Tile or hardwood in a kitchen and why? (grout, light, design)
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We've had wood flooring in the kitchen of our last two homes. In our previous home it was prefinished wood and I would NOT recommend that as the v-grooves are impossible to clean. In our current home the floors are site finished hardwood and they are lovely and easy to keep clean. No regrets. If you are worried about leaks you can get pans to go under your dishwasher and refrigerator. Regular drips from doing dishes and such are really not an issue.
Tile is nice to look at but tough on your feet and legs. It can also feel very cold. I like to walk around barefoot so I wouldn't want tile in my kitchen without also installing radiant heat. We have tile in our upstairs master bath and this time of year it definitely wakes me up when I walk in there!
I agree with Mr.Rarional that sheet vinyl is a very good option, in fact I have used it not only in many of my rental properties but my own mother's home.
That said I have had ZERO issues with "water and wood" in my own homes for over 25 years of owner occupied wear & tear nor I have seen any issues in the homes of my dozens and dozens of clients and neighbors that have properly sealed hardwood flooring in their own homes.
It is just silly to assume this is "nuts".
Fact is in even moderately upscale condos and such the top choice is hardwood flooring and that is becuase it truly is the right combination of function and utility.
In truth the cost of quality of hardwood flooring is probably ven below that of top-notch bamboo, cork or linoeulum flooring becuase the mills that make hardwood flooring have gotten so much more efficienct. It is a classic example of the best product also being the one that producers work hard to make most affordable -- you don't hear people complain about the cost of a pound of butter or a dozen eggs, so too do the folks in making the benefits of hardwood flooding widely available that people will pay a fair price for a good product.
Well, to each his own. Also, different houses require a different approach. There's no one size fits all when it comes to this issue.
For instance, I live in Texas. Winters are mild here, so "cold floors" simply aren't an issue. So that's one negative about tile or stone that's just not a consideration for us. In fact, the benefits of a cool floor come in handy during the hot months.
Also, in my floor plan, my laundry room and a powder room are adjacent to the kitchen. Basically if I don't want crazy patchwork floors, I have to put whatever flooring I use in the laundry room and powder room in the kitchen as well. So...cumulatively speaking, that's a lot of potential water damage - washer, dishwasher, ice maker, two sinks, toilet...at some point I just reached the conclusion that hardwoods throughout were just too risky, even though I love the look and feel of hardwood floors and in fact put them in throughout most of the home when we bought it a few months ago. The house is 17 years old - stuff happens. In fact, JUST TODAY my fridge's ice maker line started leaking. I don't know why and I'm sure it isn't anything major but what if I'd been out of town when that happened? I often go out of town for 3-5 days. I don't think that would have been good for a hardwood floor.
This is all fresh on my mind because I just redid all the floors in my house and I love the look of hardwood in a kitchen and would have liked to go that route. But even my contractor told me she felt that stone was a better option and in the end I'm glad we went that route in our situation and with our floor plan.
I did buy two gel mats (someone else mentioned them as well) for my sink area and my stove area. They are large and they weren't cheap but they feel fantastic. I had achilles tendon surgery a few months ago but I cooked a big Thanksgiving meal in my new kitchen standing on my stone floor (much of the time on those mats) for days and I didn't have the slightest problem.
There's no one answer - just opinions and personal preferences. Tile, wood, cork, bamboo, stone, even stained concrete - all of those can look great in the right setting and be perfect for different families in different homes.
Location: Scott County, Tennessee/by way of Detroit
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I cleaned houses for 9 years after I retired from a gov job after 20 years....Some of the houses had things I never would have because the cleaning was a pain...a wood floor in the kitchen was one of them...Nice house..cherry wood floor with 3 kids under the age of 5....grease never came off...the kids would eat at the mini card table..spill yogurt or some sticky substance and it took me twice as long...food in the slats... She told me she wanted vinyl but her husband said they couldn't do that because of the neighborhood...whatever that meant..$$$$$$$.prestige I guess...
My dad's floor buckled because his ice maker leaked and another client I had also had an ice maker problem.. The whole floor had to be replaced....Saw a lot of minor warping on other client's floors...from a spill or some small leak...but yeah..to each his own...
I cleaned houses for 9 years after I retired from a gov job after 20 years....Some of the houses had things I never would have because the cleaning was a pain...a wood floor in the kitchen was one of them...Nice house..cherry wood floor with 3 kids under the age of 5....grease never came off...the kids would eat at the mini card table..spill yogurt or some sticky substance and it took me twice as long...food in the slats... She told me she wanted vinyl but her husband said they couldn't do that because of the neighborhood...whatever that meant..$$$$$$$.prestige I guess...
My dad's floor buckled because his ice maker leaked and another client I had also had an ice maker problem.. The whole floor had to be replaced....Saw a lot of minor warping on other client's floors...from a spill or some small leak...but yeah..to each his own...
Perhaps this is something due to regional differnces but in my experience (mostly in the Chicago region) there are no "slats" of any kind of between a properly installed / finished hardwood floor. It is no harder to clean "grease" nor "spill yogurt" or any other substance off hardwood flooring than any other normal interior flooring.
Perhaps the time spent in your 20 years of gov work and 9 years of housecleaning did not give you much exposure to the long history of hardwood flooring nor modern methods of care -- http://www.bona.com/en-US/United-Sta...r-Care-System/. Firms like Bona make not just the care kits (which you will note are also used on tile and stone ...) but the products professsionals use to seal hardwood floors.
Last edited by chet everett; 12-01-2014 at 07:25 PM..
Perhaps the time spent in your 20 years of gov work and 9 years of housecleaning did not give you much exposure to the long history of hardwood flooring nor modern methods of care -- Bona Pro Series 15" Hardwood Floor Care System. Firms like Bona make not just the care kits (which you will note are also used on tile and stone ...) but the products professsionals use to seal hardwood floors.
I currently use Bona on my hardwoods, however, recently a "floor" specialist told me not to use Bona, but dish soap and water. Anyone have any comments on that?
Dish Soap is not a good option. Bona uses a mix of water based "surfacants" that leave no slipperly / suds residue behind. It is an excellent product that will not leave any film to attract dust / make floors slippery. It can be purchased more cheaply in bulk.
I currently use Bona on my hardwoods, however, recently a "floor" specialist told me not to use Bona, but dish soap and water. Anyone have any comments on that?
I generally use Murphy's Oil Soap. We've never had any issues and I like how it smells.
If the prior owners of my 1930 home had left well enough alone, I'd have original hardwood in the kitchen. As it is, they ham-fisted a remodel and tore it all out. So I went with what seems to be my standard/backup (I've had it in 3 homes now), VCT... yup, the same industrial tiles found in grocery stores, schools and industrial buildings. Looks terrible, right?
Anyway, certainly doesn't feel like either hardwood OR hard tiles, sorta somewhere in between. It's cooler to the touch than the wood floors in the rest of the house but has the same "soft" feel to the feet. You can get a TON of different styles in the vinyl tiles too... stone, wood, the original composites (above). You simply can't destroy this stuff either, well so long as it was installed properly to begin with.
I'd choose hardwood before tile, but I'd prefer neither actually.
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