Kithen Flooring

[MinnieLove]

We need to replace our kitchen floor due to a freezer leak

What kind of flooring to use. Obviously it is heavy traffic and we have young kiddos. So needs to be durable.

We cannot afford ceramic tile.

What is the best and affordable material?

 

[Dizneydaz]

A few years ago we had to replace our laminate floor due to a water leak. We had laminate covering almost our entire downstairs and we replaced it all.

We did ceramic tile. It really wasn't that expensive. We bought our tile from Home Depot (special order). It's Dal-Tile, porcelain. Cost was about $1.80 psf. We used 12" and 18" squares. We did the installation ourselves (yes, I am pretty handy!) We have a concrete subfloor so we didn't need to use concrete backer board.

Laying tile isn't that hard. We borrowed a tile saw but you can rent one for pretty cheap from HD or Lowes. We ended up installing about 1200 sq. ft. of tile downstairs.

After having laminate for a few years, I wouldn't recommend it. I also wouldn't rec. real wood in a kitchen. Vinyl sheet flooring can be pretty expensive. Your cheapest floor option is peel and stick 12" x 12" vinyl tiles. I did this on my last house and there are some pretty nice choices for about $1 psf. Easy to install too.

 

[scrapquitler]

I have a SMALL kitchen, galley style, it's like 6" wide X12" long.

When I needed flooring, I went to Home Depot and bought an end of the roll cut of vinyl sheet flooring, which was big enough for what I needed, and because it was the leftover piece it was very cheap, I think it cost me about $30 for the whole thing.

 

[Shleedogg]

I think that ceramic is more affordable than you think it is; especially if you DIY. Tile looks difficult, but it's not. DH got the hang of it really quickly, it's super easy. DH did our marble bathroom floor and it looks great. The part BIL did to "teach" DH looks horrible and uneven. What DH learned by himself was to spread the the material (forgive me, can't think of real name) evenly and for a larger area, like 4-5 tiles at a time; don't do them individually. It's much easier to adjust them height-wise when you do larger sections so they're even.

We've seen ceramic tile at HD for $.68/sq ft. That's cheaper than laminate and it looks much better. Shop around, you'll be surprised at the deals you can find.

 

[MickeyManiac]

Another vote for DIY tile. We tore out our hardwood after a dishwasher leak and dents and scratches from delivery people bringing a new fridge. It really was very easy. We spent time on the internet, went to a tile store, HD & Lowes and asked lots of questions. It turned out beautifully. We went to Harbor Freight and bought a tile saw for around $40. It was a great investment.

 

[wtrmlnlabs]

I agree tile isn't as expensive at you'd think, but I'd go with a laminate wood flooring. I love ours, so durable with kids and dogs. We had to do a section in the tile. It's not a high traffic piece and nothing has been dropped on it but we have a tile cracked already. Well, it's been about 4 years, but still I'm not too happy about a cracked tile! You can find laminate pretty cheap, I've seen it at Lowes before for .79/sqft... and it's easy to install.

 

[ToTLaugher]

For those of you who used the tile with children in the house, a question. Do you have any trouble with slipping in the kitchen because of spills or wet feet coming in from outside?

Thanks

 

[pixiewings71]

When we moved into this house the kitchen (and hall bath) had those peel and stick tiles someone else a mentioned. They looked OK but we knew we wanted to change that when we could. After our house fire we went with ceramic tiles in the kitchen and hall baths, we LOVE our ceramic tiles!! Cost was very low, we paid about $1.20 per sf for our tiles and they look great!! Ours were installed by our contractors so I can't speak to the DIY part but I highly recommend ceramic tiles. We have a bamboo laminate in the living/dining and hallway and while we love that it wouldn't have worked in the kitchen, the ceramic tile is very durable and easy to clean. We have 2 kids at home (we had 4 at one time, DD22's DFi lived with us for about 6 months), 2 cats and until just recently 2 dogs (1 dog went to live with DD22) and the tile has been great with all the animals and kids in and out. We've had no problems with slipping on spills or wet feet, and given that we live in CA it rains in the winter and given that we live in Nor Cal and not So Cal it rains a lot in the winter. LOL No issues at all.

 

[Shleedogg]

For those of you who used the tile with children in the house, a question. Do you have any trouble with slipping in the kitchen because of spills or wet feet coming in from outside?

Thanks

Honestly, anything that's not carpet is going to be slippery when wet. I slip on my wood laminate, I've slipped on my cheap crappy sheet laminate in the kitchen, I've slipped on the marble tile in my bathroom. Just be smart about it. Have area rugs, or a small rug at the entrance to your kitchen to wipe feet. Be careful about kitchen spills. I was doing dishes one night and hadn't noticed that I splashed some water on the floor. I usually wear my crocs in the kitchen but happened to have on a pair of flip flops w/ no tread on them. I went to put away the aluminum foil and wasn't watching where I was walking and slipped. I did a 180 and in an effort to catch myself reached out for the counter with my right hand. My hand came down on the box of aluminum foil and my pinky finger hit the serrated edge. Sliced pretty far into my finger. The cut was about half the length of my finger and of course I had to get stitches. It really can happen on any floor if it's wet. Just be careful yourself and watch the kiddos.

