Lino for a kitchen floor? Or is that a bit naff these days?

[Murtette]

We're thinking of re-doing our kitchen & have no idea what to have on the kitchen floor. We have a toddler and a newborn so have/will have them toddling, dropping things & I am very clumsy so frequently dropping crockery, bits of chopped vegetables etc. The kitchen, sitting room, dining room & playroom are all separate rooms but have big dividing doors between each room & they are always open so its a fairly open plan effect. Each of those rooms and the kitchen currently has really cheap, nasty looking laminate as the flooring. We will not be replacing the flooring in the other rooms for a couple of years yet. When we do, it will probably be for wood/wood effect.

So, what do we go for in the kitchen? We've ruled out tiles for being too hard &, IME, the grout gets filthy quite quickly. We've obviously ruled out carpet. We've probably ruled out wood/wood effect as we don't want a decision we make now to limit what we can have when we do the rest of the rooms. All I can think of is lino which is what my parents have always had and seems to last, be easy to keep clean & is soft. Is that really naff these days though? Other than my parents, I can't think of anyone else who has it.

Thanks

Oh go for it! Cheap, replaceable kind to plates and knees. Deffo.

when you say lino, do you mean vinyl?

we had lino when I was a kid & it wasn't soft

I like vinyl

I have wood-effect vinyl and it's great. So easy to clean.

Does your budget stretch to Karndean?

Its like super doopa lino. It is expensive, but it looks expensive. The wood really does look like wood but is soft - its like it is padded and has all of the other benefits of lino type flooring.

If not, I just put down a vinyl/lino (not sure whats what) in my rental house. It is wood effect and is actually very nice. It was quite expensive to buy, but I got a roll end and paid £90 for a piece that did both kitchen and bathroom.

Everyone has commented on it and I've just shown my very snobby neighbour an off cut I have saved for the play house and she was very impressed!

\link{http://www.floorideas.co.uk/vinylvslinoleum.html\vinyl vs lino}

ip dip sky blue....

that's really interesting - i didn't know what the difference was :)

i have vinyl in my kitchen -

pros - it is soft enough for kids to play on and I don't worry about them falling over on it, easy enough to clean - can lay it over mixed surface (boards and concrete) with right preparation

cons - does scratch and dent (though mine is white so this is made worse by my own colour choice) - can rip

i didn't buy the very best lino so maybe a tougher one like Rhinolino would have been better - and not white. I did get a micro-mosaic pattern one that looks quite fresh and modern (when i have put the arm work into cleaning it!) though i think i'd go for some kind of wood-effect vinyl and more expensive next time..

We have a poly floor in our kitchen which is a cross between lino and laminate I think. Whatever it is it looks great (like slate), is very low maintenance and not too hard for the children.

I have vinyl being fitted today in the new pad - wanted proper Welsh slate flooring but no way the budget would stretch to that so slate effect vinyl it was. Haven't seen it fitted yet but it was very nice in the showroom!

I bought an offcut for the bathroom from Carpet Right & that was only for 2 x 2m. I'm having a free off cut from the fitter to go in the ensuite (yey a freebie)!

Go for it!

We have slate effect vinyl too and have foxed a few people who really did think we have a hard floor! It was relatively cheap and has worn well after a few years of heavy traffic. We needed something soft as DD falls a lot and so is much more forgiving than tiles. I would definitely recommend as a good option especially with little children around!

I had a vinyl floor fitted last year, it is fairly soft

trouble is it marks if you put a heavy appliance down on it, as the feet sink in, which makes it difficult to slide them out later. I should think table and chair legs would do the same, and pointy high heels. It is OK in the bathroom.

I had sheet flooring put down in the kitchen of my commercial premises recently, turned up at the edges where the skirting isn't, to prevent leaks getting under it. It is much harder and non-slip, but cost I think £450 for a room three metres by two.

you need a very smooth floor for vinyl, as irregularites will show through and cause wear, even the lines between floorboards. The floor can be levelled with screed (solid floor) or thin ply (wooden floor)

I had wooden floorboards in my kitchen/diner and could not stand them - draught, anything that drops leaves dents, every furniture piece has to be padded, not too mention required re-varnishing every few years... So I bought the thickest vinyl from ebay (

PigletJohn I got the thick but cheap vinyl from ebay, laid bare on floorboards, looks flat as paper, as it is very hard and thick so no floorboard gaps or anything visible. Perfect.