So what kind of flooring do you have in your kitchen?

**mommy2krj** · 05-31-2011, 11:57 AM

Do you love it or hate it?

We are looking at flooring for our kitchen since it is now going to be coming out due to mother nature's damages in April. We don't know yet if the insurance is going to be covering it or not as we had damaged a large section of the floor ourselves prior to the new damages from the leak in our kitchen after the roof was damaged.

If we're covering the costs ourselves we're going to have to go pretty cheap. I'm looking at vinyl and such to see just what we're talking about price wise. I like the idea of vinyl simply for the ease of cleaning and installation but was looking for other opinions as well.

And if anyone has any tips on keeping the costs down if we were to go with something else. Mind you we have a 90 year old house that is definitely not what you would consider level. So that also ups the difficulty of installing flooring. Somethings we know we can do to help level it but it really only does so much and we definitely don't have money for someone to come in and fix that problem. (Although, our floors are definitely more level than some of the neighbors...we have one neighbor that is currently jacking his house up in order to get it level. Not something we can do right now and I don't think it's needed with ours.)

So, do you love your floors? Hate your floors and want to rip them all out?

**Missy** · 05-31-2011, 12:12 PM

for the sake of transparency, my hubby owns his own flooring company.

I ripped out the vinyl and had tile put in. I like the tile way better.

**frugal.lass** · 05-31-2011, 12:12 PM

The place I live now has vinyl sheet flooring in the kitchen area...HATE it. It's developed "pock marks" from the feet of my chairs (so the area around my table has all sorts of little divets in it), it has scratches in it from the previous tenant and the flooring has discoloured and stained in various places. No matter how I scrub it, it ALWAYS looks dirty and gross.

The place I'll be moving into (fingers crossed! the inspection is tomorrow) has laminate in the kitchen. Laminate made to look vaguely like tiles...

I don't know about how it'll wear (the sellers replaced the floor about 6 mths ago so it's still in great shape) and I would prefer tiles in the kitchen but I'll have to live with the floors I'm getting for awhile before I'll have money available to change them.

Most of my friends have ceramic or porcelain tiles in the kitchen, their floors look great and are easy to care for BUT I'm not sure if that's an option on an uneven floor. Good luck! Let us know what you decide!

**2ndGenGranola** · 05-31-2011, 12:15 PM

We have tile. I love it.

**monkeywrangler71** · 05-31-2011, 12:23 PM

At our last house we had the vinyl plank flooring (trafficmaster allure). Installation is simple, it looked good and was really easy to clean; actually I hardly ever cleaned it, it never seemed to get dirty

Only problem was that it is nearly impossible to get the edges lined up perfectly if the floor underneath is not perfect. Which is only a problem if imperfection is something that you can't handle - I'm pretty sure no one but me noticed.

**FLgal** · 05-31-2011, 12:30 PM

We just had tile installed. I love it! Just make sure to get it installed correctly. If your floor is already slanted, they can probably lay the thin set down thicker where they need to. Not sure how to cut the cost. Tile is forever(well, that's what they say anyways.)

**annymoll** · 05-31-2011, 12:36 PM

We have wood floors.I have wood throughout the house.Love it.

**FrabjousDay** · 05-31-2011, 12:37 PM

We had tile installed in our last house, and I hated it. Absolutely hated it. It looked fabulous, it was just too cold and uncomfortable. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and that floor made me ache all over. The house before that was laminate which was okay, but unless I was constantly on top of cleaning it looked dull and showed every little smudge. Our current kitchen has vinyl and I love it. It's easy on my joints and a breeze to clean. We're going to have it replaced when we pull the carpet from our breakfast nook so the flooring is consistent throughout, but will go with vinyl again. We had a commercial grade vinyl installed in one of the bathrooms and will use a similar product in the kitchen. There are really nice quality products available, skip low priced junky stuff.

