Why am I being told not to like the floor?

[user1958493]

Please help me understand this.

I have moved house and am redecorating the whole house. I want to put tiles down through the entrance, kitchen, cloakroom and utility room. My parents (dad is doing a lot of the work in the house for me) are telling me this is a bad idea.
They aren't really giving me a solid reason why, just a few mentions of "people don't have large areas tiled", "will be cold", "if one gets damaged you can't replace it"

Is it a bad idea to tile an area like this? I dont know if this makes a different but I have 2 kids under 5.

Thank you

Nightmare if you have an issue with pipework as others have said.

We have porcelain tiles throughout most of our downstairs (UK). Put in before our two DC came along. They're great. Easy to clean, not cold at all (well insulated house)

It doesn’t sound like you’re taking large areas or the whole downstairs, just rooms that traditionally would be tiles or flagstones: rooms that get wet. Kitchen, utility and loo are fairly standard and fair game for tiles rather than wood. And if tiled hallways were good enough for the Victorians… A tiled hallway can also double as a mud room/boot room.

With small children I’d worry a bit about heads cracking – we opted for wood in the kitchen rather than tile because even as a baby, DD was a daredevil and I had nightmares she’d lose all her teeth on a tiled floor – but otherwise I wouldn’t have an issue. Crack on (without cracking)

In 2020 we got rid of laminate and carpet and tiled all the way through from entrance, hallway, kitchen, utility room, downstairs toilet, and I love it. We were advised to get large format tiles to minimise grout lines, and buy thick high quality tiles. It’s only been just over a year but we haven’t broken a tile or anything that we’ve dropped on it.
Yes,
I have to wear slippers rather than walk around barefoot, but I did that anyway. It is so easy to keep clean, and really feels like it will last a long time without wearing and looking ragged like old carpet/Lino/laminate can.

Re pipe work problems, get the home insurance that includes tracing and repair for leaks – ie it doesn’t just insure the plumbing repair but repairs to the floor to find the bugger. We learnt to our cost we don’t have that though we thought we had. And we had engineered wood, so tbh unless you’ve got floorboards all floor coverings are a nightmare, not just tiles.

I love tiles, so easy to keep clean but it's cold under foot and if you drop anything it smashes. With little ones I would suggest a good quality Lino might be more practical

I love tiles! A tiled kitchen and utility and hall are all very normal, not unusual. I love a beautiful Victorian hall.

Don't use ceramic, it's not hardy enough for floors, but porcelain, quarry tiles, marble and granite won't chip.

We have all downstairs tiled,what a great idea as always looks clean and I could not imagine it carpeted as it would be so hard clean.

Not cold at all

I think make sure the tiles are lovely and natural looking and it will be okay (see the recent thread on property with the horrible shiny marble tiles). Porcelaintiles.co.uk do some amazing stone effect ones that are designed to not be slippery when wet. If you have underfloor heating you can pop that on for a few hours every morning to take any chill off in the winter. In the last house we had tiles in kitchen & utility and they were lovely and I don’t ever remember breaking anything. I think the key is a lovely natural looking stone tile.

Years ago, I vaguely remember an 8 year old falling over on his tiled kitchen floor, he lost his 2 front teeth. I personally don't think tiled floors are safe.

We had ufh with tiled floors, it was lovely and much warmer than the areas with engineered wood. We have old tiles in our current house over floorboards, they're not chipped and I don't notice them being vold as we all wear slippers. Easy to clean.
I hate plastic so that wasn't an option. You could consider laminate floors, also easy to clean.

And it's bloody lethal with clumsy toddlers/children

My friend has big black/grey tiles and while they look lovely, they are very, very cold indeed. I like to have bare feet or just thin socks but simply can't when I'm there. Also, as people have said - stuff that's dropped just smashes, and it's hard on children who fall over. I also think if you spent a lot of time standing on tiles cooking it would be quite hard on the joints as you get older? My mum has a rubber mat by her stove for this reason, as they have concrete under their kitchen floor.

I would go for something like Karndean (or cheaper versions). Nothing textured. (We have textured good quality laminate downstairs and while it looks lovely and very wood-like, it's a bit of a pain to clean.)

I have them in a large area like that. Non slip. They look great. No chips or damage to them.

