the industrial carpet that is used in offices, schools, etc. It has a very short nap, wears well & is virtually stain resistant, but it's also too much like the carpet they put on scratching posts!
When we re-carpeted, we picked out a pretty blue industrial carpet because we had 4 kids at home that tracked dirt everywhere & spilled things. We thought that would stand up better, and it did, to the kids.
The 2 cats however, were just positive that we had installed this giant scratching post just for them! Within a week we already had little snags in the carpet & it continued for years. We couldn't stop them either, spraying or yelling worked when we caught them, but there was nothing we could do while we were sleeping or gone.
Even our one cat who had never been a scratcher just couldn't seem to stop himself from clawing this carpet!
