Help! Quick kennel decking question - Page 1

I am putting up a covered kennel that will be approx. 20x10. Style of building pictured below.

My question is this: I am not staying in this house long enough to justify the cost of composite decking as shown. Also, my dogs do not and will not live in here. This is going to be in lieu of a crate, not for them to spend 24/7 in. My reason for explaining this it so you understand that while I will need to be able to clean it, ie, power wash the deck on occasion, I will not be doing it daily, as my dogs will almost never soil a kennel if it's not on grass. Puppies are of course an exception. 

Soo....that leads me to my dilemma. Composite is great but overkill for the time I will be using this building. It will be too big to move (indoor part will make the whole building 20x16) and I really don't want to leave the new homeowners a lovely shed with composite flooring. The obvious, knee-jerk suggestion is PT pine, however, despite how "safe" it's now supposed to be, I am a paranoid, over-protective, health nazi who does not want her dogs standing on chemically-treated wood or want puppies picking up food off of it. 

3 sides will be covered; unlike the photo, only the front will be open to the elements and it is going to face East in my fenced yard that hardly gets any wind anyway. I don't anticipate much weathering from rain. 

I'm being told 2 different things. One person says use cedar- naturally more resistant. One person says cedar is still too expensive to use in a mostly covered, short-term (ie, less than 5 years) application and to use UNtreated pine decking and just replace a board here and there for a few bucks if need be. 

What have others done and how were the results? I'm trying to get this started ASAP. 
 

What about some type or recycled rubber flooring? Like horse stall matts. They are heavy, too heavy for dogs to drag around. Easy to clean and bleach and can be removed when your ready to go? Lot of places are creating recycled rubber flooring locally thee days. They come in rolls or squares. You might just use plywood as a substrait for keeping the placce level or slanted as you need.

we've used (equine) stall mats quite successfully. they work really well, don't seem to invite any kind of chewing, unless you use the interlocking kind, and you can power-wash the heck out of them. 6' x 4'x 1" mats on on top of 2x4 frames, concrete slabs, or wood pallets all seem to work.

We had great luck with the 12 X 12 inch cement pavers, seal them up with something dog friendly and you can hose and bleach all you want.  just lay them even over dirt, no need to subfloor;  our's lasted 14 years in our old house;  you butt them up tightly together, even though you do that they will still drain well enough when you wash down you can use ceder shavings over them and just hose that off also and replace with fresh if and when needed and also softens area.  We have used pea gravel,  the pavers mentioned above, also used larger pavers that were like brick but just cement pavers but were larger, if I remember right 16 X 16 inch or even maybe 18 X 18 inch;  also worked well for kennels, walkways type thing etc.  Also you can pull them up when you move if you want or just replace in new kennel area.  Both worked great.  also poured cement slab;  but too expensive, if you want to be creative and get all decorative you can use slate with sealer which is usually 12 X 12  and nubby for traction handles water well though.  That's about it;  we have make shifted flooring's before and nothing held up and was least expensive to use as the pavers.  Got them at Home Depot.  You can also slightly slope these things for drainage;  don't know how flat our area is so that is also important for washing and say you wanted to put small kiddy pool in for dogs in summer will handle that water OK also.  Good luck  Nan

Thanks, guys, but I'm definitely using decking. This building will be built on skids so it can be moved (bf's brother owns excavating company so yes, I can get access to the equipment necessary to drag that thing) so I am for sure building a deck; I just can't decide between decking materials. Am I being paranoid to refuse to use treated decking? I was reading the "safety" brochure, and if you're still supposed to wash your hands after handling and they admit it will leak into puddles sitting on the wood, then how safe is it REALLY? So...no thank you. I'm deciding between plain, untreated deck and cedar. 

Jenni,
I would definitely not use any type of pretreated lumber. I can tell you from experience that stuff is nasty! I would just use 2 x 6 pine for the decking. Red wood is quite expensive your 20 x 10 kennel area would cost you about $420.00 just in lumber and a pine deck would only cost about $200. On the other hand, if you plan to move it to a new location then Redwood all the way. I use cedar shavings in my kennels and have never seen a creepy crawly in the kennel area. Plus the dogs always smell nice and fresh when they come in .

Carpenter thinks I am INSANE for wanting to use cedar or untreated wood. Oh well...he's not the first;-)

So you think regular old wood will hold up for a couple years if it's only open to the front of the structure and completely under roof? Puppies will poop on it..puppies will sometimes have diarrhea. My thought is it won't be anything diluted bleach and a pressure washer can't handle...thoughts? 

Has anyone used regular, untreated decking for a kennel???

I do not usually comment, just read and learn. But in this case I thought I could put my two cents in. 😊

We installed a Redwood picket fence a year ago that smells wonderful and helps keep the insects at bay; which I think would definitely be an advantage for a kennel. However, my oldest girl put her paws up on the fence this past summer while greeting me, got a splinter in her paw and wound up with a nasty abcess. So if I were you I would consider putting stall mats down, like the others suggested, to protect paws.

Jenni,
I've seen those kennels before & really like them :)
Are you doing the pre-fab kits, or building your own? Just curious.

As for wood, it's not quite the same as it's not flooring, but I used cedar privacy panels for my kennel fencing(the outside 3 walls & the dividing walls). I was going to treat it with waterproofing, but just never got around to it. It's been up about 4 yrs now & other than one busted board(from dog jumping on same spot over & over) it's held up wonderfully.

I do think if you're going to use any type of unsealed wood planking, I would cover it with matts to prevent splintering & wood chewing.
Post some photos when you get done :)

I'm having it stick-built, just used this pic to give the guy an idea of what I wanted. We've customized it a bit. I hate chain link and already have nice kennel panels so we're using those. I'm making it 4 kennels wide, but walls will be able to be removed easily so it can be one big run or up to 4 small (5x10) ones if I ever needed them (older pups, dogs in heat, etc. was what I was thinking). I don't need that many now, but if I'm going to build it, I may as well build enough for everyone in case I had to leave town for a few days and wanted a secure place to house them for a petsitter to feed them in or whatever. Since I already have good panels, it's not that much more money to build it longer.  Instead of big, open rooms in back that will never hold body heat, they're going to have NICE, fully-insulated boxes with hinged tops so I can use the rest of that room for storage. 

The pine I was looking at is very smooth, high quality decking, not just regular lumber. It was not splinter-y at all. That was of course a concern. It simply wasn't treated. Fence paneling is definitely rougher. I don't have any wood chewers,  but puppies are of course going to be the exception. I was thinking maybe I'd sand the surface to be sure it's extra smooth on soft puppy pads. From what I've researched, it seems treated wood actually splinters much worse than untreated. So confusing.