Home & Garden Flooring for Home

needloub

needloub

Shoe & Food Lover
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Jan 5, 2009
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#1
DH and I purchased a home that we plan to demolish and start from scratch. After a disappointing run with one local architect, we switched to another (thank goodness!). Despite our initial setback, our new architect is professional, amazing, and totally understands our style and lifestyle. Our meetings have gone smoothly, and we are happy with the flow our future home.

Now, we have think about flooring inside the home. We definitely want hardwood flooring throughout the home except for the bathrooms, basement, and mudroom, but unsure about hardwood flooring in the kitchen. I really like the seamless look with the adjacent great room, but also like the transitional look with tiling and hardwood. I am not sure about the long-term maintenance of each...what did you all choose and why? Thanks for the help in advance.
 
#2
Have you thought about the "hardwood"-style tiles for the kitchen? I was in a kitchen that had them recently and literally could *not* tell they were tiles and not hardwood planks! TOTALLY blew my mind. And because you are building from scratch, it should be easy for your contractor to match the plank widths and stain color of the actual hardwood floors to the kitchen "hardwood" tile floors (I recently bought a house built in the 50s and the original floors were in great shape so I just refinished them, but the plank widths are too narrow to match "modern" hardwood and hardwood-tile plank widths, so when I redo my kitchen in a year, if I go with the hardwood-tiles, the look/transition might not be perfectly seamless from the immediately adjacent hardwood space). And then you wouldn't have to worry about drips and drops of water in the kitchen inadvertently ruining your floors...even though they can finish the floors to withstand minor spills that are toweled up in a reasonable amount of time, I'm the type that would totally be worrying about it the entire time I was cooking, and the kitchen should be a fun, stress-free zone!
 
#3
CocoaBelle said:
Have you thought about the "hardwood"-style tiles for the kitchen? I was in a kitchen that had them recently and literally could *not* tell they were tiles and not hardwood planks! TOTALLY blew my mind. And because you are building from scratch, it should be easy for your contractor to match the plank widths and stain color of the actual hardwood floors to the kitchen "hardwood" tile floors (I recently bought a house built in the 50s and the original floors were in great shape so I just refinished them, but the plank widths are too narrow to match "modern" hardwood and hardwood-tile plank widths, so when I redo my kitchen in a year, if I go with the hardwood-tiles, the look/transition might not be perfectly seamless from the immediately adjacent hardwood space). And then you wouldn't have to worry about drips and drops of water in the kitchen inadvertently ruining your floors...even though they can finish the floors to withstand minor spills that are toweled up in a reasonable amount of time, I'm the type that would totally be worrying about it the entire time I was cooking, and the kitchen should be a fun, stress-free zone!
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I didn't even think about this. Thanks for the input. I am prone to drop things in the kitchen especially my heavy pots, which is why I am worried about tiles in the kitchen. At the same time, I am worried about the maintenance of hardwood floors...
 
#4
we did engineered wood in the home we remodeled every room except bathrooms. We haven't moved in yet so I can't really comment on how it's holding up. Looks nice. I'm not that concerned with dropping things on it as I am with something like the dishwasher overflowing.
 
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#7
needloub said:
I didn't even think about this. Thanks for the input. I am prone to drop things in the kitchen especially my heavy pots, which is why I am worried about tiles in the kitchen. At the same time, I am worried about the maintenance of hardwood floors...
Click to expand...
Long time ago a friend & I used tera cotta tiles to tile her kitchen and dining area. Yes, even dropping a screwdriver on the floor caused a tile to crack, to say nothing about cans of soup, etc. But these were probably more prone to breakage, being a more delicate tile material. My friend did get pretty good at chopping out the cracked/broken tiles and plopping in a new ones, I will say that!

All flooring have pros and cons, I had Pergo installed 7 yrs ago and it still looks nice. Having dogs made me not want hardwood, I've seen what dog claws can do to a floor's finish and the way mine race around--no way! Good luck with choosing--it will look great no matter what.
 
