Hardwood vs. tile floors in the kitchen??

SquidandWhale

I put down cork in my kitchen because it's eco friendly, durable, well priced, soft (I've dropped glass jars on the floor and they haven't broken), insulating, and extremely diverse in appearance.

wolverine66

this topic wasn't what i expected.... i guess i am used to the thinly veiled euphemisms.

ilariamarchi501

I put wood effect tiles in my kitchen, they perfectly imitate real wood and require less maintenance. I have these italian ones: http://www.fioranese.it/en/prodotti/old_wood-en

I hope I've helped you

grrrlface

We have tiles.

Can't imagine having a wood/wood combination of floor and cupboards. It's kinda like double denim, it just looks weird.

CollieFit

We have a dog. Our kitchen & utility room is tiled (terracotta). It just works better for us.

Hall, living room, dining room is hardwood.

Stairs and upstairs is carpeted. The bathroom tiled.

mackgold

I used the hardwood floors for my kitchen for its durability and easy to maintain features.

Pipsg1rl

We moved from a home that had a pretty closed of dining and kitchen area to a home that is an open floor plan.

A home with the same (new) floor plan was built before we built ours. The builder puts tile in water areas (laundry, baths, kitchen, entry ways) and they have laminate in their dining room (separate), living area, and downstairs master bedroom.

I don't notice a special difference when I visit, but that would be my recommendation.

In the old house our laundry hookups were almost to the end of where the wood was. When the laundry leaked, it came thru the gaps and soaked up into the wood the wood is discoulored and warped there now. Had it been tile there wouldn't have been as much of a problem.

We had carbonized bamboo and it is very difficult to hide scratches. I'd go with a worm wood look so if you do scratch it you can color in the scratch with a red or black marker and no one is the wiser.

Good luck!

jenns1964

I have tile floors in the kitchen and I have really noticed how hard it is to stand for extended lengths of time while doing dishes and cooking. I do have a gel pro mat that helps some.

elusive_design

Benefit of Tile in a kitchen

You can have one tile replaced when you drop something and it cracks a tile. They are easy to clean if they are properly grouted and sealed.

Cons of Tile in a kitchen:

You are going to have to regrout the tile once and a while, if installed improperly it will forever look like crap and you will always have problems with tile popping. You will have to replace a tile eventually unless you go granite, which is expensive.

Benefit of Hardwood
Go ahead.. drop a cast iron pan on hardwood, worst that happens is you have a dent. Relatively easy to clean with a dry mop, spills aren't a big deal if you clean them up when they happen.They are near impossible to screw up installation on. It will last forever if you maintain it.

Cons of Hardwood
If you do sucessfully damage a piece to the point where it will bother you sometimes the only solution is sanding and re laquering, which is either time consuming.. or expensive depending on if you do it yourself. You will be doing this at least once every 10 years. If ever you have a leak that you don't catch underneath your sink you can destroy the hardwood in one area. High humidity areas combined with a leak can cause cheap hardwood to buckle.

Either which way do yourself a future favor. Buy extra. If tile.. buy roughly 20 more than you need just in case. For hardwood, buy 100sq ft more than you need so that should anything tragic happen you don't have to run around praying that your pattern is still in stock somewhere.