Whats a good kitchen floor material?

In the 18 or so months we've had the tile floor, we've dropped only a couple of things, neither of them particularly important (a very good thing!). OTOH, drop a hot pan and it won't scorch, knock an iron off the ironing board and you won't end up with a melted/burnt patch, and miss a few drops when wiping a spill - and if the liquid penetrates the sealer and stains - it looks just like a natural slate marking to anybody who doesn't know how it got there. Lastly, if the pipes under the sink leak, or if the dishwasher leaks, it won't hurt the floor a bit. We carried the tile into the laundry room for that very reason.

Seriously, the next house we own will have the same kind of floor put in the kitchen.

I live in an old enough house that I have seen the old style linoleum. As the name implies, it is basically linseed oil which has undergone the "paint drying" reaction -- which chemically involves lots of cross linking of double bonds in fatty acid molecules. It has the advantage of being nicely waterproof and durable. But if you drop a penny and step on it, it tends to imbed. And there is a SMELL, sort of like in an artist's studio but worse.

It has been long enough that I no longer remember for sure what we did -- but I think we laid 1/2 inch plywood over it and covered the whole kitchen floor with that, and then laid vinyl flooring (red brick pattern, came in a roll) over that. Not too classy but we do get the "bounce" reaction with dropped glass objects about half the time.

My neighbor put in a very elegant ceramic tile floor. You should see how a wine glass explodes when dropped on that surface. At one point they had a glass-hating cat who would get up on the kitchen counter and "rub" glasses over toward the edge until "kabooom!!" Whenever you took glasses into the kitchen you had to barricade them up against the wall where they would be cat proof.

F

My neighbor put in a very elegant ceramic tile floor. You should see how a wine glass explodes when dropped on that surface. At one point they had a glass-hating cat who would get up on the kitchen counter and "rub" glasses over toward the edge until "kabooom!!" Whenever you took glasses into the kitchen you had to barricade them up against the wall where they would be cat proof.

I think that would have prompted the disapparance of one pussy at my place!

An allied question is what flooring you should use in your wine cellar. Again, I advocate carpet with underlay. Friends that have built cellars that cost more than some people's whole houses espouse fancy tiles, but that is placing vanity ahead of utility as anything that falls on it may be presumed shattered with no possibility of survival. I try not to meet sad tales of how they smashed a bottle of Harlan with any sort of "I told you so" even though I certainy did.

An allied question is what flooring you should use in your wine cellar. Again, I advocate carpet with underlay.

I'm in favor of crushed gravel over earth. That way, you can spit anywhere you need to and you have no trouble maintaining proper humidity

Mark Lipton
(I guess my answers explain why I'm an organic chemist)

An allied question is what flooring you should use in your wine cellar. Again, I advocate carpet with underlay.

I'm in favor of crushed gravel over earth. That way, you can spit anywhere you need to and you have no trouble maintaining proper humidity

Mark Lipton
(I guess my answers explain why I'm an organic chemist)

And don't forget the added bonus that you'll be all set when incontinence comes with advancing age and deadening brain cells....

We have Brazilian Cherry in the kitchen as well as most of the rest of the house. We have no more problems keeping it clean than other surfaces in the past. It does not stain.

Having said that, we have well sealed cork in the master bath. In addition to normal bathroom spills, we also have kitty litter in there. The cork has not stained at all, and I would not hesitate using it in a kitchen.

People who worry about breakage on the floor should eschew granite counter tops. We have had some spectacular crashes.

When some friends of mine gutted their kitchen they put in bamboo flooring. They love it and it is a little better for the environment if that is a concern.

Avoid pergo.

When I get back to the US and (hopefully) build a new house; I want to check out the stuff they make running tracks out of. It's soft so it's easy on the joints, and I want something I can squeege toward a drain in the floor. I love the stone floors here in Israel for cleanability, but they are heck on the knees and feet!

When some friends of mine gutted their kitchen they put in bamboo flooring. They love it and it is a little better for the environment if that is a concern.

Avoid pergo.

We looked into bamboo at one point, and I really like the way it looks. We ultimately decided to stay with what we have, though. It's the old douglas fir that originally served as a sub-floor for linoleum. It's stained dark and appears impervious to spills. It is soft, and there are quite a few dings and dents as well as a plank or two that will have to be replaced when we (finally) re-do the kitchen. I really like the character of it, though, and it's easy on the feet as well as some of the breakable items.

