pale (ish) limestone or marble floor in a kitchen - stupid idea or not?

[Fozzleyplum]

I am revamping my kitchen and thinking about having a limestone or marble floor in a pale-ish colour (anything from dark cream to a sandy tone). I've read the other threads about this type of floor, and have taken note of the comments about sealants, but the threads are a few years old, so I was wondering if there were any new sealant products.

We have teenagers and cats, and we don't generally have wild parties of the red wine spilling variety, so I can be fairly confident that any spills would be cleaned up quickly, with the possible exception of middle-of-the-night cat sick(!).

Any advice/thoughts would be welcome if you have experience of how this type of floor wears in a kitchen, and how careful you have to be.

TIA

[Liara]

I have it in a living room, and it is painful enough there.

I wouldn't contemplate it for a kitchen, unless you really enjoy scrubbing floors.

[wholecanofbeans]

I have cream marble in kitchen and bathrooms. It's not actually too bad. Steam mop once a day keeps it ok. And we have dogs.

[lighteningirl]

I have pale almost white marble kitchen floor I wear fluffy socks in the kitchen cleans as I go [grins] I love it.

[PigletJohn]

I would worry about people slipping over when liquid is spilled on it. Obviously all dropped cups, plates and glasses will smash.

BTW limestone and marble are made of limescale, so dissolve in kitchen cleaner, vinegar, and lemon juice.

[Fozzleyplum]

I'm less worried about it showing the dirt than I am about staining it if anything gets spilled. Am interested to hear about you steam mopping yours, wholecan, as I wasn't sure if that removed the sealant. Lighteningirl, how do you prevent staining of your marble floor?

[lighteningirl]

My tiles aren't marble they are porcelain I always have very light tiles in kitchens and bathrooms no one ever slipped over yet but yes stuff smashes but it does on any stone or tiled floor.

[lighteningirl]

Should of read your post properly sorry

[FinnMcCool]

I have pale porcelain ceramic tiles. Easy enough to keep clean.
Don't get me started on sweaty teenage barefoot prints though.

[Fozzleyplum]

Not a problem, lighten. My alternative is some sort of light porcelain tiles (I have them in my bathroom), but I really like the look of stone and I haven't yet found any porcelain tiles that imitate it well enough except some Fired Earth ones that cost £129 per sq metre

[EagleRay]

I've had a limestone/travertine floor in my kitchen for 11 years now. No desperately awful stains that I can see, but do find it a PITA to clean possibly because I'm lazy

Also have smaller tiles of same material in wet room. Now they're a real PITA! Mildew/mould staining everywhere which won't shift, and the wall tiles go very orangey, but this does scrub off. Oh, and my lodger spilt Viakal all over the tiles when cleaning the shower head (he had already been warned that this was punishable by death)

[Fozzleyplum]

EagleRay, I'm assuming you're doing something right with your kitchen floor if it still looks good after 11 years. How do you clean the floor? I use a steam mop and Method cleaner on my existing tiles - do you have to do anything more onerous than that? And do you have to keep resealing it?

[PigletJohn]

what did the Viakal do?

[playitagainsally]

I've got limestone in my kitchen and love it. It was sealed when it went down 2 years ago and has had red wine and curry chucked on it without staining.
It's sort of mottled and hides all the dirt
www.mandarinstone.com/product/_/72/dijon-tumbled-limestone-tile/#.Vucpqcduikg

[BeachysFlipFlops]

Just three words..... Have dark grout!

[RaphaellaTheSpanishWaterDog]

DH laid fired earth cathedral antique limestone in our last kitchen. It looked fab and had no issues with breakages, spills or slipping - but there's only the two of us plus two dogs - although when one dog was a puppy she had a few accidents off the puppy pads and despite my best efforts it did seep down into the grout.

[EagleRay]

Fozzleyplum I think I just have fairly low standards . However, the light coloured ridiculously expensive, imported from Japan oilcloth on the kitchen table hasn't fared nearly as well. Every time it even sees the toddler's mostly tomato-based dinners it comes out in permanent pink/orange splodges. And yet the floor does at least look stone-coloured. Like playitagainsally's floor, it was sealed when it was fitted and it's a Mandarin one too!

PigletJohn the Viakal was like throwing bleach over your favourite dress, although the marks have faded with a bit of time.

The kitchen is currently being replaced and I was tempted to get rid of the floor as when it was originally fitted, it was cut up to the units and now that the kitchen layout is changing, there's all these annoying gaps. And it's laid diagonally so there's lots of annoying triangular cut bits which will have to be removed and relaid with whole tiles. And of course there's the challenge of matching to the original tiles which are no doubt several shades darker now...

[EagleRay]

And here's mine //www.mandarinstone.com/product/_/441/corinth-tumbled-travertine-tile/?cid=#.VucvhOaAlLU

Btw, where I live, 'Mandarin' is used frequently as a verb, eg I have Mandarined my kitchen and bathroom

[Fozzleyplum]

Well, Eagle, if it's survived 11 years and a toddler, you're doing well! I'm planning to have the return cut off my wooden kitchen, so that I can have one of those block type things instead of a table. My tile floor is going to be full of holes, too...hence the plan to replace it with limestone or marble.

I noticed on a previous thread that posters mentioned the advisability of re-sealing limestone/marble/ travertine every year or so. Anyone got any recommendations for an effective sealant?

[Fozzleyplum]

Ooh, playitagain, I love those tiles - they're exactly the type of thing I have my eye on. Will have to have a look at Mandarin Stone. I've been to the showroom here Floors of Stone and they have a lovely range. I could spend far too much time doing this!

[Fozzleyplum]

Your floor looks gorgeous, too, Eagle. It seems Mandarin don't have a showroom in the Midlands, which is a shame, but Floors of Stone seem to have the same type of thing for a similar price.

well, no real horror stories yet - but would love to hear any more reports from owners of stone floors.

[OnePlanOnHouzz]

Invest in a scooba too, to clean it !! It's a bit noisy - but mops it for you!!
I have travertine in my kitchen hall and a downstairs bathroom !

( we live rurally with a dog, an equestrian mad teen and a husband who all love mucking it up for me !!)

[EagleRay]

It's me, one of your customers from last Oct! Building work only started last week - they have 7 weeks max to finish it!

The Scooba looks like the object of my dreams

[wowfudge]

Have Amtico or Karndean instead: the look of marble, etc with the easy care properties of luxury vinyl tiles. Soft and warm underfoot and won't crack, chip, break things if you drop them.

[OnePlanOnHouzz]

Yay ! Waves back - (then scratches head as there have been quite a few MN's I've worked with and you all have brilliant MN names which don't always match who I think you are !!)

Ummm Basement ... Ah - I think I know !! Nice pantry and a diving pic over the fireplace ?!? Yes I remember !!! Yay !!! If I were a bit closer I'd cook you dinner !!!

[EagleRay]

Yes that's me! The wall through to the pantry was knocked down today - it was so weird seeing through to the next room when you're used to a wall.

It's all going ok but I'm just broken after months and months of preparation. And hormones are telling me to go for bespoke doors/drawer fronts which have a two month lead time. I probably need locking up...

Sorry for momentary thread hijack - back to limestone floors now