 

[MickeyManiac]

We picked a tile with a little texture. We've had no trouble with slipping.

I personally would never put laminate in a kitchen. My aunt had an ice maker leak twice (different fridges) and it buckled her floor. The last time was bad enough the whole floor had to be replaced. My DSis had a dishwasher leak and her floor also buckled. It's the same reason we didn't have wood put back after our dishwasher leak. JMHO

 

[jodifla]

We have laminate in the kitchen now. I prefer it over ceramic tile for a couple of reasons:

1.) Ceramic tile is incredibly hard to stand on for long periods while doing dishes or cooking.

2.) When you drop something on ceramic tile, it's history. A glass can often survive a tumble onto laminate, but it will be in a million pieces on tile.

3.) Our ceramic tile was INCREDIBLY slippery when it got wet. Like ice.

 

[Swimalie]

We put down tile in the kitchen in our last house. My husband and I got it from Home Depot for about 88 cents a sq ft. It was a 16" tile and it had a bit of roughness to it so that it would be less slippery. I would check the stores and see if you can find something like that. Laying tile is not that hard. We're going to do the kitchen in this house now that our son is in kindergarten all day and won't be in the way

 

[Mama-san]

Well, apparently the person who installed our ceramic tile in our kitchen when it was built didn't do a very good job. The grout is coming out in chunks and therefore the tiles are coming up. Something was dropped on the tile in one of the bathrooms and is now cracked. I am soooooooo over tile! This weekend we are ripping out the remaing tiles in my kitchen (over half are gone and I've been covering the bare place with a 5x7 rug), taking out the backing board, then putting down plywood and laminate tiles.

I've just had a bad experience which has tainted my opinion of ceramic tiles. I may be disappointed with laminate also, I'm just ready for my floor to be fixed!!

 

[Fly4free]

We remodeled our kitchen last summer and put in Dura-ceramic tiles by Congoleum. I just love this flooring! DH installed himself. We chose the one with the grout.

It is easy to clean. The grout is actually a type of acrylic, and is easier to keep clean than regular grout. You get the tile look without the worry of cracked tiles or broken dishes. It is also much more comfy to stand on, and not cold like tile.

Also I have not had any problem with water damage. I almost chose laminate, but knowing my kids and the water and melting ice cubes they leave on the floor I'm glad I didn't. We also had a small leak from the kitchen sink and it did not cause damage to the flooring either.

 

[Halle]

For those of you who used the tile with children in the house, a question. Do you have any trouble with slipping in the kitchen because of spills or wet feet coming in from outside?

Thanks

Broken foot nine weeks ago......slipped on a few drops of water on my ceramic tile kitchen floor. We're tearing it out and putting in hardwood flooring. DH and I are in our 50's and we don't bounce as well as we used to. BTW I love, love, love love, my ceramic tile have had it 20 years with four kids and a cat, looks like new. Good luck with you decision.

 

[pixiewings71]

We chose a ceramic tile that was textured as well, as I said we've had no issues with slipping at all and we've been back in our house for 4 years now. We have it in the kitchen and bathroom, of course we have throw rugs in both the kitchen and bath as well but there are times when I'm washing those and I have no rugs down, still no slippage. I do suggest a tile with some texture to it.

 

[Pigeon]

I love ceramic tile. If you can do the installation, it's pretty reasonable.

Those peel and stick vinyl squares are hideous. I had that in my house when we bought it. Yuck, yuck, yuck.

 

[TnTWalter]

I've had Mannington Engineered Wood Floors for about 10 years now. Love them! Show no dirt, easy to clean.

Tile would be ok but too cold and hard for me. We have brick tile in our entry and dining room though. Super easy. That would be cool in a kitchen. But still cold and hard.


Trish

 

[Dizneydaz]

Our tile too has a texture and isn't slippery when wet. Our laminate was and everything showed on that floor. We chose a tile that was in the "dirt color" range. It's light brown and beige with dark spots of brown and even gray in it. Sounds ugly but is actually pretty. Plus since it's dirt color, spots don't show on it. In fact, sometimes when I go to clean up a spot I realize that it's in the design!

My neighbor has engineered wood in a very dark color. It needs to be cleaned just about every day. I would hate to have a dark color in my kitchen.

And there are some decent looking peel and stick vinyls out there. The ones that look like stone look pretty good when installed. Added benefit is if you can afford something more expensive later you can install it right over the vinyl.

We have 2 small rugs in the kitchen in front of the sink and the cooktop so it's not too hard on the feet when standing. The cooktop and sink are fairly close together (sink is on the island) so there is a rug underfoot in the area that we stand the most.