Marble floors in kitchen?

[mona31]

Does anyone have experience of marble floor tiles in their kitchen? We are in the process of extending and re-fitting our kitchen, and need to choose floor tiles this weekend (we have been deliberating for weeks!). We have decided to go for white carrara marble worktops (against grey hand-painted units). We like the idea of having the floor tiles match the worktop. Is a marble kitchen floor a nightmare? Polished or honed? It's a typical young family kitchen, high traffic. Thanks for your thoughts!

I love marble but it is not always practical. You must go for honed (polished will be far too slippery) but it will still be slippery. You also need to consider the sealant very carefully as marble stains very Ashly especially with foods you find in a kitchen like lemon. Overall you either accept it will have a very used look very quickly or you live in a show kitchen no one cooks in.

Dont do it, highly impractical.

Have you stain tested your carrara? Is it polished or honed? We have white honed carrara in our kitchen but decided against using it on the worktops. The marble etches very quickly. If not sealed correctly it will also stain. Instead we went for walnut with a very large marble chopping block and marble wall tiles.

I took a section of the whitest piece (some carrara is practically grey now since they're running out of the decent stuff) and put various things on it. lemon juice or anything vaguely acidic etched immediately. Some people accept this and just deliberately etch the worktops with lemon juice as soon as they are installed. Tomato puree, curry paste, vinegar, red wine, strawberries all need to be tested to see if you can live with the results IMO.

I wouldn't go for it for flooring if you're in the UK. It will be slippery, it will be cold, it chips very easily since marble is a very soft stone so the slightest thing dropped on it is likely to cause a chip.

I love my marble but its only to be used once you've thought long and hard about whether you can live with the "used" look.