Flooring
Flooring
Flooring Options for Your Kitchen
Two of the most common concerns for home renovators are the cost and the look of the product. While these factors are important, you may also consider durability, maintenance, environmental friendliness, uniqueness, and even warmth and comfort depending on what your individual needs are.
Kitchen Flooring Options – A Comparison
Vinyl
Good for the money conscious consumer, who is looking for a popular and low-maintenance flooring option.
Pros: Low cost, easy to install and clean, resists scratching and staining, comes in many shapes and colors, is soft and comfortable to stand on.
Cons: Can be burned, torn, or dented, moisture may cause vinyl to turn up at edges.
Laminate
Overall, a great flooring option if you don’t mind a bit of noise and resiliency is not a main concern.
Pros: Wide price range depending on what exactly you are looking for, resists scratching, denting, fading, and burns, can reproduce the look of natural wood, stone, and tile, and can be bought in water resistant finishes, minimal maintenance.
Cons: Extremely hard and noisy, sometimes even more expensive than natural wood.
Linoleum
Do not confuse with vinyl flooring. While it may have some of the same properties, linoleum has not changed much over the past few decades, and is gradually being replaced with vinyl.
Pros: Quiet and comfortable, no synthetic materials, antistatic.
Cons: Not low maintenance, should be cleaned and waxed with special products, susceptible to moisture.
Wood
There are 2 types of wood flooring, engineered and solid. Engineered wood has a strip of real wood applied over plywood. The cost is similar to solid wood but is easier to install and is less affected by moisture. However, it has a more hallow sound. Solid wood is thicker and can be refinished (very durable), whereas engineered wood must be completely replaced. A Urethane finish helps protect from spills, but still must be wiped up immediately to avoid damage
Pros: Can be stained in many different ways, can be used in traditional as well as modern households, semi-resilient.
Cons: Expensive, generally needs to be resealed about every 5 years, can not use water-based cleaners.
Ceramic Tile
A very popular and affordable choice. If you are prone to dropping dishes, this flooring option may not be for you.
Pros: Affordable, easy to clean (glazed versions are moisture and stain resistant), many sizes and colors, durable.
Cons: Hard and cold, not forgiving if breakable items are dropped, may be chipped or cracked.
Stone
Great for adding a luxurious touch to your kitchen.
Pros: Comes in different varieties including granite, marble, slate, and limestone, very durable
Cons: Expensive, stones that are highly polished can be prone to dulling in high traffic areas, some stones susceptible to chipping, cracking and warping.
Concrete
From industrial to modern, concrete is a good choice if you are concerned with staying on the cutting edge!
Pros: A variety of looks can be achieved, durable, moisture resistant, easy to clean, maintains heat, durable.
Cons: Difficult installation, costly to fix, limited rang of colors to choose from.
Bamboo
If you are looking for a green product that has a look similar to wood, bamboo may be for you.
Pros: Environmentally friendly, completely sustainable, semi-resilient.
Cons: Limited in color, some species will shrink and swell when in contact with moisture.
Rubber
A good choice for those who aren’t turned off by having recycled tires in their kitchen, and for those who want an eco-friendly option.
Pros: Environmentally friendly (made from recycled tires), large choice of colors, durable, easy to clean, easy on feet and back, quiet, provides insulation.
Cons: May require polishing, susceptible to scratches.
Cork
Great for those with knee, hip and back problem, whose kitchen is not a high-traffic zone.
Pros: Environmentally friendly, soft and warm, not easily dented, quiet.
Cons: Not good in high traffic areas, may have a shorter lifespan than other options.
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Choosing Flooring for your Designer Kitchen
By: Kelly Goldthorpe
The kitchen being one of the most used rooms in a home, kitchen flooring should be both durable and well designed. There is a wide range of flooring options available on the market today, but some styles work better than others depending on your kitchen design. When considering your kitchen flooring options use these suggestions and tips for decorating your kitchen.
