Yeah, the caulks are tough on floors. The headquarters of a lot of forestry and logging outfits have slippers made of heavy carpet at the front door. These go on over caulked boots to save floors and to save field people from having to take off their boots whenever they come indoors.

Hiking with caulks is no different than with hiking with Vibram soles unless you get onto rock. Then you are in trouble. One time I darn near killed myself trying to negotiate a short stretch of granite; stepped onto it and skated down about 30' with sparks flying. Fortunately, it was a soft landing. But, for steep, brushy, wet terrain, there is nothing better than caulked boots. I had a pair of rubber boots with caulks when I worked in coastal Alaska.

A good alternative to caulks used to be the Tricouni nails that were popular on climbing boots in the 30's and 40's. I haven't seen a set of Tricouni's on the trail in 50 years though. I suspect that they are no longer made; they were really tough on alpine plant cover. I had a pair of Tricouni-nailed climbing boots myself but went to Vibram in the early 50's. The heavy, soft metal nails would conduct the heat from your feet anytime you got onto snow or ice. But, you seldom needed crampons with them.