some people should not be allowed tiled floors!

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

For example, me.

I have just knocked the eleventy-hundred glass jar onto the floor watching it smash on the cold hard tiles of my kitchen.

So fed up with breaking shit. I am clumsy (dyspraxic) and I should not be allowed near hard floors. Or glass. I don't enjoy going round the floor on my hands and knees feeling for the last sliver of glass so it doesn't end up on my feet or worse my children's feet. I hate feeling so klutzy.

Ugh.

We have wood, not from choice, the entire downstairs is covered in old, wonky wooden flooring. The centre of the floor is orange (meant to be clear wood treatment) and the edges have a green tinge because the previous occupants put a big rug in the centre and only walked around the edges. There is a word for such people.

I still wouldn't have tiles though. Ceramic tiles in the bathroom that crack when you drop a jar of face cream are bad enough.

Could have been worse. Could have been the tile that broke.

I inherited tiles in the kitchen, when the floor had to be replaced after a water leak I put vinyl in. Still in perfect condition 18 years later. Sheet vinyl may be the cheapest flooring to buy and install, and therefore has the least snob appeal, but it is the best material for wet rooms.

Shelves (worktops) are another area where going posh is a mistake. Almost every posh option, natural or man-made, either needs maintenance or is susceptible to chemical damage of various types in a way that a laminate one isn't.

I do the bread thing and the hoover thing, the first world problem I have is that the downstairs of our house is very open plan and shattered glass on the hard tile can scatter to far flung corners. So it is a massive arse ache every time.

It is comforting to know I am not alone in tile

Alone in tile trauma!

We're doing the same as you, theoretician. Floor is still drying out and not all the tiles have been hacked up, yet, but we're going for vinyl tiles, partly because we need to move next year, anyhow.

Don't have anything glass. I don't apart from a Pyrex jug

Glad I don't have tile floors as everything would get broken, I'm far too clumsy.

Also some people shouldn't have laminate stairs - they are deadly! I've fallen down the stairs at least ten times and I only moved in two months ago.

Place washable runner rugs in front of the work surfaces. That is the danger zone. My husband is dyspraxic and breaks SO MUCH STUFF. He thinks it is normal and is surprised that I have broken one thing in five years, and that was a jar that fell out of a cupboard on me!

I'm so pleased you posted because it has made me realise we need rugs! I'm off to Amazon...

children still eat off plastic stuff, we try for as many non breakable things as possible. possible dyspraxia, definite hypermobility and autistic meltdowns.

and this is the reason we did not have tiles. slippery hard buggers that they are.

I've got lino, and I'll let all you people with tiles into a secret: if you drop your crystal champagne flutes on a lino floor, they break just the same. Ditto bone china, mugs and everything else.

When we first moved into a house with tile floors throughout, DH used to break a good quality wine glass EVERY SATURDAY morning. We'd have wine Friday night, then he'd leave his glass on the floor. Then on Sat am he'd walk into the room without looking, and kick his glass across the room to smash on the tiles.

It took him TWO MONTHS to learn to pick his glass up and put it in the kitchen on Friday evening.

I have timber flooring and everything still breaks (and sometimes gets into the cracks).

My worst experience: a full glass jar of honey. Open plan enough to find sticky patches for days.

I wouldn't describe myself as clumsy. I lived harmoniously with a range of vinyl and laminate kitchen floors for years with a minimal breakage rate.

For the last 3 years I have had tiles (slate then limestone). I have lost masses of crockery and glasses.

I'm planning my new kitchen. Its floor is going to be Lino!

Oh and my friends husband has wrecked havoc with their granite worktops...the bottle of olive oil was the worst!

He is clumsy though!!

my parents entire home is tiles on concrete. scares the bloody life of me with my kids as it's so unforgiving when they fall.

There are advantages tho. When dishwasher leaked our tile floors remained pristine (even when the water somehow managed to creep into and destroy the wooden floors in sitting room).

I have a white tiled kitchen floor and the bastard will be the death of me. It's already claimed several plates, cups and glasses. And a jar of brown sauce

I once accidentally dropped and smashed a bottle of red wine on my tiled kitchen floor. That was not a good day.