Hardwood remains one of the most popular selections for kitchen flooring. Especially in rustic or country style kitchen, hardwood provides a classic and traditional look and feel to a room. In kitchens that want a cozy, homey feel, hardwood warms up the room with its rich tones. This compliments the other wooden fixtures in the kitchen, from cabinets to accent pieces. The hardwood flooring does not necessarily have to match the wood used for the other kitchen fixtures either. Creating some contrast will add dimension to the room. Just be careful that the difference is not too dramatic.
When it comes to hardwood flooring you will need to choose between solid hardwood and engineered hardwood. They look practically identical, but their compositions are different and you will want to research which works best for your home. Laminate hardwood has recently gained in popularity. However, you should note that laminate hardwood is not real wood, just designed to appear that way. This is a much cheaper flooring solution, but still gives the appearance of hardwood. These issues are the technical side of hardwood that an expert at your local home improvement store would be able to discuss with you.
Hardwood still takes first place for traditional flooring, however stone kitchen floors have proven to be tough competition in the design category. Stone kitchen flooring is typically done with tiles made of material like granite or marble. Marble kitchen flooring can become expensive, but provides a very elegant appearance. Granite kitchen flooring also provides a sleek look to it. Stone kitchen flooring is pricier than other options, but recoups that cost in value added to your home. However, if installation is not done properly stone tiles can break with applied pressure.
Linoleum kitchen flooring makes a great choice for high-traffic kitchens. It has incredible durability, which is why it is commonly seen in commercial environments. Regardless, it can still create a beautiful kitchen floor. Linoleum is available in a plethora of colors so you can easily find one to fit your kitchen décor. Linoleum kitchen flooring is also made out of natural material.
You don’t have to feel restricted to the basic choices for kitchen flooring. Flooring is an investment, so anticipate spending money for a very worthwhile purchase. Not only does the kitchen floor get some of the most traffic in the house, but it is also a focal piece when showing off your home to visitors.
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Types of Kitchen Floor Cleaners
By: Kelly Goldthorpe
While most people don’t typically enjoy cleaning, it is often a source of controversy. However, the debate is typically over what is the best way to tackle the mess and then that is followed by who has to clean it up. Because kitchen floors come in so many different types and styles there may be better products for cleaning than you are familiar with. Below is a breakdown of the variety of kitchen floor cleaners and what they are best used for.
- Brooms – Hopefully you’ve heard of these before! This is by far the most common floor cleaning device around. A standard item for any kitchen, this is a cheap, easy, and quick way to pick up debris. Because of its simplicity, the broom does not tackle stains or improve the overall look of the floor.
- Mop – These are another common household item. They can be used dry, for dust. More often, however, they are used wet. By getting the mop wet, wringing it out, and then applying it to the floor you can get rid of any stains or crud that may be stuck to the floor. You can use mops on pretty much any type of surface, but if you are using a wet mop on hardwood you may want to apply additional wax afterwards.
- Swiffer – While this is a name brand most people recognize what this is. Swiffers are a type of mop that sprays water from the appliance itself. A pad then wipes up the floors. These can also be used try to pick up dust. The advantage with this type of cleaner is that it is very user-friendly. They are convenient and less-mess than typical mops. However, with the easiness comes a price tag. They can be expensive to maintain because you must constantly replace the pads, unlike a regular mop which uses the same head for a long time.
- Steam Mop – This is an item you may not be acquainted with. It has a similar design to a Swiffer, but uses steam to clean. The biggest advantage of this is that the water quickly evaporates. For floors like hardwood this is very important so that the water does not seep in and destroy the flooring.
- Vacuum – Using a vacuum in the kitchen is not uncommon, but it doesn’t offer many advantages over a broom. They both pick up debris, but with a vacuum you don’t spend five minutes trying to scoop up that last line of dust and dirt left from a broom. Using a vacuum in the kitchen will also allow you to easily pick up any dirt on your kitchen rug.
Consider the type of flooring you have when picking a cleaner. Remember that you can sweep daily, but for things like steam cleaners daily use may actually hurt your floors.
