Kitchen flooring

[Jenise]

I'm at the point in the remodel planning of selecting my flooring. And I'm leaning toward wood. Dark wood. Yes, it will be in the kitchen. I'm wondering if anyone has dark wood anywhere in their house and would warn me away from it?

My issues:

1) My downstairs is one big open place with areas, not rooms, each defined by a change in elevation. That means whatever flooring is in the entry spiders in four directions to the kitchen/foyer/hall to laundry and powder room/ and area that surrounds a 20 foot long 12 foot high rock wall that encloses a two-way fireplace which share it's elevation. To do more than one floor type would be both impractical and strange-looking.

2) Stone/tile is cold and hard underfoot.

3) But after three days of having a wood floor sample here to consider, I am dismayed to see my finger prints all over it. That suggests that my bare feet and 20 little paws will make the floor look dirty more quickly than I'm comfortable with. I don't and won't have household help to clean it.

That means I need to 1) learn more about owning dark wood, 2) switch to a lighter wood or 3) choose a completely different material. But what?

Talk to me, I need help working through this one.

What to do?

Jenise,

I have a natural finish oak hardwood in my kitchen and I like it but if I was ever to change it, I would go with the new bamboo flooring that is available these days. My friend has it in his house and he loves it and I really like the look. Bamboo is really tough and can be stained and then poly'd which to me is a perfect finish for a high traffic area like a kitchen. I agree with you about stone or tile in a kitchen, to hard to stand on for any length of time and cold unless you put in underfloor heating.


-mike

Hi Mike W! It has been quite some time since I have seen your (smiling?) face here. So, why the sabbatical? Anyway it is nice to see you back, and I hope you will stick around this time. BTW, if I have done my geography correctly, you live on a largish island west of Everett Washington. Nice area but I wonder how much summer you get there.

[Jenise]

Jenise,

I have a natural finish oak hardwood in my kitchen and I like it but if I was ever to change it, I would go with the new bamboo flooring that is available these days. My friend has it in his house and he loves it and I really like the look. Bamboo is really tough and can be stained and then poly'd which to me is a perfect finish for a high traffic area like a kitchen. I agree with you about stone or tile in a kitchen, to hard to stand on for any length of time and cold unless you put in underfloor heating.


-mike

Mike, the "dark wood" panel I was discussing is actually a walnut stained bamboo which to me is a wood as compared to cork, vinyl or tile, but probably should be considered yet another category of product. It's gorgeous stuff, and it's sustainable. I brought home another product to consider that I also liked a lot that's a 'green' product made from recycled god knows what with white oak, but when I put it and the bamboo side by side and knock on them? The bamboo echoes back with a thick and quiet thud, where the green product is higher pitched and hollow sounding. As someone who doesn't like the reflected noise of hard surfaces, I would pick the bamboo based on that alone. And there are new striated versions that don't look like just so-many chopsticks as the early versions did.

Mostly, considering how few options I have, I'm just worried about that dark color.

A friend of mine has bamboo flooring and loves it. She just damp mops and the smudges disappear. But they have a medium tone, not dark.

Jenise,

I have a natural finish oak hardwood in my kitchen and I like it but if I was ever to change it, I would go with the new bamboo flooring that is available these days. My friend has it in his house and he loves it and I really like the look. Bamboo is really tough and can be stained and then poly'd which to me is a perfect finish for a high traffic area like a kitchen. I agree with you about stone or tile in a kitchen, to hard to stand on for any length of time and cold unless you put in underfloor heating.


-mike

Mike, the "dark wood" panel I was discussing is actually a walnut stained bamboo which to me is a wood as compared to cork, vinyl or tile, but probably should be considered yet another category of product. It's gorgeous stuff, and it's sustainable. I brought home another product to consider that I also liked a lot that's a 'green' product made from recycled god knows what with white oak, but when I put it and the bamboo side by side and knock on them? The bamboo echoes back with a thick and quiet thud, where the green product is higher pitched and hollow sounding. As someone who doesn't like the reflected noise of hard surfaces, I would pick the bamboo based on that alone. And there are new striated versions that don't look like just so-many chopsticks as the early versions did.

Mostly, considering how few options I have, I'm just worried about that dark color.

Don't they have a choice of colors for the finish? The stuff my friend has comes both finished and un-finished in boards about 7" wide. He had it stained with a medium oak color stain and a copy of coats of poly and the floor is just about bullet proof. Really looks good. Personally I wouldn't like a really dark colored floor but that's just one man's opinion.


-mike

Hi Mike W! It has been quite some time since I have seen your (smiling?) face here. So, why the sabbatical? Anyway it is nice to see you back, and I hope you will stick around this time. BTW, if I have done my geography correctly, you live on a largish island west of Everett Washington. Nice area but I wonder how much summer you get there.

