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Original poster

Porcelain floor tiles in kitchen? Or natural wood?

26 replies

singersgirl · 10/08/2011 21:24

We're looking at flooring for our new kitchen extension and considering large porcelain tiles (glossy or otherwise). DH is worried they'll be very slippy when wet. Those of you who have them, are they particularly slippy?

He likes the idea of wood throughout but I'm worried it will stain and wear easily.

We are going to have underfloor heating.

Any views?

OP posts:
hester · 10/08/2011 22:25

I like the idea of wood, too, but I've never had a wooden kitchen floor and I would be concerned about it repeatedly getting wet. Maybe wooden floor with black rubber matting near the sink?

I'm not sure you can put underfloor heating under solid wooden floors, but engineered wood is ok I think.

Porcelain floors are very hard (an issue if you have small children) and when you drop a glass on it it is guaranteed to smash. Also quite easy to smash the tiles themselves, IME. But for sure they won't get scratched and stained like wood might. Personally, I wouldn't go for pale or high gloss because it must show the dirt so much - but then my standards aren't the highest.

Carrotsandcelery · 10/08/2011 22:30

We have a wooden floor with underfloor heating in our kitchen. We have had it for 4 years now and it has no trouble with water near the sink at all.

We have tiles in the bathroom and they are quite unforgiving. Sound echoes a lot because of them.

There is some echo in our kitchen but not nearly as bad.

Do you have chairs in your kitchen? We have had to put little pads on our chair legs to stop them scratching the floor.

Be aware that working on a floor with underfloor heating can also make your legs feel very heavy and tired if you are on it for long periods of time. I don't have this problem but admired the floor in a hospital and the nurse told me it was exhausting to work on.

mistressploppy · 10/08/2011 22:34

We have an engineered oak floor in the kitchen and despite DH and I being the least house-proud, messiest, slatternliest people in the world, it looks wonderful and is very easy to care for Grin

It's been down for two years and has no stains. Like Carrots, we have put little pads under the chair legs but other than that it looks after itself. I just hoover it and mop it with a moist (not wet) mop.

hester · 10/08/2011 22:53

Ooh, now i KNOW I want a wooden floor in the kitchen. And of course stained/scratched wooden floors can still look absolutely great.

Gonzo33 · 11/08/2011 06:57

Definately wood. We have porcelain in our rented house and every time I mop the floor my daughter (being the nosey 18mth old that she is) comes in and slips over.

wonkylegs · 11/08/2011 07:15

We have porcelain tilesin the kitchen and tbh they are no more slippy than the oak floor in the rest of the downstairs. Don't run in socks and expect to stop!! Phone answering incident where I missed the phone in the living room and ended up arse over tit on the otherside of the room Blush
If you are very worried about slippyness you can get a riven finish
I put these down as part of a new station concourse job, they are beautiful and due to the worries of getting sued by the public we had to verify their anti slipness (there is a whole testing regime for this)
At home we don't have underfloor heating altho Nxt house will, but we did put it in at the station Grin... Just make sure all the manufacturers installation guidance is followed re drying out times, right grouts etc

TheFowlAndThePussycat · 11/08/2011 07:26

We have porcelain, I had to fight my corner to get them, but they are beautiful! Everyone comments on how lovely they are, [smug householder face]. No one including my 2 under-4s has ever slipped over, we don't have underfloor heating and they are not cold. We do live in a modern house though with bags of insulation, double glazing etc. V easy to clean too.

TastyMuffins · 11/08/2011 07:27

I have terracotta tiles in my kitchen with underfloor heating and wooden floors in the rest of the house, if I was doing it again, I'd go for wood. Old kitchen was wood, you can drop stuff on there and not break it, cleaning up olive oil or soy sauce or milk and broken glass is no fun! Too many breakages.

Original poster
singersgirl · 11/08/2011 09:56

Thanks for feedback and views. I really like the look of the big porcelain tiles - we currently have terracotta which is not too cold, not slippy when wet but things do break so we're used to the shattered milk bottles.

We're just a bit messy and there's always a lot of splashing when I cook and when the boys (not little, 10 and 13) pour themselves drinks.

Mmm. Will ponder in the showroom today...

OP posts:
echt · 11/08/2011 19:40

Thumbs up for wooden floors here. Our new house has them in the kitchen. Very much quieter and easy to clean.

