Kitchen flooring - high traffic and messy kids!

[BetteDavis01]

I will shortly be choosing kitchen flooring and I could do with some advice on what to go for.

I have two young kids, kitchen is the busiest room in the house and I'm a messy cook!

What type of flooring should I go for? I'm willing to pay up for a good quality, durable floor that will last for years. TIA

do NOT go for matte black smooth tiles! We moved to a house with them in the kitchen - shows up every spec of dust, every crumb, every footprint, every splodge - disastrous. Also, anything dropped will smash ..... even dd2's favourite melamine chicken spoon this morning. Looks dirty 2 minutes after hoovering/mopping. My old kitchen had terracotta slate type tiles - wasn't keen on the colour but they didn't show up the dirt

We have cork throughout most of downstairs.

It's brilliant - warm underfoot, doesn't show the dirt, washable. Good for crawling babies and toddlers. I dropped a wine glass yesterday and it didn't break.

I love it!

Also a sustainable product, and available in lots of colours.

Agree on the tiles. Everything smashes as soon as you drop it however very easy to clean, quick Hoover then mop/wipe.
I would go for vinyl flooring. Have a look at camaro and amtico (both very similar but amtico more pricey). Loads of choice from tile effect, wood effect etc

yes to amtico - we have wood amtico in the rest of the house and it is brilliant: amtico - go to the kitchen gallery and the 7th picture is similar to what we have - just wish the previous owner had put it in the kitchen too!

Thank you for your replies, I like the look of Travertine, but I don't know how durable or waterproof it is? Is it high maintenance?

We've got rhino flooring vinyl that looks like tiles. It's not cold underfoot, hard wearing and the dishes don't break when dropped on it.

We have Marmoleum in our kitchen. It's a fantastic product, really easy to clean, comes in lots of colours. It's warm underfoot too.

Not tiles.
Not cream.
Definitely not cream tiles (like we have!)
HATE IT, HATE IT, HATE IT!

I've got mottled cream large format porcelain tiles. They are more practical than they initially seem.
We've had them nearly10 yrs and we've recently sold the house and I was asked if they were new.
The cleaner mops them once a week & I wipe up spills but so far very low maintenance
Yes they are hard but no injuries (touch wood) in those years even with a loopy now 5yo DS. I've never broken anything dropping on the floor (unlike DHand the granite worktop)
Yes they aren't warm in winter but in this heat they are lovely & cool and in winter we wear slippers.

Not travertine. It is a form of limestone so will dissolve in vinegar, descaler, chutney, vomit etc, and has the added disadvantage that it has holes in it which collect grime. If they are filled in with grout or something it will look dirty. Limestone is fairly soft, and scratches.

Tilers tell me that white grout is unsuitable for floors as it never looks clean.

I have had stone floors and yes, everything breaks when you drop it.
If you go for vinyl or laminate, it will not last, but you could just accept that it will need redoing every five years. IMO a tile effect looks better than fake wood. You can also get a very hard and expensive sheet flooring from a company that does commercial kitchens and lavatories. My commercial premises staff kitchen I think cost about £600 to floor and is only 3m x 2m. It wil stand abuse and last a long time. It must be done in one piece with no joins and can at extra cost be turned up the walls like a curved skirting.

Some disagree, but I like to have the floor laid in an empty room before putting in appliances and cabinets,. Otherwise there will be joins and open edges where spilt milk and ants will go. You can seal the edges to the skirting or wall and threshold with white silicone to prevent spills and dirt going under the edge.

Pigletjohn what is the name of the company that does the sheet flooring?

I don't think I've got it. AFAIK it was all in the quote from a commercial kitchen company (mostly do hotels, restaurants and canteens)

maybe search for catering suppliers?