#8
i did tile in the kitchen and hardwood in the living areas. the reason for the kitchen tile was b/c the house is in a wet climate and moisture from rainy climates can get trapped beneath hardwood in kitchen floors and begin to lift planks or ruin them eventually. far easier to replace and clean tiles than hardwood, too. i found that tiles had more choices too, in terms of color. consider your outside climate, b/c it can affect the inside (from underneath the house stuff can happen to the kitchen/bathroom flooring). consider an engineered tile, like pergo, something along those lines on the high end. they've made huge improvements in engineered flooring, both tile and wood, and most people cannot even tell the difference unless you tell them and it's worry-free
 
#9
although a lot of people are against having hardwood in kitchens, i know plenty of people who have had no issues at all with hardwood in their kitchen for decades, with pets and children, and they do cook and not just use their kitchens for show. on the flip side, i know people who have vinyl for example and they're so messy that their floors are always sticky, stained, or peeling. if you really love the look of hardwood and are willing to be a bit more careful than usual, then go for it.
 
#10
stephc005 said:
although a lot of people are against having hardwood in kitchens, i know plenty of people who have had no issues at all with hardwood in their kitchen for decades, with pets and children, and they do cook and not just use their kitchens for show. on the flip side, i know people who have vinyl for example and they're so messy that their floors are always sticky, stained, or peeling. if you really love the look of hardwood and are willing to be a bit more careful than usual, then go for it.
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We haven't yet moved into our newly romodelled home. We have engineered wood in the kitchen. I guess since you can't really use a wet mop on it, I'll have to keep after it with Bona and the vacuum. I don't like cleaning house and one reason we decided to go with wood throughout was I thought it might be easier to go from room to room with a cordless vacuum. Of course, there are area rugs too. Will see how it goes.
 
#11
sdkitty said:
We haven't yet moved into our newly romodelled home. We have engineered wood in the kitchen. I guess since you can't really use a wet mop on it, I'll have to keep after it with Bona and the vacuum. I don't like cleaning house and one reason we decided to go with wood throughout was I thought it might be easier to go from room to room with a cordless vacuum. Of course, there are area rugs too. Will see how it goes.
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we have new hardwoods everywhere in our house (except the basement which is actually where our new kitchen is), and i find that having a roomba vacuum makes life so much easier (we have a dog that sheds like crazy). i also bought a spray mop and mop after the roomba runs- so fast and easy. for the kitchen, i plan to do the same even though it's tile and can be mopped. i also plan to put down a runner where my stove and sink are just in case anything splatters.
 
#12
HandbagDiva354 said:
Hardwood floors are beautiful but can be a lot of maintenance especially if you have pets and small children.
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Check, check :amuse:

kemilia said:
Long time ago a friend & I used tera cotta tiles to tile her kitchen and dining area. Yes, even dropping a screwdriver on the floor caused a tile to crack, to say nothing about cans of soup, etc. But these were probably more prone to breakage, being a more delicate tile material. My friend did get pretty good at chopping out the cracked/broken tiles and plopping in a new ones, I will say that!

All flooring have pros and cons, I had Pergo installed 7 yrs ago and it still looks nice. Having dogs made me not want hardwood, I've seen what dog claws can do to a floor's finish and the way mine race around--no way! Good luck with choosing--it will look great no matter what.
Click to expand...

Thank you! I tend to be indecisive about the details!

stephc005 said:
although a lot of people are against having hardwood in kitchens, i know plenty of people who have had no issues at all with hardwood in their kitchen for decades, with pets and children, and they do cook and not just use their kitchens for show. on the flip side, i know people who have vinyl for example and they're so messy that their floors are always sticky, stained, or peeling. if you really love the look of hardwood and are willing to be a bit more careful than usual, then go for it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your input!

sdkitty said:
We haven't yet moved into our newly romodelled home. We have engineered wood in the kitchen. I guess since you can't really use a wet mop on it, I'll have to keep after it with Bona and the vacuum. I don't like cleaning house and one reason we decided to go with wood throughout was I thought it might be easier to go from room to room with a cordless vacuum. Of course, there are area rugs too. Will see how it goes.
Click to expand...

Good luck with moving into your new home!
 
#15
My last 4 homes had hardwood flooring in the kitchens and I'm happy. Tile can crack, plus I hate how grout discolors. HWF can be refinished, color changed--so many pluses. Also, they have some "give" compared to some other flooring--easier on your back.
 
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