**mommy2krj** · 05-31-2011, 01:05 PM

I don't think we're going to go with tile of any sort. While I like the way it can look....that's pretty much the only thing I like about it. Also don't want to deal with grout in any way.

Right now, we're looking at the vinyl (well, I am) and it would be temporary...until we have a goodly amount set aside to really redo the kitchen the way we want it. While I'm not looking at the cheapest stuff out there....we can't really afford a whole lot and our kitchen is of course the biggest room in our house so costs more flooring wise. It's close to 300sq.ft. so that's a lot of flooring.

I'm leary on wood of any sort at this point as the flooring that was in there was wood squares (I know there's a name for it just can't think of it right now) and we destroyed a section when we put in the dishwasher and now another section from the leaking around the window and ceiling. While I know that is all going to be fixed, I would just like something that will stand up to water being spilled on it and a bunch of little kids running around. Honestly, right now ANYTHING is going to look better and wear better than what is in there!

Tired of doing this already. I just want my kitchen back. It's one thing to plan for a kitchen redo and another to have one forced on you. This stinks. Anyway, thanks for all the replies!

**OOwl** · 05-31-2011, 01:29 PM

I have an almost entire house of ceramic tile. LOVE it, although it is by no means "perfect." I live in a warm place, so the coolness of it isn't a problem, even in winter (but this might be really cold to the feet in a colder place). The grout needs to be SEALED (especially if it's light colored). That is often neglected (especially by self-installers, and often bypassed to save money on professional installations). Ceramic tile can crack if you drop something heavy on it (so keep replacement tiles for that eventuality). If you drop ANYTHING breakable on it, it will probably break the item (e.g., a glass or plate). (I've had vinyl flooring before and it was cushion-y enough that things often did not break on it when dropped.) I wouldn't probably choose laminate wood in my kitchen because it doesn't tolerate super-wet mopping well (and is advised against it on the product spec sheet I received on mine that was installed in my office). Hard ceramic tile is really tough to stand one for long periods of time (fatigues the feet and lower legs). I just purchased a new house that has Mexican tile, with dark (sealed) grout that I think is going to be really nice. It appears to be softer in texture than my ceramic tile, or perhaps that's just an illusion, and it's warmer to the touch. I'm looking forward to giving it a try. Good luck on your choice. Looking forward to others' answers.

**Ceashels** · 05-31-2011, 01:44 PM

This house came with tiles... some cracked, loose grout, and I hate them. They are cold in the winter and do add to fatigue when I cook for long periods of time. Right now we have an old 5x7 rug in the center so the dog (Precious the Old) can walk through to go outside.

I would love bamboo or a low profile vinyl so I can use a Swifter and get it all clean.

**savvy_sniper** · 05-31-2011, 02:02 PM

The previous owner put vinyl in the kitchen and I must say I love it. It is low maintenance and easy to clean. I will be happy to keep it until we remodel the kitchen somewhere down the road.

**craftypam** · 05-31-2011, 02:11 PM

I wouldn't want ceramic tile in my kitchen for the cold and for everything you drop breaks. I have vinyl and I really like it, but had two lessons learned the hard way. When replacing flooring that is rough and old replace the bottoms of your chairs or the roughness of the feet will scratch the new floor AND don't let you teens lean back on your chairs causing dents in the flooring.

**tracergal007** · 05-31-2011, 03:00 PM

I used the peel and stick vinyl tile from Lowes. I spent a little more and got the thicker kind. It's been down three years now with lots of traffic over it and still looks new. I love it.

**rudypoo98** · 05-31-2011, 04:52 PM

My house is old also built in 1897.There is a hump from an old foundation under the kitchen where it was built on to.So with the hump there all I can use is carpet in the kitchen because the vinyl tears and gets holes in it.Tiles would break and I'm sure laminate would also.The carpet was cheaper than vinyl , I shampoo it alot .If you got carpet with kids I'd suggest dirt color LOL.Actually a multicolor brown dosen't show much but still would need to shampoo it often.