Some “Flooring” Ideas for Your Kitchen

New flooring can be an excellent means of giving your kitchen a new look. The choices for kitchen flooring are almost endless depending upon what best suits one’s sense of style and one’s pocketbook. Style and budget aside, upkeep and lasting quality are the factors that most influence what ends up underfoot in the kitchen.

When it comes to wear and tear around a house, few finishes are subject to the kind of beating that a kitchen floor must withstand. Endless traffic from appliance to appliance; falling food and the occasional table scrap slipped to fido are just a few of the day-to-day events that can give a kitchen floor a real run for its money.

Shopping for new kitchen flooring can be a chore. Most people begin by searching for a product that they’ve seen in a showroom, a model home or decorating magazine. Not a bad place to begin so long as you realize that these floors are generally viewed under the best of circumstances without “real life” conditions. For example, the flooring needs for a growing family with children and pets are substantially different than those of a couple of pet-free empty nesters. Tip number one: take a serious look at your lifestyle before choosing new kitchen flooring.

More than ever, consumers are looking for the best of all worlds – a floor that looks good, doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, is easy to maintain and will last a forever. When you find it let us know because we’ve yet to discover such a finish. However, we can say with great certainty that today’s choices are greater than ever. So vast are the choices that space will only permit us to touch upon some of the most popular choices, which should give you a head start.

All things considered, the product that offers the best bang for the kitchen-flooring-buck is vinyl. Dollar-for-dollar, it will take the biggest licking and still keep on ticking. It is kid and pet friendly and vinyl plank flooring is among the easiest to maintain. As is the case with most building products, there are good, better and best levels of quality from which to choose and flooring is no exception.

Cushion vinyl might sound plush, but its paper backing and embossed-pattern construction place it at the bottom of the quality totem pole. It is especially susceptible to tears and gouges from high heels and the occasionally dropped kitchen knife. Keep in mind that the majority of the cost associated with the typical vinyl kitchen floor is installation labor. Therefore, if sheet vinyl makes the final cut for your kitchen, kick it up a notch with a better quality product such as an inlaid or vinyl-backed product. You’ll pay more for the goods upfront; however, you’ll end up spending less over the long haul.

Vinyl tiles are an especially popular finish in “retro” style kitchens. Don’t confuse these with the cheap peel-n-stick tiles that are best left on the shelves of your local home center. These tiles are installed with the appropriate Water Proof Flooring Adhesive, with great thought given to both color and pattern. Vinyl-clad cork and a range of other vinyl tile finishes are available for style-conscious consumers who like the look and feel of vinyl. Unlike sheet goods, vinyl tiles can be relatively expensive both in terms of material and the labor to install them.

Floating floors continue to grow in popularity as an option. As the name implies, a floating floor is neither nailed nor glued to the substrate. Instead, the material – consisting of planks or tiles – is installed over a foam pad. Most floating floor styles consist of tongue and grove construction for easy do-it-yourself assembly. Some products require the individual pieces be glued together while others offer glueless assembly. In either case the core of the material usually consists of a particleboard or plywood core with a plastic laminate or pre-finished wood veneer walking surface.

Although a floating floor can be installed over a wood subfloor they are particularly popular over a concrete slab due to their ability to “give.” Though touted by some manufacturers as “indestructible”, a floating floor – plastic or wood – can be scratched or gauged, which could necessitate selective replacement – neither easy nor cheap. And unlike its hardwood counterpart, blemishes can’t be filled, sanded or finished. In addition, water from above or below the floor can damage the veneer or the core. This may not a good choice if you have little ones or pets.

Natural wood flooring still ranks as one of the most popular finishes for a kitchen floor. It is warm, durable, and easy to keep clean and is available in a host of species, colors, patterns and finishes. Traditional options such as oak, cherry and maple have been joined by new “eco-friendly” choices such as bamboo and cork that are available in both tile and planks.

Appearance aside, there are many material options to consider. There are planks and tile; solid and “engineered” material; and pre-finished versus finished-in-place. The decision to use tile or planks is primarily an aesthetic choice. The other choices have more to do with budget, the type of substrate and anticipated lasting quality. Solid material can only be installed over a wood subfloor (or atop a slab that has been covered with a plywood underlayment) — which can create a floor transition problem.

If you have a concrete floor and like the look of planks (and opt not to install the plywood layer), you’ll need to install parquet tile or an engineered plank floor that consists of a plywood core and a veneer walking surface, which can be glued directly to concrete. Engineered flooring can be obtained with a factory finished or it can be finished in place. We recommend the latter as it will provide a monolithic finish that will offer superior protection from water intrusion. As with a floating floor, wood and water don’t mix. Therefore, you can end up spending a pretty penny to repair damage resulting from a leaking dishwasher or defrosting freezer. One advantage that solid wood flooring has over its engineered counterpart is that it can be sanded and finished many times where the engineered product’s veneer will withstand only finite refinishing.

When it comes to abrasion resistance and design possibilities it’s hard to beat tile. Tile flooring is an especially popular choice over a concrete slab due to the stable base that it provides. In contrast to installation over a wood subfloor, no mortar bed is required and deflection isn’t an issue. By the same token, floor tile can be the object of cracks and chips from shifting foundations and/or the occasional falling pot or pan. Tile is available in a wide range of materials (ceramic, porcelain, granite, slate, etc.), sizes, shapes, colors, patterns and finishes.

An increasingly popular finish for people with concrete floors is an acid stain finish. Acid stain is not a paint or coating. Rather, it’s a coloring process made with water, acid and inorganic salts, which react with minerals present in the concrete. It gives concrete a mottled, multicolored, marble-like look in a range of beautiful (mostly earth tone colors). Never expect acid stain to be uniform or have an even tone. You’ll get different reactions from slab to slab, and even on the same job you might see different coloration patterns. It works well on new or old concrete and is a durable product if properly protected with sealer or wax.

For more home improvement tips and information search our website or call our listener hot line 24/7 at 1-800-737-2474.

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