Aloha Bob,

the story of the sabbatical is best told over a bottle of good red!!! actually I'm about 5 miles SE of Everett, and the summer here in the NW is usually quite nice but the rest of the year can be more than a little damp. You just have to take vitamin D trips during the winter to places warm and sunny like Hawaii or Palm Springs.


-mike

[Jenise]

Don't they have a choice of colors for the finish? The stuff my friend has comes both finished and un-finished in boards about 7" wide. He had it stained with a medium oak color stain and a copy of coats of poly and the floor is just about bullet proof. Really looks good. Personally I wouldn't like a really dark colored floor but that's just one man's opinion.

Oh yeah, all sorts of colors. This is just Jenise-the-decorator talking -- I really want a dark floor for contrast and drama. And it will show fewer nicks and traffic-related stains. Trouble is, it will probably show everything ELSE.


-mike[/quote]

Jenise, dark wood will show all the dirt all the time. We had a dark Brazilian walnut floor we had to replace, long story why I won't go into, and an mow quoting/paraphrasing my wife who researched kitchens and their desing until she could probably open a business!...concluded from all the "experts" that wood is great on kitchen floors and the best color is something in the medium range. Also that it shows less dirt if the wood is distressed and texture slightly uneven. We installed a medium shade of American cherry, and it's been terrif.
Hope this is helpful as installing a new floor really is a major decision.

We found this bamboo that we want to use in our next house:
http://www.lumberliquidators.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=5155&categoryId=325&sectionId=2&subCategoryId=0

[Jenise]

We found this bamboo that we want to use in our next house:
http://www.lumberliquidators.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=5155&categoryId=325&sectionId=2&subCategoryId=0

Isn't that gorgeous? It or something very similar from another manufacturer was my very first choice, but my designer convinced me that the mutliple directions whatever flooring I put down has to go in would make this a poor choice, and I understand her point. But this stuff is sexy as hell. I called the one I was looking at striated but stranded is the correct term---you can see what I mean about it not looking like so many chopsticks lined up, which many of the early bamboos did. This looks more like natural wood.

We are hoping to build a log home in a couple of years, and when I saw this picture and showed it to Gail, she was sold on it. It will look great in a log home! And it's very affordable from this company at under $4.00/sf.

Jenise, I don't think mixing flooring would look strange at all. My decorator helped me along with this. I have carpet in the room I wanted to be warm and cozy, meeting up to a medium dark hardwood in the kitchen/breakfast area, meeting up with a rough tile in the laundry room. They flow together well. I will tell you that my animals hate the hardwood floor. Kitty avoids it at all costs and runs in place as fast as she can to get onto the carpet or outside. Our small dog also hates it. When I ask him to sit, his rear keeps sliding out from under him until he is on a "down" instead of "sit".
I have heard good things about bamboo floors. Mine is a beautiful Bruce Hardwood floor and while I have taken very good care of it, it has damage. I was so paranoid the first few months, and kept dropping things, hence, some nice dents. The bamboo is very hard and my not dent as easily. You might also look into some of the great commercial flooring like cork. Anything that is rock or stone related is going to be cold and it sounds like you have lots of space to cover.
You have made several comments about loving the industrial look, so take a trip to some great buildings that have a lot of public traffic,. Have you heard about the Robert Mondavi Food and Wine Institute or COPIA here in CA.? Both are involved with foods, wine, entertaining guests, etc. Might be worth finding something similar in your area and checking out the flooring, especially where lots of folks congregate.

We are hoping to build a log home in a couple of years, and when I saw this picture and showed it to Gail, she was sold on it. It will look great in a log home! And it's very affordable from this company at under $4.00/sf.

Beautiful floor Robert. When they lay the floor, are they able to match up the "strands" of light color so that is all flows as natural as possible? The samples shown on the link do not indicate that, and as the visual person that I am, that mismatching would be something I could not tolerate.

Karen, this would be a do-it-yourself project. When we build the house, I am going to do as much finish work as possible myself, to both save costs and because I want more control over the quality of the finished product. I would probably try to match the ends where possible, but wouldn't be that particular about it either. The idea is the rustic look anyway, and the house will be well out in the country, if we can find suitable land. I have about had my fill of city living.

I envy you the log home. It has been on my list of a home I have wanted forever. But, long ago we made the decision not to love in the country, and I am glad we did....but the log home is still in my heart. On an RV trip to western states, we drooled at the log homes in Montana tucked up into the foothills, overlooking a river or looking up at a mountain covered with snow...heaven! Good luck with it and you will have to keep us up to date as you proceed with your project.

My own will be at least two years out. Jenise's however, is now, and would give us all something to drool over once we see pictures.

[Jenise]

Jenise, dark wood will show all the dirt all the time. We had a dark Brazilian walnut floor....

