What's your experience with kitchen flooring?

[Mert]

We are replacing our vinyl with either hardwood or laminate, but we know nothing about it. If you've had one or both, could you share your experiences, the things you loved and/or hated and what upkeep was required? It would be much appreciated!! ~TIA

[Drew]

We have hardwood in our kitchen and I couldn't possible love it more. It's made of handscraped planks so the floor is textured and will hide minor dings if (okay when) they occur. Plus it feels really nice under my feet. It's been really easy to maintain as well. I vacuum it on bare floor setting every other day or so and clean it with my Omop and Good for Wood (both Method products) as needed.

[HomeWithMyBabies]

We put pergo in our living room recently and I really like it. It's easy to clean and very durable. Dh did someone's kitchen years ago and it's holding up beautifully.

[Mert]

So Drew, is dinging the floor your biggest concern? Not water spills or stuff getting stuck in the grooves?

[TuneMyHeart]

We have hardwoods in the kitchen, and I don't like them as well as I thought. They look really nice when they're clean :O, but it took me a while to find a mop and cleaner I liked. I actually read in Consumer Reports last night that laminate lasted longer and didn't ding as easily as real wood. I honestly like tile better.

[Drew]

So Drew, is dinging the floor your biggest concern? Not water spills or stuff getting stuck in the grooves?


To be honest, when we picked the hardwood dinging didn't enter my though process. We picked the hand scraped planks because we liked how they looked and felt. We felt like they were different from what you normally see in most people's houses. The dinging issue was brought up after the fact by our design consultant.

We haven't had any issues with spill and stuff getting stuck in the grooves so far and I can assure you that my husband is a messy cook and lots of stuff ends up on the floor. The vacuum picks everything up without a problem. My only real concern as far as spills go is making sure that liquids get cleaned up ASAP but that would be with any flooring.


We have hardwoods in the kitchen, and I don't like them as well as I thought. They look really nice when they're clean :O, but it took me a while to find a mop and cleaner I liked. I actually read in Consumer Reports last night that laminate lasted longer and didn't ding as easily as real wood. I honestly like tile better.


I'm curious, do you have light colored wood? Ours is fairly dark so maybe it hides dirt better?

[TuneMyHeart]

We have hardwoods in the kitchen, and I don't like them as well as I thought. They look really nice when they're clean :O, but it took me a while to find a mop and cleaner I liked. I actually read in Consumer Reports last night that laminate lasted longer and didn't ding as easily as real wood. I honestly like tile better.


I'm curious, do you have light colored wood? Ours is fairly dark so maybe it hides dirt better?


:no2 We have dark wood. I think part of the problem is it wasn't put in correctly. We have lots of planks that are pulling apart from each other, so dirt gets in the grooves (our house is only a few months old). They're also very shiny, which I think shows the dirt better. If I could have chosen my floors, I would have chosen a lighter color without the shiny finish. We do have some dings and scratches, but that just adds character, IMO. ;)

[Drew]

We have hardwoods in the kitchen, and I don't like them as well as I thought. They look really nice when they're clean :O, but it took me a while to find a mop and cleaner I liked. I actually read in Consumer Reports last night that laminate lasted longer and didn't ding as easily as real wood. I honestly like tile better.


I'm curious, do you have light colored wood? Ours is fairly dark so maybe it hides dirt better?


:no2 We have dark wood. I think part of the problem is it wasn't put in correctly. We have lots of planks that are pulling apart from each other, so dirt gets in the grooves (our house is only a few months old). They're also very shiny, which I think shows the dirt better. If I could have chosen my floors, I would have chosen a lighter color without the shiny finish. We do have some dings and scratches, but that just adds character, IMO. ;)


Eek, bad installation is a problem. If the house is only a few months old, it should be under warranty. Have you contacted the builder? Thankfully are planks are nice and snug, even in the winter when hardwood tends to shrink up a bit due to low humidity.

I bet the shiny finish would be hard to keep clean looking. Our floors have more of a mat finish similar to the Golden Oak photo on this page: www.thefloorauthority.com/Hardwood-Flooring-Homerwood-Amish-Handscraped.htm . It has some shine but not a high gloss finish.

[TuneMyHeart]

Oh Drew, those are my dream floors! They're gorgeous. :yes

DH is going to contact our builder, but we don't think they'll fix them. We'll try though!

I didn't realize hardwoods normally shrink in the winter. Do they expand in the summer? Our floors were put in late summer, and it was very hot. I wonder if they'll expand when it gets warmer. :think

[2sunshines]

I love real hardwood floors but no way we could afford them so we put pergo (actually an off brand) in our kitchen. I've been really happy with it. It looks really nice and is easy to keep clean.

[Drew]

Oh Drew, those are my dream floors! They're gorgeous. :yes

DH is going to contact our builder, but we don't think they'll fix them. We'll try though!

I didn't realize hardwoods normally shrink in the winter. Do they expand in the summer? Our floors were put in late summer, and it was very hot. I wonder if they'll expand when it gets warmer. :think


Maybe you could have a flooring contractor look at your floors to determine if it the gaps are due to poor installation. I would think poor installation should be covered under your warranty and your builder would be obligated to correct the problem.

Hardwood will expand and contract depending on the humidity level in the air, so yes they should expand a bit in the summer. Of course the degree to which that happens is going to be dependent where you live. If the planks expend enough in the summer to close the gaps you may want to consider having a humidifier put on your heater. We were advised to get one to keep our floors from drying out too much and getting creaky but so far that hasn't been a problem.

[SansSouci]

We installed Pergo in our kitchen and dining room. It is gorgeous! But I was constantly worried about water being spilled on it and ruining it. In fact, our dishwasher leaked and ruined about half of it... so we re-did that part, and it was never the same.

We've since sold that house, but we won't do Pergo again. We opted for large tiles in our new house's kitchen (18" tiles with 1/16" grout) and we LOVE it! No worries. It's not as pretty and not as soft to walk on, but I'm not worried about it getting wet.

Hardwood floors are definitely nice. I think it would (for us) depend on how long we were planning to live in the house. With kids, I would expect hardwood to last a LOT longer than laminate.

GL!

[2sunshines]

But I was constantly worried about water being spilled on it and ruining it.

Really? we've never had an issue with water ruining the floors. And we've certainly had our share of spills. How long does water have to sit to start damaging it?

[HomeWithMyBabies]

But I was constantly worried about water being spilled on it and ruining it.

Really? we've never had an issue with water ruining the floors. And we've certainly had our share of spills. How long does water have to sit to start damaging it?


:popcorn We haven't had any issues either. In fact, after Dh's uncle helped us install the floor he took an extra piece home and immersed it in a bucket of water and let it soak for a few days. It didn't warp and the finish was fine.

[Mert]

The gentleman that was helping us at Lowe's said that you don't have to worry about spills on top of wood or laminate but about water getting under laminate especially if it wasn't sealed properly when installed. I don't even know what he means by sealing or how to go about doing it, but that's what he said.

[2sunshines]

Aw ok, that makes sense. When my dh installed ours, he was told to put some special sealant in the areas around the sink and dishwasher and stuff for that very reason. :yes Now that you say that, that reminds me.