We ultimately decided to stay with what we have, though. It's the old douglas fir that originally served as a sub-floor for linoleum. It's stained dark and appears impervious to spills. It is soft, and there are quite a few dings and dents as well as a plank or two that will have to be replaced when we (finally) re-do the kitchen. I really like the character of it, though, and it's easy on the feet as well as some of the breakable items.

Exactly what I have and why I kept it, Mike.

When some friends of mine gutted their kitchen they put in bamboo flooring. They love it and it is a little better for the environment if that is a concern.

Avoid pergo.

We looked into bamboo at one point, and I really like the way it looks. We ultimately decided to stay with what we have, though. It's the old douglas fir that originally served as a sub-floor for linoleum. It's stained dark and appears impervious to spills. It is soft, and there are quite a few dings and dents as well as a plank or two that will have to be replaced when we (finally) re-do the kitchen. I really like the character of it, though, and it's easy on the feet as well as some of the breakable items.

I had this in my kitchen in California and loved it. Straight-grain fir is actually pretty tough. My house was built circa 1880. It had softwoods in the walls, studs, joists, sheathing, and rafters, too - redwood.

[Jenise]

Leanne, we have travertine in California and hard-wood in North Carolina. I must say that the tile is much harder on my feet and legs than the wood. If I'm doing any "marathon" cooking in CA, I always wear my Sauconys. I'm not sure why the tile is so much harder to stand on, because I can't imagine that the wood has any "play" in it. Any thoughts? Is it my imagination??

Not your imagination. Among floorings, wood is actually considered a "soft floor" and travertine as you found out, is not. We did our entire first floor in Huntington Beach in large format travertine, and it was sure beautiful, but what a pain. Am considering nothing but wood for the next new floor here, though I could be up a creek since it has to go on slab concrete.

Leanne, I believe Christina Georgina did some cork--I remember asking here about it a year or three ago and several people spoke up to recommend it. I think she was one of them.

Cork is really appealling to me after reading this. I think it also bends, doesn't it? Because we have another problem I didn't mention: the house is on adobe that swells when it absorbs water, and there have been times the parquet tiles buckled up. (Then they go back down when the adobe dries out.) We got rid of some tree roots and other things to try and stop it, but it would be nice to have a more flexible floor material. I could leave strategic gaps or seams filled with some kind of flexible stuff if I went for bamboo though, maybe.

Cork kitchen floor - I love it.

Christina Georgina, I'm envious of every last thing in those photos.

Cork is really appealling to me after reading this. I think it also bends, doesn't it? Because we have another problem I didn't mention: the house is on adobe that swells when it absorbs water, and there have been times the parquet tiles buckled up. (Then they go back down when the adobe dries out.) We got rid of some tree roots and other things to try and stop it, but it would be nice to have a more flexible floor material. I could leave strategic gaps or seams filled with some kind of flexible stuff if I went for bamboo though, maybe.

I'm not sure you want bamboo. It might delaminate under your conditions.

The disadvantage of just about all modern wood flooring materials is that they are no more than veneers of varying thickness over a backing. You don't have the option of refinishing or at least not much or often.

Solid wood flooring, not usually used today because of cost, can be sanded down many times and refinished before you'd need to think about replacing it.

Of course not many people stay in one place for decades in today's world, so investing in a kitchen floor that lasts longer than the shock absorbers on your car may not be considered to be a good investment.

Thanks Leanne. The full extension roll out shelves under the cooktop turned out to be one of the best ideas in the new kitchen. All of my pots/pans/lids are now easily accessible.

I just returned from the flooring showroom.
The literature for the cork says:
"Pre-finished natural cork flooring is protected with 5 coats of durable UV cured acrylic finish. Regular maintenance requires only routine sweeping and vacuuming...Use only cleaners specified for use on pre-finished hardwood... Wet maintenance is entirely forbidden."
How can you not mop a kitchen? Even if I got after every spill of mine, there are other people in my family doing sticky things behind my back.

I also took home a piece of linoleum, and yes, it does smell. Also, though the base color goes all the way through, I can scratch off the texturing pattern on top pretty easily.

Weird. How durable can that finish be if it can't take a damp mop?

Weird. How durable can that finish be if it can't take a damp mop?

Not nearly as durable as my slate!