Kitchen flooring

[40somethingJBJ]

I’m tentatively planning a new kitchen and thinking about flooring. The style I’m going for is a bit country kitchen - cream units, Belfast sink, oak worktops (although probably laminate as opposed to real wood, as I’ve had wood before and found it hard work!) - and I’m undecided between wood effect or a grey slate type floor. I like the Karndean type stuff, but I also like porcelain tiles - what are the pros and cons of each of these? I’ve currently got vinyl/lino and wouldn’t have it again as my fridge freezer and dishwasher have both worked their way through it and ripped it when they’ve been moved.

I’ve seen some parquet effect porcelain tiles that look gorgeous, but I’m worried I’d drop something on them and break them! Are they hard wearing? I’ve never had a tiled floor before and if I went for the wood effect, I’d probably have the living room done as well as the laminate in there currently is looking tired and needs replacing anyway.

Thanks :)

We have had luxury vinyl plank put in a room with a lot of wheelchair use and it's brilliant. I would never have thought if it but our flooring man suggested we take a look as an alternative to hard wood. It's warm, soft and hard wearing, easy to clean. We are doing our kitchen this year and I will probably use that, porcelain tiles or proper actual linoleum whic isn't like a vinyl sheet flooring. We used that in the bathroom of our las house and it was fab

Do you have underfloor heating? It limits a bit what you can choose. Assuming you don;t though, tiles are very hard and cold but pretty robust. Karndean is tougher than old lino but will scratch if you drag something on it such as a fridge (not usually a problem tbh).
I went for bamboo which is very tough and similar in appearance as wood.
If you drop anything on the floor from height then it will probably break so don;t worry about that aspect so much.
Get online and order up some samples. My office currently looks like a samples depot...

We've just had luxury vinyl too which is great!
Porcelain tiles I was told by a friend who develops houses are cold and needs under floor heating. But that would have been my preference except it was too late to put in underfloor heating by then

We are going for Karndean. With a Dh with RSI/weak wrists and a clumsy Dd I can imagine lots of breakages on tiles.

Had Amtico in the old kitchen & it went a mess.

I haven’t got underfloor heating, just a radiator. Kitchen is south facing and tends to get too hot, so not too concerned about that.

I have heard that porcelain tiles are very heavy and require a specialist fitter, plus the floor has to be strong enough to take the weight.

I have a kitchen to re-floor, so watching with interest too.

I've got ceramic tiles on my kitchen floor, laid by DH as a DIY job. We don't have underfloor heating, but don't find them particularly cold. Things do break when you drop them though, including DS's arm when he slipped on some spilt water

I’ve got Karndean in the kitchen and porcelain in the bathroom. I love both! I wouldn’t worry about UFH in the kitchen, unless you’re bare foot in there. I have UFH in the bathroom though as they’re cold under bare feet. You’ll need a perfect level floor for either, and a stable one for the porcelain (concrete backer board, etc) with flexible adhesive or they’ll crack. One thing to note is the Karndean tiles are thin, if you go porcelain you might get a noticeable step in height, just something to consider.

Oh and if you do want UFH, you can buy electric kits now for around £130 -200 which only add around 3mm height, are easy to lay and have a remote controlled unit (so you can control via your phone). I don’t think they’d replace a radiator, but will take the chill off the floor.

I’m not fussed about underfloor heating. I actually think a thicker floor would be better as I currently have vinyl laid over laminate (laminate was fitted under the kitchen units by previous owners and had blown on all the joins, plus been GLUED down so very difficult to remove!), so my floor guy sanded it, filled the gaps and fitted vinyl over the top. It was only ever a temporary measure until I could afford to rip the kitchen out.