Help me! kitchen floor.....

[Northernlurker]

Need to pick for new kitchen.
I am so stuck. Needs to be steam mop friendly. I just can't think what would look good. Units and worktops are attached. Mostly quartz and cashmere but with a little bit of the oak in places
Any ideas?

Oak effect LVT would be nice. It would look warm, bring out the oak bits already planned and be washable.

I thought if that but the hall is oak and it won't match

What do we think about grey floors?

We have a grey LVT which I loved when it went down. Now it's a bloody bastard to keep clean. Dirt gets in the grooves of the wood pattern and the mop I'm supposed to use just bloody tickles it and I have to get down and scrub it with a brush to have it look clean!!!

Is the floor itself concrete? or wood with a ventilated void beneath?

Wood, laminate and vinyl will not stand up well to hot steam.

I always have tiles in my kitchen. Would a dark charcoal tile work for you. B&Q do one that I put into my btl's and they look good and don't show dirt too much. I will see if I can find link.

www.diy.com/departments/slate-anthracite-matt-flat-stone-effect-porcelain-wall-floor-tile-sample/5057741330557_BQ.prd

Porcelain or limestone colour?

I wouldn't go for something dark as it will soak up light in your kitchen while not showing up dirt. We have very dark tiles and they never look glistening clean and make the kitchen darker although its a very bright room with huge windows. The porcelain colour is lovely. I love the colour of your cabinets and worktop.

Grey floors hide a multitude of sins which is quite handy, but I do think the trend the last few years towards everything being grey is going to date, and there's not much colour in the rest of your kitchen so I wonder if it may end up reading greyer if the floor is grey.

We have a mid grey floor - it shows every. single. crumb. Ditto the dark grey one my DM had many years ago. I would choose a floor with a grain or visual texture next time to avoid this.

Your only option is tiles if you want to steam mop it OP. We have LVT and it's great (other than showing the crumbs), but steaming it can lift the tiles. Obviously steam isn't compatible with laminate, engineered, or solid wood flooring either.

Could you replace the steam mop?

by the by a friend used a steam mop on her Amtico for years….

BarrellOfOtters some manage to get away with it for years, others aren't so lucky. You have no way of knowing which camp you'll fall into, and it's a very expensive thing to replace if you're in the unlucky group...

Yes we've got LVT and a robot mop - seems to be going OK so far....

Just don't get shiny white tiles, we did in the bathroom and I hate them with a passion. Look clean for about 20 seconds.

I would look at a patterned floor tile. It will add interest to the kitchen and not jar butting up to a wooden floor.

Oooh lovely thanks! Useful thoughts. I had wondered about a pattern but going for a patterned tile hopefully. Thinking bluish walls. The porcelain tiles are lovely.

It's a concrete floor

As it's concrete, you can reasonably tile it, provided there are no signs of cracking, sinking or heaving. Learn never to drop anything.

Use a dark grey grout, not white, which will never look clean.

Opinions differ, but I favour tiling underneath appliances and units, otherwise you will have gaping bare patches if you ever move anything. Put a couple of boxes of spare tiles in a corner.

I would never use tiles again as they are so cold and everything that drops breaks immediately. I had engineered wood in my last kitchen which I loved, and wish I had chosen that again, although due to the greater availability of colour I would also look at Amtico type flooring if I were choosing again.