Our house is tiled throughout downstairs and wooden floor upstairs. We've lived here for 14 years, moved in with our eldest as a small toddler and I've brought two newborns home to the house who've grown up here. Its definitely better than the fitted carpets we had in our previous house IMO - easy to keep clean and no problems with children. We've never had a chipped tile and we're not a particularly careful or houseproud family.

We had it in our last kitchen and it was very easy however in the new house I have Kardeen and it's amazing n drys quick is very hard wearing (so far) warmer and softer.

My kitchen and utility are big, super shiny porcelain tiles. They are a nightmare to keep looking clean. If I just emop them or steam clean them they end up streaky and water marked. So as well as the initial clean they also need drying with a separate mop and then buffing to a shine. Three times the work.

The hall has engineered oak slabs and that's a doddle to keep clean by comparison. A quick once over with an emop and some Koh and it looks like new.

We re-did the floor before DD came along and had beautiful tiles. I wanted them because it was a mid-terrace so all stuff had to be carried through. the house and I wanted something easy to clean and looking neat and a nice flow from front door to kitchen and garden door.

Not a single chip or cracked tile at all in the 12 years. If you buy very good quality tiles they survive the odd cup or plate being smashed on it.

DD came along and we lived there another 3 years, she never ever had an issue, she just grew up. with. it while learning to walk.

We now have a kind of lamitate flooring in the kitchen and I am not keen on it. It just looks too fake, I can't hoover as the hoover scratches it. We only decided on it as we also have underfloor heating and the tiles would have raised the floor too much. But luckily it's only a galley kitchen, no way I would have gone for a larger room.

We had tiles, so cold, they chipped easy and were a nightmare with the kids if they fell. We had cracks and all sorts…. They didn’t survive our growing family and were very expensive to remove too. We had Kardean fitted (lvt) best floor I’ve ever had, hard wearing, warm and looks amazing. You can buy this with a tiled effect so may find a similar floor.

Assuming you're in the UK, I'd say it's too cold unless you also have underfloor heating, although I don't know if it's suitable for that, for large areas.

It's also hard and slippery, so probably a non starter with young DC. Any falls are likely to end in a worse outcome for them. Have you ever stayed in a villa in the Med with them and tiled floors? I'd be a nervous wreck constantly if I had little ones running around, wrestling etc on a floor like that.

I'd go for luxury vinyl tiling. Will last for years, looks great and easy to clean, plus safer with little ones.

It’s so funny to me the number of posters saying that tile floors are a safety issue for kids. Such a weirdly British thing to say. Many countries in the warmer latitudes use tile almost exclusively in homes and somehow their children survive childhood with teeth and skulls intact.

I had a tiled floor kitchen when I moved into my house. Everything that touched the floor even a very soft drop smashed into smithereens. Very very slippy when wet and very cold. I changed to wood flooring when I had an extension.

We have porcelain tiled kitchen, utility & downstairs toilet. Absolutely love it. Hardwearing and easy to mop. We went for a pale colour with a dark grout because our kitchen is internal and gets no direct light. It does show dirt but that means I keep it clean!

We have a modern well insulated house so I dont find it cold and I am normally bare foot.

DH (competent DIYer) laid it without any problems. It is laid on a concrete floor. I wouldnt lay it on a wood sub floor because of the risk of movement unless extensive stabilisation was done which can mean you have changes in level between one area and another.

We have 50sqm of stone tiles in our kitchen and family space and utility. We don't have ufh as it is expensive to install and run and I don't want lots of buried pipes.
The majority of the room is south facing with glass and the floor heats up naturally in the day. It is cool under foot in shaded areas but we wear slippers so it's fine for us. In summer it's delightful.
Our subfloor is insulated concrete slab. If you have a timber floor or uninsulated concrete slab it would be much less comfortable and would show wear.
If you drop a plate it will smash but I see that as the law of gravity rather than an inconvenience!
The tiles themselvsles don't chip or break as they are solid stone and are supposed to look a bit rustic anyway.
You have to use special products for general cleaning on natural stone.
I would never put glazed ceramic tiles on the floor as they will obviously be damaged very quickly. Only look at porcelain or natural stones.
I love them. I have karndean, natural wood and carpet in other parts of the house but the tiles are perfect for this area and our needs.