Kitchen flooring: the best types of floors for your kitchen

Remodeling a kitchen means undertaking a significant endeavor both in terms of economic investment and because having work going on the room means it won’t be functional for several weeks. The timeframe can obviously vary depending on the scale of the changes, but usually it is long enough for people to wait until everything in that kitchen needs to be changed, from furniture to equipment, color of the walls and flooring.

It is precisely the choice of a type of floor that should be at the base of the restructuration, since it is going to be the most durable and unchanging part of the room, it will greatly influence the possibilities in terms of color palette, materials and shapes that better suit the stance.

Moreover, it is important that the kitchen flooring reflects the characteristics of your home and that it be able to respond to your family’s specific needs since different types of owners might use the kitchen in different ways, for example as a dining room and more or less frequently. For example, if you own a dog you should consider if a hardwood or a cork floor is really the wiser choice as scratches will greatly affect it and will be visible. On the other hand, working people that do not extensively use their kitchens may be able to maintain hard wood flooring without problems.

In general the most popular choice for kitchen flooring is that of tiles, especially ceramic ones. Durable, resistant and easy to clean, they are the most obvious choice if you plan on spending like most families a significant amount of time in the kitchen. The main disadvantages of ceramic tiles are that dishes and glasses do not stand a chance when slipping from your hands and that this type of flooring is not ideal if you plan on standing on it for several hours a day. It can also be too cold for some during the winter, but this can be easily solved by choosing terracotta tiles that retain heat during the cold months and stay fresh during the summer.

Wood is better for your legs but it is harder to clean and water may enter through the surface and create moist problems. This can be helped through coating treatments that tend to be enough to keep the wood waterproof and clean. Maintenance requirements are definitely higher than with standard tiles, but if you are willing to commit to them, the look of the wooden floor is worth the effort.

Other materials that have become more popular in the field of kitchen flooring in the last years are bamboo, less expensive and with the look of wood for some varieties, eco-friendly, light and easily removable in case moist issues should arise and vinyl, undoubtedly convenient in terms of price, easy to install and with many choices for color customization. Vinyl tends to have a shorter usable life though, an average of around 15 years while ceramic tiles can last a good 30 years instead.

It really all depends on the use you do of your kitchen, your family’s habits and how long do you need the floor to last. If you like frequently changing décor, go ahead and try a vinyl flooring at first, there are many varieties which resemble the look of laminate and tiles. As time goes by you can decide whether the choice suits you or if it is worth investing in a more costly but surely more durable flooring.