Best kitchen flooring for rental flat?

[suggestionsplease1]

I hope to put down new flooring soon, as the present one now has various cracked tiles.

What material would you recommend for long duration going forward? I'm reluctant to go with ceramic tiles again in case they get cracked. I was thinking vinyl tiles but these can be surprisingly expensive! I would probably still rather that then sheet vinyl / linoleum, as a single tile could be cut out and replaced, if damaged, whereas I imagine if there is damage to a section of a sheet there is no easy way of fixing this without replacing the whole thing?

I want the shade to be similar to the worktops which is black/ very dark grey.

Any recommendations?! Thanks!

Sheet vinyl is so cheap I'd go with that.

sheet vinyl, but not the cheapest stuff + a good underlay.

Since it’s a rental, don’t forget to get landlords permission for whatever you plan to do!

Many thanks! I am the landlord so at least I don't have to ask permission. Although of course I want it to be something present tenants are happy with, so will run by them during decision making process.

Ok thanks, I will investigate sheet vinyl then. I think it's going to be about getting subfloor perfect as well so it lies properly, and yes underlay, there is that to think of.

I have just put quickstep hydro down (purchased from eBay , it was reasonably easy to put down and the subfloor doesn’t have to be perfect, probably more expensive than sheet vinyl but cheaper than LVT tiles.

I really wouldn’t put in a dark coloured floor in a kitchen. It’s impossible to keep it clean. I would go for something that’s more neutral in colour. Or wood effect. Your tenants won’t thank you for black.

Most tenants don’t harm kitchen floors. You will have a deposit. If it’s harmed, just replace the floor. Who wants to dig out and replace a tile? Quite difficult when they are glued down! Ceramic tiles cost more and more again to lay so I would avoid them.

So, have sheet vinyl. You will need a levelling compound over the existing tiles but sheet vinyl isn’t expensive to buy or install. Do buy a product with a bit of give underfoot - not the cheapest! And definitely not black/dark grey!

My underfloor was not attended to properly prior to laying vinyl.
It's ok but longer term I wish I had spent a bit more and got it done
properly

We have Armstrong Rhinofloor, which, when we had it put in 25 years ago, was spoken about in the same terms as Karndean flooring is today.
It still scrubs up like new, and is barely damaged (one knife sized narrow slit where I dropped one point down). I don't remember it being massively more expensive than the cheap stuff. However, to echo above poster, make sure the floor underneath is perfectly smooth - we had a pour on compound to level and smooth.

If you really want lasting lino with less careful people maybe consider going for a commercial grade.
www.armstrongflooring.com/residential/en-us/vinyl-flooring/vinyl-sheet.html

Hmm, see with the sheet vinyl I'm also wondering if there would be an issue getting it up the tenement stairwell...it's a large kitchen so would probably need about a 4m x 5m roll, unless its to be cut in separate strips, which I'm not really keen on having, finish-wise.

I think there would be a struggle to get a roll 4m long up the bends in the stairwell.

With the LVT tiles you can cut them out individually and replace if damage occurs - you just just slice a diagnonal cross through them with a stanley knife and pull the 4 triangles of the original tile up, and then stick another one down. Fine as long as it has not been aggressively glued down in the first place, and there's generally no need to get heavy on gluing down.

But yeah, LVT more expensive.

It's really to have all the thoughts and input, thanks! I think getting subfloor/ underfloor right is going to be key.