Why baseboards are a highlight in pet-friendly homes

Nojima Construction has a model house that is rare nationwide, branded as a pet-cohabitation home, where both dogs and cats can walk around and be toured together.
When I guide people through it, I find that customers are pleasantly surprised by a quite unexpected place every time.

It is not the foot-washing station with hot water for when you return from a walk, nor is it the flow lines designed to make going for walks easier.
Naturally, since the flow lines were carefully considered, the floor plan is easy to use, but that is not what I am talking about this time.
By the way, for information regarding the preparation flow lines for walks, please take a look here.

So, to give away the secret,the place that surprises people every time is the baseboard.

Baseboard? What is that?

The material at the boundary between the wall and the floor is the baseboard.
In this day and age, where customers can obtain various information through Instagram, YouTube, and the like, baseboards are still not a focus of attention.
It may be rude to the baseboard, but it is so plain that no one pays any attention to it.

However, when I explain the baseboards in our pet-cohabitation homes, customers sometimes say, "I can't believe you've thought about things to that extent!"
Among the showrooms said to number 3,000 across Japan, I think it is quite rare to find one that explains baseboards.

These baseboards do not have a special shape, nor do they use special materials.
We have only changed the construction method ever so slightly.
But from that small bit of ingenuity, it seems they can feel that we have thought about living with a dog down to the smallest detail.

What kind of house is a pet-compatible home, for example?

When people hear "a house for living with a dog," many think of non-slip floors, foot-washing stations, and pet doors.
Of course, such equipment is important, and we also adopt them in our pet-cohabitation homes.

However, when you actually live with a dog, it is not all fun times.
More daily and minor troubles also occur.
For example, having an accident indoors or chewing on cords.

In daily life, these small things relate to ease of cleaning, safety, and how odors linger.
Therefore, when thinking about a home for living with a dog, I believe it is necessary to think carefully and prepare not only the flooring and floor plan, but alsoinconspicuous parts like baseboards and electrical outlets.

The back of the baseboard where you cannot wipe if an accident occurs

Whether you are welcoming a new dog or have an elderly dog, accidents are inseparable from indoor dogs.

However, if a dog has an accident in the middle of a room, it should be quite easy to notice and relatively easy to wipe up.
But the story changes if this happens near a wall.

Urine runs down the wall and gets behind the baseboard.
It gets under the baseboard through the slight gap between the floor and the wall.
Such cases are by no means rare.

And here is the important part: even if you can wipe the surface, you cannot clean behind the baseboard.
Even if it looks clean, urine can remain in places you cannot wipe, which can become a source of odor.

And the material of the baseboard is also a problem.
Baseboards are generally made by wrapping a sheet around a base material made of compressed wood called MDF.
The surface is a sheet, so there is no problem, but if it gets behind, the base material will absorb the urine, and it will stay there forever.

You might think, "Then just remove the baseboard from the wall and clean it." However, baseboards are generally constructed in a way that they cannot be removed.
In other words, you cannot remove them unless you intend to break them.

And the person who taught me this is Dr. Koji Masuda, a veterinarian I consulted with for this pet-friendly housing project.
Since I am not very good with dogs and cats, learning these facts was quite educational, and I also realized that it could be solved with a little ingenuity.

Embedding baseboards and using removable materials

I previously wrote about the problems that occur when there is an accident around the baseboards, but the solutions are clear.
・It is fine as long as the accident does not get behind the baseboard
・In the unlikely event that it does, it can be removed and cleaned
Those are the only two points I focused on.

It is fine as long as the accident does not get behind the baseboard

Generally, baseboards are installed attached to the wall.
If nothing is done, the baseboard will protrude from the wall.
In this situation, if an accident gets on the wall, there is a possibility that it will run down due to gravity and get on top of or behind the baseboard.

So, I solved this with the measure of embedding the baseboard into the wall.
When the baseboard is set further back than the wall, even if an accident gets on the wall, it cannot easily get behind the baseboard.
It is just a small thing, but I believe this extra effort is what makes a home pet-friendly.

In the unlikely event that it does, it can be removed and cleaned

However, even if embedded, there is a possibility that accidents running down from the floor cannot be wiped away completely.
Therefore, in this pet-friendly housing, we adopted removable baseboards.

We use a resin-based baseboard called a soft baseboard, which is often seen in hospitals and similar places.
This allows for the baseboard to be removed, cleaned, and put back in place in the unlikely event of an accident.
We implemented construction that makes this possible.

And another feature of the two points mentioned above is that they hardly increase costs.
I also think it is quietly important that this was achieved through simple construction ingenuity that can be found anywhere.

If you go to a model house with your dog, I want you to look at the details

When people talk about pet-friendly housing, it often seems to just mean adopting building materials like scratch-resistant wallpaper or pet doors.
Of course, those are important, and I use them too.

However, accidents getting behind the baseboard.
Preparing for that possibility.
I believe this is necessary as a consideration for welcoming a furry family member into your home.

And trying not to incur additional costs for such considerations.
I think this is also important.

This explanation of baseboards might not be the kind of content that becomes a highlight on a website.
Even so, the ease of living for both dogs and people changes as small ingenuities accumulate.

And I believe that when customers say, "You've thought about it that much?", it is not because of the luxury of the facilities, but because the consideration that imagines life with a dog has been conveyed.

Explanatory video

We also have a video explaining the content covered here.
We explain how the actual construction is done while showing the real thing, covering details that couldn't be fully conveyed through images generated by AI, so please take a look at that as well.