Solid wood floor in kitchen

[CorsicaDreaming]

I'm thinking about putting solid wood floor in our kitchen – not engineered wood. Has anyone any experience of doing this and any advice on doing it and/or best places to source it?

My worry is about issues with water near the sink drainer possibly causing staining if not wiped up quickly enough and how resilient it will be in general for a kitchen.

This won’t be very helpful Im afraid but we’ve recently moved into a house with real wood floor in the kitchen and it looks terrible, I hate it.
Its probably about 10 years old (age of the extension) and I’m sure the previous owners said they had it revarnished at one point? But anyway the varnish is scuffed (particularly where chairs/ the bin is) and yes by the washing machine it’s swollen a bit at the joins. It also seems to have all completely faded? By the door there’s a perfect square of a reasonably nice colour, which I can only assume was where their doormat was, but the rest is a completely different paler colour.
Im sure if it’s done properly and you can afford to get it professionally maintained regularly it would look good but I hate ours and hoping to swap to tile soon. (Sorry!)

That is really helpful @DashDotCom thanks.

I am wondering if I'm letting my heart rule my head. Basically I just like the idea of a natural product with no glue or offgassing issues and I'm just worried the engineered wood, although the top layer is wood still has a lot of glue etc below the surface. So I wanted to go natural timber. But it is really useful to hear your real life example of how it can go wrong (as that was exactly what I was worried about!)

There's a reason people buy tiles and Lino. Too much wear and too much water in a kitchen for solid wood.

Ours is solid wood, original floorboards and sturdiest thing ever, but it needs to be sanded and varnished properly before it’s used. After that no issues, needs doing every ten to fifteen years. The varnish protects it.

Thanks @Dumblebum - How messy is the re-sanding and varnishing? I just don't want in 10 to 15 years time my kitchen to end up being like a sawdust mill… Or is it possible to do it with reasonably little mess?

Yup I hear you @Northernlurker - it is currently tiled from the 1990s - but we are turning it into a lounge diner kitchen and I want it to feel more warm and cosy. It is a slightly below ground floor level and so I'm trying to get it away from being like a basement feeling.

So I feel warm wood would really help this.

I couldn’t agree more. The last house I lived in had a solid wood floor in the kitchen - totally ruined near the sink, the fridge, and awful signs of wear and tear everywhere. It made the whole kitchen look worn down and filthy, even though it was otherwise a perfectly good kitchen. And no matter how much money I threw at it the results were always mediocre or short lived. I was so glad when I saw the linoleum clad kitchen in the new house I bought - one of the most practical and sensible option with little kids and a big busy kitchen/dining area. If we stay we’ll change it up for something when we do an extension but even then I’d never put down real wood.

Ours is engineered wood and doesn’t have a mark on it, four years in. Actually it got a good scratch under the sofa in the family room side of the kitchen but a bit of oil made it invisible.

I have wood and love it.
I'm a bit of a dropsy and smashed so many things on my old ceramic floor. Like you, it's a big kitchen diner with a roof lantern and utility room off of it. No trouble with water by the sink or washing machine although the floor has sun faded in the area where the roof lantern is, but I don't mind that. I did consider Karndean, but that fades too. The ceramic wooden effect tiles are a good alternative like the ones below?

Have you looked at bamboo flooring? It looks like a good option for kitchens

Thanks all

Interestingly I've just had parquet wood effect tile laid in the bathroom (1860s new to us house and lots to do...) and they are lovely. But it's a small area and have put in UFH.
Planning on rads in kitchen and thinking wood will be warmer and softer than tiles if not going UFH.

I hadn't really considered bamboo before, I will have a look at that too.

We’ve got herringbone parquet through downstairs, including the kitchen, secondhand from a school (via a dealer-we didn’t chip it up on parents evening). It’s fine. Warm, sun faded in conservatory and into the kitchen but it’s all ‘organic fading’ so it fades back to dark into the house. It’s an absolute pleasure and well worth the fact that we’ll probably have to have it sanded down and refinished every 15 years or so-it’ll last a lifetime.

That sounds lovely @MrsWooster - I remember the parquet in my old school's assembly hall. It was lovely - lots of character.

Why not go for stone if you want something natural? You can very easily get good quality limestone for the same price or less than porcelain equivalent, and other than having to be a bit careful about wiping up acidic spills, and resealing every now and again, it’s a lovely natural product that lasts.

We were only quoted £5 more/metre for laying than porcelain too.

@CorsicaDreaming

That sounds lovely *@MrsWooster* - I remember the parquet in my old school's assembly hall. It was lovely - lots of character.

It is lovely, thank you! When we got it, it had stripes from tiles that had been in the gym, and pins stuck into the bitumen from the ones from the needlework rooms!