Kitchen floor pondering

[SusanBAnthony]

This is totally hypothetical as we have not found a house yet, and even when we do the kitchen floor will likely stay exactly the way it was when we bought it.

I love real hardwood floors (finished in place) and have always said I wanted them in the whole downstairs.  I had tile in our old kitchen and hated it- freezing cold, so hard my feet always hurt if I was barefoot, and I chipped and cracked it a bunch by dropping stuff on it, plus I broke tons of dishes on it.  And i ardently defended hardwood in kitchens since even if it gets wet, you can just sand down and refinish, and if you have a major appliance leak, it will pretty likely get through grout cracks in tile, too.

Well, now I have laminate in our rental kitchen and it looks beyond awful.  None of the seams sit flat, there are tons of gouges, noticeable cracks and bows in the boards, etc.  I try to keep drips and spills wiped up, but I do dishes about five times a day (sahm) and there are constantly drips on the floor.  Not to mention the kids spilling when they "help".  I know hardwood will hold up better, but honestly, I think given how high traffic our kitchen is, it won't hold up well enough.

So I have reached the extremely unpopular conclusion that I think a high quality vinyl might be the way to go   .   My neighbor has a beautiful one that honestly you have to touch to figure out if it is real tile or not.  I am jealous of a vinyl kitchen floor!

[rugbywife]

Your post is interesting because I have come to the same conclusion.

I live in a 52 year old house with original hard wood floors that don't flow into the kitchen. When we moved in I HATED the vinyl tiles. They are really good quality, think, in good condition. I hated them because they were put in without spacing for 'grout' and I felt like it looked cheap. We initially budgeted our renos to include redoing them but were at a loss for what to do. I wasn't keen on spending money on new vinyl since there was already vinyl there. I wanted cork but we decided it wasn't worth the $$. Hardwood is what I really wanted BUT it was not in our budget to get someone to try to match our 50+ year old hardwood.

So we kept what we have. And I don't completely hate it now. It is warm. I thought at one point that I wanted tile but I was warned that it was cold and hard. Our old place had laminate so I hadn't taken into consideration how cold and hard tile would be. I love how warm our vinyl tiles are. And, they are a weird beige mixed with dark beige tone with some black mixed in (I can post pics if you want) and while I thought I hated it, it hides dirt to the point that it is almost worrisome - sometimes when I clean really carefully I wonder when the last time was that I cleaned them really carefully - if that makes any sense (my house is not nearly as clean as it should be, in general).

Anyways, just saying, I feel the same way. I thought I wanted anything but vinyl, now I think I love it. If we build a little addition we have planned onto the front of our house (just an entryway are that we desperately need) I may put vinyl in there and carry the colour through the kitchen. But that isn't for a couple of years I don't think.

[thatgirl2478]

Our first house had tiles (white w/ white grout), I could never keep them clean, they were so cold and way to hard. So I ripped them out and refinished the hardwood I found underneath. They were still cold, but not nearly as hard and cleaning was reasonably easy.

Our current home has vinyl. It's a large sheet and it's the cushioned type (that you can either glue or loose lay). It's SO NICE! I never thought I'd say that. Honestly, we had the choice of putting tile or vinyl in the hall bath and we chose more vinyl. It's slightly warmer under foot and it cleans up so easily (especially since we have dogs - no cracks to catch stuff in).

Now, the rental had cheap vinyl. It was horrid. It was super thin and never felt clean. Don't get that.

[SusanBAnthony]

Until my neighbor got hers, I thought all vinyl was the thin cracking shiny kind. But the padded non-shiny stuff is pretty awesome.

[pitterwoo]

Tile in the kitchen would be a no-go for me as well. I drop stuff way too often and I wouldn't want something so cold underfoot in this climate.

When we redo the kitchen H wants to refinish the wood floors that are under there. I'm not sold on it because I think it will wear too much with us and the dog. If it doesn't work out my choice is linoleum.