Flooring for rural period kitchen/dining

[Babamamananarama]

Hi all

I'm looking for ideas and wisdom for flooring for our kitchen/breakfast room when we renovate it.

It's a Victorian country house in a very rural area. High traffic area, in the winter there is loads of mud/dog etc so we need something practical and that won't need hoovering/mopping every 5 minutes. Currently there's dark wood effect vinyl which I hate with a passion but is practical in that it doesn't show the dirt!!

I'd like something like terracotta tiles but worried they'll be too cold underfoot. It's a cold part of the house and floor is concrete underneath. Underfloor heating not really an option as we'd have to excavate 30cm of concrete floor.

I'm not a fan of materials which look like something else eg wood effect Karndean.

What options should I be considering?

I'd go with the terracotta tiles.

Terracotta tiles look lovely but can be cold and can be porous so dirt gets into the pores and is difficult to remove. Also, grouting holds dirt. I will probably end up going with a lino type again for it’s practicality.

Is there such thing as nice Lino though? I'm not up for wood effect Lino. In my old flat I had matt blue rubber flooring from www.colourflooring.co.uk/ and it was crap - stained easily and got noticeably dirty very fast.

There’s now retro fit hot water underfloor heating that is low profile, I’ve seen it on Sophie Robinson’s Instagram stories, I think it raises the floor by only 14mm.
I would go for oak look Amtico or other let, doesn’t show the first and mops easily, no grout to worry about.

I've found the low profile UFH which adds 22mm, but with flooring on top it would still be too high for the thresholds to work.

Amtico isn't for me. I'm not at all keen on wood effect or stone effect materials. I either want the natural material or I want something that is clearly man made.

Cork?

I'd go with wood, warm, can be washed and sanded/resealed if necessary.

I had dark oak boards in a similar location and loved them. Horses, dogs, cats, children, mud, chickens, no pavements around and the house was an unmade road.

I had a 3 in 1 thing that vacuumed, mopped with scrubbing brushes underneath and sucked up the dirty water into a separate tank, either VAX or Bissell, I can't remember.

Agree that terracotta tiles will get dirty and be cold.

@Babamamananarama

I've found the low profile UFH which adds 22mm, but with flooring on top it would still be too high for the thresholds to work.

Amtico isn't for me. I'm not at all keen on wood effect or stone effect materials. I either want the natural material or I want something that is clearly man made.

Amtico and Karndean are clearly man-made though. There’s no way you’d mistake them for real wood or real stone.

Or go for engineered wood?

This sort of thing. If you get the unfinished version and use Osmo products you can re-finish it without sanding.

Statusquo do you mean solid oak boards?
Yep sounds like I need one of those three in one things.

I've had engineered oak before and wouldn't say it was robust enough for a kitchen. Can't be sanded more than once.

Cork is worth a look - good shout.

Yes, with Karndean and Amtico the thing I don't like is man made materials which are patterned to look like wood or stone. It's a taste thing but i just don't like it. Ditto fake granite worktops etc.

Handsoffstrikesagain I love flagstones - are they cold underfoot though?

Solid oak I could get on board with definitely - I'd love a herringbone floor but think that might be too £££

I’d get loose wire ufh and limestone.

I definitely wouldn’t get anything synthetic. I would also avoid solid wood due to the possibility of failing: warping, lifting, buckling. Whatever the blurb says solid wood isn’t suitable for a kitchen due to humidity variance. Could be a very costly mistake.

We’ve gone for cork wall tiles in one of our rooms & they look great

I would go flagstones or tile. By far the most practical and authentic.

Don't worry about cold underfoot. That is a blessing in summer and in winter thick non-slip socks or slippers do the trick.

Wood does worry me re warping/damp/flooding. We are in Cornwall and we have (once) had a small lagoon appear under the front door after particularly heavy rain when the drains blocked.

I want something that's going to last - it's hopefully our forever home and it's a beautiful old building with a real history to it so I feel like it deserves something that will look just as good in 20 (or 50) years. Maybe flagstones are the way to go. It's tricky as our house has 2ft thick granite walls and is literally never too hot indoors. Highest temp in the breakfast room, which is in a shaded spot, is about 21 degrees when it's a heatwave outside. So I do worry about it being cold. But we will be addressing the radiator situation when we redo the room.

I've been warned off electric UFH as the running costs can be astronomical.

I'm also concerned about UFH systems going wrong after you've laid a really pricy floor. My friend has UFH in her house that has never worked and they have been told they'd have to rip the floor up to sort it out, which feels a bit ridiculous if you are laying flagstones.

Do not get flagstones if you live even a vaguely rural life! They are a nightmare to keep clean, cold hard and really impractical with small children.
I’ve had them twice god knows why. Tiles are slightly better but new vinyl every few years whilst awful for the environment isn’t practical. I think I’ll be looking for proper Lino next time.

100% flagstones! As PP says, they'll look great, be cool in summer & in winter you can wear socks or slippers.

Extremely unforgiving on glasses & crockery though. I have marble through most of my house (hot country), plus teenagers & animals...we've learnt to a) serve up at the dining table & b) buy cheap, bulk tableware & glasses for everyday use.

You can have warm, durable and easy to clean. But, without underfloor heating, you can only have 2 out of 3.

I’m going for terracotta effect porcelain tiles: www.marlboroughtiles.com/finish/terracotta-effect I’ve seen them in person and you can’t tell the difference. Cold, but I wear slippers downstairs anyway.

I've had engineered oak before and wouldn't say it was robust enough for a kitchen. Can't be sanded more than once.

We’ve had engineered oak in our kitchen, hallway and conservatory, for 15 years and it’s been superb, we are rural had dogs, cats and children. We’ve sanded the conservatory three times (due to the conservatory leaking) and have just redone the hall and kitchen. It looks like new and would highly recommend. It was expensive to put down in the first instance, I love it as so warm. We did have granite floor and worktops when we bought the house, but they were so cold, after the first winter we replaced them.

Flagstones all the way! Also in an old cold house so flagstones and lovely sheepskin slippers!

Following as this is on my list to decide too, I’m also rural and putting in a traditional kitchen. Thinking maybe chequerboard but not black and white, maybe a reddish brown with a lighter colour.

Or would you consider a patterned Victorian tile, maybe a traditional geometric?

I’m avoiding flagstones as they can be hard to keep clean, the dirt gets stuck in the rivened bits.

That link is for solid oak OP. Ours were generally abused, cleaned wet (on the list of things not to do). They still looked fab when we left the house ten years later.

we are renovating and doing an extension to our 220 year old cottage. We have gone with tumbled limestone flooring with underfloor heating throughout our open plan kitchen/diner, the new shower room and the pantry (no UFH in pantry). The limestone tiles will follow through to our patio area as well. Half have been laid inside and they look gorgeous. I'm so glad we went for them over the wood effect porcelain tiles we were going to have. We bought ours from beswick stone and they were super helpful.