Flooring Suggestions

Hello! My wife and I are looking for flooring suggestions for our Kitchen. We would like to install hardwood flooring in the kitchen but are afraid of maintenance and wear, since we have to very young children who play in the area often. We have considered ceramic tile also, but are afraid of the hard surfaces due to the young children as well. Are there any of you out there that faced this dilemma initially? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Kevin

 

yeah I wouldn't recommend wood in the kitchen.. laminate might be better, but not sure what damage water would do if it got into the seams and swelled up the mdf backing.

I guess that's the one good thing about sheet vinyl is that it's soft and forgiving and will hold water...

 

We went with ceramic tile in the kitchen. With small children, dogs, and the potential for water spills, we thought tile would better suit our needs than hardwood. Doesn't look as nice IMO, but more practical for us.

 

We've had no problems with our hardwood in the kitchen. You gotta make sure it is solid wood though, not laminate.

 

Yeah we have engineered wood in basement and main level and have probs with water in the kitchen.... I'm not sure if it is just the product we selected or not, but the water will crack the finish if it gets into a seam and soaks into unfinished wood and swells the hardwood layer.... frustrating. But yeah, a friend of ours has solid oak floors and they seem to do fine.... it might be because we have a microbeveled (little grooves between rows) floor...

 

Hardwood spots like crazy. We have it in our powder room and I hate it. I have several friends who have hardwood in the kitchen and while it looks nice, I'd never do it myself. I've seen first-hand at one friend's house the traffic pattern between her stove and her fridge and her dishwasher. Granted, this woman was a professional cook and she cooked at home a lot, but after 3 years she was hating her floors. I've had tile in my kitchen and that is my top choice. If you have tiny toddlers who still fall a lot, you may want to wait until they're more stable on their feet, but once they're 2.5 or so, they'll be fine. And the tile is indestructible and if you choose colors wisely it will show very little dirt. Go with tile. That's my $.02

 

Have had hardwood (solid red oak) in our kitchen almost 6 years. We like it. Ceramic is very hard, cold and if you drop a glass or plate you break the dish and the floor. Wood has a little bit more give. Also a warmer feel to it. Never had problems with spotting or water issues.

 

We have a couple of heavy coats of polyurathane on our hardwood in the kitchen. Although we have rugs down the floor looks new even with spilled water now and then as well as a 2nd floor leak.

I love the wood.

With tile you have to choose grout colors WISELY. Too light will give you a cleaning, grape juice, blueberries color stain nightmare.

I personally like cold on my feet so tile would be my top choice too.

 

We've had both: tile in our old house, wood in the new. I prefer the wood. We had problems with the grout in the tile getting stained from spills, even though we had double-sealed the grout. And I definitely feel better about the wood with my little ones learning to walk and running around.

 

We have tile in the kitchen all the way to the foyer. We also have a large dog so I don't have to worry about scratches. I do recommend that if you go with tile, you choose a color that works well with a dark grout. While I'm not crazy about my white pitted tile(the dog is black), I have a very dark gray grout that never shows any dirt. I think anyway you go, there are pluses and minuses. Good luck.

 

hardwood does work in the kitchen but you gotta get the real stuff, and quality stuff too, not Bruce HD grade. Ours has held up very very well with kids and dog. Your budget will dictate what you can do.

 

First of all. let me thank you all for the responses. We truly appreciate the input! We are strongly leaning towards installing tile in the kitchen. This leads to my next question; do any of you have any suggestions on businesses to hire for the installation? I have seen post recommending K&K or Abbey Carpets for hardwood installations. Would you recommend them for tile as well? Thanks in advance for any help.

Kevin

 

K & K did a great job on our hardwood - we havent used them for tile, but plan to in the near future.

 

we have dogs and bruce hardwood in our kitchen...the finish on the floors is scratched and worn looking in places. guess we'll just have to refinish them before selling/moving. i'd suggest tile.

 

I agree with the above posts on hardwood flooring in the kitchen - with kids you're looking at spills & staining and if you have pets, scratches. If you drop things in the kitchen it could also mean pitting in the wood and it's costly to replace hardwood. However, I understand worrying about the chilfren's safety, so it's really a matter of determining if you can live with some wear and tear.

 

We have hardwood in our kitchen and love it. Our dog doesn't scratch it at all....I want to get hardwood throughout the house one day....