Carrotsandcelery · 12/08/2011 11:01

echt do you live in Echt?

hobnob · 12/08/2011 17:33

I have a bamboo floor in my kitchen and it's fabulous. (Search 'bamboo' in this topic for more details - I got it orginally after a MN tip!) It's extremely hardwearing and beautiful and of course sustainable. Good luck, whatever you choose.

QuintessentialShadow · 12/08/2011 17:36

I would advice against porcelain tiles in a kitchen. They are not very hardwearing. When we recently had to replace our kitchen floor tiles (as part of insurance issue) they insurance company refused to let us have porcelain, they said we would not be able to claim on the insurance in the future if something happened to the floor, as it was not regarded a suitable choice for a kitchen. We were advised to go with ceramic tiles instead.

Davida · 12/08/2011 17:39

I have got ceramic, I think, I should know as I laid them but anyway Blush I find them slippy when they are wet and thats the only problem. I really like how easy they are to clean/

BF has porcelain I think, they're huge and glossy anyway, but I don't know how strong they are as they're pretty new. Seem ok so far and look lovely.

Popbiscuit · 12/08/2011 17:42

We have dark oak floors throughout most of our house and they show every speck of dust, footprint, hairs etc. For that reason, I wouldn't have dark ones in the kitchen. We have a light coloured, sort of marble-y patterned matte tile in the kitchen and I love it. Very easy to clean and doesn't show dirt at all. I do lots of mad cooking and the dcs are always spilling / dropping things all over the place and it's been the ideal surface to deal with the frequent washing required. Not slippery because the tiles have sort of a rough, matte finish iykwim?

Popbiscuit · 12/08/2011 17:43

Ceramic! Yes! Was on the tip of my tongue.

BiscuitNibbler · 12/08/2011 18:02

Whatever you do avoid a riven finish unless you plan to spend ridiculous amounts of time on your hands and knees scrubbing them whilst swearing profusely.

I could murder the previous owner of this house who thought they would be a good idea. Mops are useless, as the dirt just accumulates in the bits around the raised bits. One day I'm going to take a pneumatic drill to them...

QuintessentialShadow · 12/08/2011 18:03

And stay away from white grout.... Grey is much better.

echt · 12/08/2011 22:20

No, carrotsandcelery, I live in Melbourne.:)

Until I Googled it just now, I didn't know it was a town, or a rock band.

I chose the name for rather poncey reasons, "authentic", hence the lower case.:o

QuintessentialShadow · 13/08/2011 07:52

ah ekte in Norwegian. Ekteskap - marriage - Authentic Cupboard. Makes sense.

wonkylegs · 13/08/2011 16:57

QuintessentialShadow I don't know where your insurance company got that information from because they are completely wrong... Porcelain tiles are very hardwearing and naturally resistant to all sorts of stuff that can damage other surfaces. Porcelain is harder wearing than other ceramics but is also more expensive.
We use them in commercial high traffic areas for that very reason, I've installed them in place of granite floors as they are just as hardwearing but are at least cheaper than granite Grin oh and they can be very beautiful .
I do agree about grey grout tho Wink

Carrotsandcelery · 13/08/2011 18:26

I didn't know it was a rock band - why is a rock band called that?

I have done the backpackers tour of Melbourne but it was a long time ago now.

Sorry, hijack over.

Op our wooden floor is pale wood but with a lot of natural variations in it so it doesn't show dirt and dust which is just as well as I am a slattern. Blush

sandyrose · 24/08/2011 12:56

I haven't read the other posts but we have limestone tiles and they can be slippery, grout is a pain to keep clean with a toddler around, and anything you drop on it will smash. We don't have underfloor heating so it's cold to walk on. I'd rather have engineered wood, as it's so much easier to keep clean and dropped food doesn't stick to it like it does to our tiled floor.

afishcalledmummy · 24/08/2011 13:02

We have engineered wooden floors in the kitchen and they are a disaster! Our dishwasher leaked and they all warped and separated and look hideous. I can't wait until we redo the kitchen next year and I can put tiles down!

Ragwort · 24/08/2011 13:05

We have them (were there when we moved in) - they are white and very difficult to keep clean, haven't noticed them being slippery though.