Kitchen flooring

[Coolandclamy]

What flooring do you have in your kitchen? I’m thinking about engineered wood but I’m not sure this is practical. Tiles seem a good option but tiles can be cold. Also we access the back through the garage and then the kitchen.

Tell me about your kitchen flooring and why it’s the best choice for you. It may help me solve my conundrum.

Wood look tiles - but we have underfloor heating
Without underfloor heating I think we’d have gone for LVT
Engineered wood is beautiful but not compatible with my destructive children

had tiles in my last kitchen easy to mop but couldnt walk on them till they dried as they were slippery smaller kitchen here and i am going for sheet vinyl a wooden floor has to be sealed well in a kitchen due to water can get into it , its personal choice really and depending on what goes with the kiitchen you have chosen

Ive had engineered wood in a hall, not too sure about it for a kitchen with spillages etc.

@minipie when you say wood effect tiles - porcelain? How do they wear?

Currently looking at karndean but have also seen some porcelain tiles.

Yes porcelain. They are totally bombproof. Well so far - they’ve only been in a year - but I can’t see how they would wear.

Oh they are also slightly textured (like wood planks) so not slippery.

@minipie

Oh they are also slightly textured (like wood planks) so not slippery.

They sound lovely - I don't suppose you fancy posting a picture?! I would love for my kitchen, but we currently have laminate down (that the previous owner laid) and it looks awful - chips and spills everywhere (although I think it's the cheapest of the cheap and not at all hard-wearing).

So I know I'm going to have to have tiles, but live the idea of wood-look tiles!

*would love WOOD for my kitchen!

Here you go (not the best lighting sorry)
They are Selection Oak Cream by a company called Rex

We’ve just had these very wide engineered oak boards fitted in a living room but intend to have them in the kitchen when we have a new one fitted, hopefully later this year.

I forget all the technical details but apparently the way they are constructed makes them suitable for areas of high humidity. There’s even a review on the site from a customer whose utility flooded just after the new floor was laid (I think it was the engineered walnut) and it didn’t come to any harm.

The company is great to deal with - it’s a family business and nothing seems to be too much trouble.

www.jfjwoodflooring.co.uk/supreme-engineered-oak-flooring-range-21mm-thick-220mm

I have Quickstep Impressive in the kitchen diner - it's a waterproof laminate. I thought it felt more like "real" wood that the LVT I'd seen, but I didn't want to risk proper engineered wood as I was concerned about spills.

I am tempted by engineered wood and if the flooding didn’t cause a problem that gives me some hope it might not be an unwise idea after all.

@IamnotwhouthinkIam which Quickstep Impressive do you have? I am seriously considering this for about 100sqm through our downstairs. If you'd be happy to share any phtoos I'd love to see them? How do you find it in terms of hardiness?

@Coolandclamy i have also been deliberating over an engineered wood for a kitchen/living/dining extension. Lots of super helpful pictures from MNers here www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/4158712-Please-can-I-see-pictures-of-your-engineered-wood-floors-especially-the-scratches?watched=1&msgid=105118547#105118547
Though it is more focussed on scratches than flooding.

@Coolandclamy it might be worth ringing jfj wood flooring, who I lo
Inked to above. They were extremely helpful and put my mind at rest about a number of concerns.

I do think the construction of those particular boards has a lot to do with their ability to withstand moisture, so I don’t know how well other engineered wood would hold up.

I don’t work for them btw - just a very satisfied customer

@Muststopeating - I have the Classic Oak Natural throughout the downstairs (about 90 sqm) including kitchen and bathrooms - as I like the flooring to "flow" between rooms. When I went to a couple of different floor suppliers to compare different brands/colours, they both said this brand and colour was their biggest seller (although I was also tempted by the Classic Oak Beige colour - would have given a lighter, more Scandi look).

I didn't pay extra for the thicker, commercial grade Ultra - they advised it wasn't necessary for home use. It's only been down a few years and to be fair I don't have kids yet (only my dogs, plus nieces and nephews visiting) but so far I've had no problems with water spills or general marks - only when a friend dropped a claw hammer from a great height did I notice a very small gouge (and to be fair I think that would have marked any floor!).

I'd put a photo but unfortunately I've shared very personal stuff on other threads, so I think it would be too outing, sorry.

We have solid wood flooring in our kitchen as we have a completely open plan cottage and I didn’t want any dividing lines. We treated it with clear osmo oil (a few coats if I remember correctly) and it means any spillage (there are many with 2 under 4) just sit on top. No issues or water staining, it doesn’t always get mopped up immediately, so I’m really pleased.

Vinyl. Not at all fashionable now but I don't really know why. There are so many good designs to choose from. It's warm under foot and really easy to look after.

I currently have tiles which are cold and slippery. They have been down 17 years and are still in great condition.

When I replace them I might go for Quickstep rigid vinyl planks as they can be laid directly over the tiles and will hopefully be more pleasant underfoot.

@IamnotwhouthinkIam no problem at all, completely understand. I have a large sample of the oak classic and really love the colour. However, I was a bit concerned that the very distinctive large groove might look too obbiousky repeated in a large space? (I saw a really terrible picture on Insta where they hadn't adjusted for it at all and lined same boards next to each other). How have you found it?

@Annalou30 that's really good to hear about the osmo oil. My favourite engineered oak comes coated in osmo oil and I've read great things about it on mumsnet for worktops. Spillages is one of the things I'm concerned about because I have a 2 yo, 3 yo and another on the way. Plus I'm pretty clumsy myself. I have exactly zero intention of following everyone around wiht a cloth.

We have textured ceramic tiles in our kitchen and I cannot wait to get rid of them. They are so cold, very unforgiving ( I have dented saucepans from accidentally dropping them) and I have to get on my hands and knees with a scrubbing brush to get them clean. A steam cleaner just skims over the texturing leaving muck in the dents.

They are also slippery when wet, so I need a huge mat in the utility room by the back door.

Horrible, miserable, unfriendly things.

@Muststopeating - Yeah I wasn't sure about the cracks/grooves at first, but I think my fitters must have done a decent job in terms of minimising pattern repeat.

I'm guessing there might be 8 or 9 different boards? (it's really hard to tell once it's down) and a few of them seem to have prominent but different style cracks/grooves in them, so the repeating isn't obvious to me. It's possible that I just haven't noticed, but my stone effect bathroom tiles have occasional repeating patterns and I have noticed those (and been really annoyed by them!).

I think it helps that the Quickstep fitters also seem to install them with a staggered random length for the starting planks in each row - so even if they were to accidentally put planks with the same crack/groove right next to each other, the pattern still wouldn't line up and look exactly the same.