You're just who I wanted to talk to--someone who bought what I want and then wasn't happy with it for the same reasons I likely would not be. Didn't want to hear it, but needed to. I'm living with burnt orange Italian tile right now, and even that shows a considerable amount--cat hair (from five cats, could become six any day), the usual lint, cat litter that gets broadcast up to about 25 feet away from the cat boxes, and of course in the kitchen, food debris. On dark wood (or bamboo), that would be scary.

[Jenise]

We are hoping to build a log home in a couple of years, and when I saw this picture and showed it to Gail, she was sold on it. It will look great in a log home! And it's very affordable from this company at under $4.00/sf.

Their pricing is really aggressive. The sample I looked at (and couldn't have) ran around $9 per sf. Have you dealt with Lumber Liquidators in the past? Or has anyone else?

Our kitchen floor is Brazilian Cherry from Lumber Liquidators, as is most of the rest of our main floor. Lumber Liquidators was very helpful and professional to deal with. They set up a local delivery guy who was very reasonable, and carried all the loads of wood from his truck into the house. The flooring was $4.99 per square foot. That was in '05.

[Jenise]

Jenise, I don't think mixing flooring would look strange at all. My decorator helped me along with this. I have carpet in the room I wanted to be warm and cozy, meeting up to a medium dark hardwood in the kitchen/breakfast area

I've seen it done well and I'm sure yours is. My problem is that I don't even have rooms per se. It's hard to explain, but when you walk in my front door, you are facing a stairway that away from you on the wall opposite and goes to the second story. The great room, dining room, den, my office and kitchen are one huge rectangle to the left with no walls between them or the foyer , and to your right is an open hallway that leads off to the laundry, powder room, and garage. It's like the hub on a wheel--everything spokes away from it. Changes in flooring would be not just a design problem, but an architectural disaster because it's almost impossible to define where one room starts and another one ends except where changes in elevation occur--the office and great room receive that benefit and will be carpeted. The dining room does too, but I'm going to put a hard floor there with area rug. The kitchen and foyer are on the same elevation and adjacent. From the foyer you can see into all those spaces, except the laundry room, in pretty much one sweeping glance. The flow and sense of openness is wonderful, but it does give me this limitation. Fortunately, I crave neutrality and continuity of color and style throughout the house--someone who didn't couldn't live in here.

I was so paranoid the first few months, and kept dropping things, hence, some nice dents.

This will be me!

As for cork, I love cork, but I'm worried about the durability in traffic and slop areas like the kitchen.

You have made several comments about loving the industrial look, so take a trip to some great buildings that have a lot of public traffic,. Have you heard about the Robert Mondavi Food and Wine Institute or COPIA here in CA.?

Indeed I do, though I'm looking to find a happy place between industrial and elegant--that's why I'm not buying the extra 12 feet of duct cover needed to vent the range hood (finally bought the Viking last weekend, btw) out the 22 foot open ceiling, but will have it done by an industrial sheet metal company nearby. And yes, I've been staring at public spaces--I'm actually quite enamored with the carpeting at our local airport which was laid in squares. Wouldn't that be practical? Kitty throws up--no problem! Replace it!

Jenise, dark wood will show all the dirt all the time. We had a dark Brazilian walnut floor....

You're just who I wanted to talk to--someone who bought what I want and then wasn't happy with it for the same reasons I likely would not be. Didn't want to hear it, but needed to. I'm living with burnt orange Italian tile right now, and even that shows a considerable amount--cat hair (from five cats, could become six any day), the usual lint, cat litter that gets broadcast up to about 25 feet away from the cat boxes, and of course in the kitchen, food debris. On dark wood (or bamboo), that would be scary.

PM me if you like, will be happy to give you any further info I can. And we have 3 cats BTW.

I have no idea of how useful this will be to others but when we redid our kitchen I was fortunate enough to find an old Jerusalem pub that was in the process of closing after some 60 years. The heavy flooring of the pub, of American oak, were thoroughly well worn and when taken up carefully made a truly superb floor for our kitchen.

Because the wood is so well worn it shows little signs of everyday staining and cleaning is simplicity itself - nothing but a mop and water with a bit of non-reactive organic detergent and, twice annually, generous cleaning with a dilute bleach solution.

Best
Rogov

I swear I posted on this earlier but it's not there now. Must not have hit the "Submit" button.

Anyway, our kitchen floor is the original douglas fir sub-floor. It's very dark but it also shows a lot of grain in the wood. Sound a bit like yours, Rogov, in that it's showing some wear. The doug fir is soft wood, so there are some dents and dings from dropping things. Personally, I don't mind that. Also on the plus side, it's warm and comfy to stand on and if you drop something on it, it's not a guarantee that said item will break.

We only rarely have issues with paw prints, either two-legged or four-legged. Sweeping with a broom or the vacuum and then damp-mopping pretty much takes care of routine maintenance.

We also looked into bamboo and if we were going to replace our floor then that would probably be my first choice.