Would you have wood floor in kitchen?

Emmalou

I am having a kitchen extension and had decided on a wood floor instead of tiles (it's a living area as well, so feel tiles may be too cold).
Now I am wondering whether wood will be difficult to keep clean, or may dent etc.
I am looking at an engineered light oak floor with bevelled planks.
Anybody with any thoughts on this?

ormus

some peeps do but i hate em in the kitchen or the bathroom.
i dont think wooden floors and water mix. ive seen a washing machine empty its water onto a floor and it aint pretty.
give me ceramic floor tiles anyday.

a11waysindebt

Hi,

Is this a real wooden floor or laminate.

dipsy

I would go with ormus, I have had my washing machine empty out in my kitchen and boy oh boy didn't realise how much water one could hold, wooden or laminate flooring would have been wrecked, as it was I must have used nearly every towel in the whole of Yorkshire to mop it up and my wooden cupboards didn't fare that well where the water sat whilst I was clearing it up so, I wouldn't have thought it was a good idea

that said maybe your washing machine is located elsewhere... it would look nice..

dizzie

Hi Emmalou,

We put a wood floor in the kitchen and in hindsight wish we hadn't. After only three years, it it quite scratched. I tried to put those felt pads on the bottom of the chair legs round the kitchen table, but they kept dropping off. Also our kitchen becomes a temporary dumping ground for kids sport kit etc and I have a water mark from a leaked bottle inside a PE bag on the floor. I ended up putting a bamboo mat down at the food prep area, because things like curry cause nice big yellow tumeric stains on the wood floor that are difficult to remove. Also the changes of temperature/humidity in a kitchen have caused expansion/contraction of the tongue and groove joints, which crushes them and leaves little gaps between the planks here and there.

I thought tiles would be cold too, but wish I'd gone for tiles with underfloor heating now.

mancmum

We got 48 square metres of rejected squashcourt for our extension - utility room, kitchen, conservatory and hall. It is solid maple groved on all four sides and is laid instead of floor boards so you can knock off the cost of floor boards, however, ideally you need to have your joists closer together than you would normally. Our joists are the standard distance and it still works. Its been fine. We have flooded it again and again and it isn't a problem. It is sealed with wood varnish. Its so hard that it only really dents when you drop cast iron on it. A very blonde flooring would have showed the rubbish and I am glad that there is a a bit of patterning in our floor.

I love tiles in the bathroom but I was warned that if you have them in the kitchen you will break every bit of china you drop and if you drop anything heavy then that will break the tiles.

dipsy

I love tiles in the bathroom but I was warned that if you have them in the kitchen you will break every bit of china you drop and if you drop anything heavy then that will break the tiles.[/quote]


I have them all through my hallway, kitchen and dinning room, the place where I got them broken, believe it or not was in the hallway by a small 9 year old, nothing as lethal as kids

believe you me I am so accident prone, but my tiles in kitchen are fine, but guess if you do drop something heavy could be an issue, maybe keep some spares for those eventual breakages, at least then its lift up one tile and lay rather than a whole new floor.

Mine has been down now for 5 years and I love it... esp as french doors on to garden, means dog/kids don't ruin anything, quick sweep and mop at end of day and looks good as new, wish I could say the same for my cream stair carpet :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Phil51

We wanted wood but in friends houses there was lots of noise so we went for Karndean.

Karndean is strips of what looks like thick linoleum (sizes can vary, ours are 3 ft 4 inches). The best thing is that you can make your own designs up.

6 foot by 3 foot boards are laid on the floor and then a screed is laid on that. After two days the Karndean is laid on it.

Take a look here

dipsy

wow that looks fab Phil and cost for sq m.. (not up to doing m sq in normal sign on here all I can do to change colour :-) )

Emmalou

Thanks all for your comments and advice. Hmmm, apart from mancmum, not much good to say for wood here!
The one I'm looking at is an engineered board which has a top layer of real wood (so it can be sanded 2-4 times I think), ply wood base. So not solid wood and not laminate.
It would be layed as a floating floor and put down using a click system.
We don't have a washing machine in our kitchen.
Kardean does look good - will have a look at that too.

Emmalou

want2bmortgage3

hey emmalou
have you seen the laminate designed for kitchens and bathrooms?
you can either get wood effect or tile effect.
it's sometimes called aqualoc or similar. also, i think using good underlay can make a difference. if you are on a concrete floor you need a waterproof membrane down first.
ben