You have "wear through" which is when the finish is pierced and the wood is exposed to the elements. The dark areas are where dirk/water/mud have stained the floor. It is possible to get this out... but probably not all the way. A floor that has wear through needs to be sanded right down, stained (if you wish) and then refinished. Patching can occur...but it is almost always a waste of time because the "look" can be very different from the original sitting right next to it. I don't recommend it for your situation. The second photo shows the deep scratching. Ideally, you would have had your floors looked after BEFORE wear-through occurs. There are some "regular" scratches to the Left in photo 2. You can see it is visible...but no discolouration....THAT is where you draw the line. The darker "wear through" to the Right in photo 2 = too late = full sand and refinish. If you catch it BEFORE wear-through, you can do a "buff and coat". This is a light sanding with a few coats of high end finish over top. The buff and coat is roughly half the price (in Canada at least) as a full sand/refinish. For this reason it is important to catch the floors before you get to this level of scratching.. That being said, you now get to pick some stains (test patch, test patch, test patch). The first photo shows two different woods...you could ask to see if the lighter would could be matched to the darker wood (lots of testing to achieve this). It won't be pefect...but then again you wouldn't have used reclaimed building materials if you were after "perfect". The match can lessen the colour variation to a more manageable (design wise) level. As for "good for dogs" - natural colour of wood = best colour for scratches. A lower gloss (like a satin) can help. You can ask for the "best" finish with scratch resistance that comes in a can. You will pay a premium for it...but it could/should save you thousands of dollars over the long run. A highend, scratch resistant finish means you can get away with the cheaper buff and coats (every 7-12 years...or so) and be able to retain the original (expensive) finish for the full 25 years. The other thing to note: dogs claws require trimming 2-4 PER MONTH when working with hardwoods. This is what the hardwood flooring refers to as "routine" trimming. Some of my clients thought "2-3 PER YEAR" was "routine". I laughed. You have heavy, high energy, powerful dogs. A single lab can cause some damage over time. Two labs can do a number on a floor. Three labs and you have a very short lived hardwood finish. You have 7. I would find the most expensive, scratch resistant finish available in Australia. I would have the maximum amount of finished put your floors (you will pay extra) it and I would budget for a "buff and coat" every 5-7 years.

Hey all, I am getting a timber pergola installed in my backyard. It is a flat pergola with roofs. Here are the details of the project :- 1) Flat roof timber pergola. 2) Merbau hardwood decking- most likely in red color 3) Black/brown bamboo fencing 4) Natural grass lawns 5) Red brick exterior 6) Paperback/dark cream color roofing on the pergola matching the windows and the fascia. 7) Concreting done next to decking . Doubts :- 1) Now my first confusion is whether to paint the pergola in dark grey /charcoal completing the exterior or black/dark brown complementing the fence. I don't want to go all cream as the roof is cream too. Neither do I wanna paint it red as I feel it will be all too red (bricks and deck ). Please help me select the color. Should I paint it all one color or have pillars painted separately ? 2) Please help me pick a color for the concrete paint to blend in with the whole exterior. I am thinking either cream ( wall color ) , light orange or charcoal grey. Attached are the pics. Last one is off the internet on how the decking would look. Any inputs are appreciated. Thanks much

How to hide all that uglyness... If you really want to keep the wood floors rather than redo the whole floor. Match up the wood and have the toilet sitting on a slightly raised overlay platform floor. Only way I can think to hide that. I would take it right into the corner as a feature - no more chipping either. Like the bath above. Ensure it goes out in front enough that you can step onto it before sitting so that the toilet is not to high for children.

We had the same issue with yellow/green streaks in our refinished rimu floors. It's something to do with tannins in the wood - we found the only way around it was to replace the affected boards with reclaimed ones. But make sure the reclaimed ones don't have the same issue by sanding and checking before laying.