Kitchen Floors

Cork. Also has the benefit of being reasonably priced, though you need a good install.

porcelain should be the best choice. the natural stones, except for travertien, are typically too slippery. if something falls on a ceramic tile, there's a chance of chipping of the glaze.

Cork or wood. Hard surfaces are murder on the back.

I have wood now (oak) and love it but have also had marble, slate, and honed limestone.

A few tips based on this experience: Be careful, even in a tiny kitchen, with any floor that has a polished surface; one drop of water you'll go careening across the floor (I learned this the hard way when we inherited a kitchen floor with squares of polished marble and I nearly killed myself more than once). So if you go with stone or porcelain, make sure that it either has a rough/honed surface or else make the pattern small enough that the grout provides texture.

I would NEVER have slate again -- it's very high maintenance and despite a professional installation (actually 3 installations -- grrrrr) the damn tiles never stayed put and the surface always seemed dirty and the grout wouldn't stay put.

If you install wood, which is really beautiful and I sure love mine, we were advised to not put it under the appliances or cabinets because if you have a leak (and someday, we all do), the wood will buckle and you will need to lift up everything that sits on your entire floor just to replace the floor boards. So just install to the edge of everything and it will save you $$ if you need to do a repair/replacement.

In our former kitchen we had large squares of honed limestone and everyone had advised against it saying it would stain from spilled wine, tomato sauce, anything else that is acidic. They were wrong. I'm an active and frequent cook and the limestone only became more beautiful. We had installed the squares with very tight edges and thus small amounts of grout. I did clean it with a special product and then seal it, but I only did this about once a year; the rest of the time I just used a soapy detergent to wash it. It developed a gorgeous patina and it was tempting to use it again in our new kitchen but wood just better suited the new kitchen design.

I know many advocate for cork but I think its performance history in kitchens is still short and thus unproven. But I may be predisposed to not like it because I can't stand how it looks. These things are personal....

Finally, remember that while wood is indeed better for your back, kitchens are wet and you'll need to be a bit careful. Mop up spills quickly, put down a cotton rug near the sink for splashes, that kind of thing.

Hope this helps.

Actually, cork has been used as flooring for hundreds of years in the Europe.

alanhart -- I didn't know that about cork and thanks for the correction. Guess I have to use only personal taste as my sole reason to not ever use it.

I suspect cork can be stained to look different, and then even checkerboard-patterned or whatever.

I didn't use it because it needs periodic resealing, which I'm not really up for. But I'm somewhat sorry I used stone flooring, because it's pain-producing.

Sooner or later I'll get around to getting chef's clogs, which are the only solution other than laying a mushy mat runner or other obtrusive rug-like thing down on the nice stone flooring that you chose for its look.

Thank you for the input. I'm definitely shying away from wood, not because of look, but because I want something that can handle spills without concern. I love marble, but good point about the issues of the shiny surface. Very helpful!

Nyc. A couple of thoughts:

When picking a floor for a kitchen you do need to think of a couple of things and 1 is how often do you cook? If you bake for example you do not want to use marble as it will kill your feet. Most of my designers these days are going with porcelain which really has come a long way. Nemo tile has a great selection as does Porcelanosa (use your contractor, I think they gave me 30-40% trade discount). The porcelain should cost anywhere from $4-$6, uninstalled.

The cork, not my personal choice is ok. you can find a nice selection from Globus Cork, they custom make their cork tiles and that costs roughly $6.00 sq ft uninstalled

NYC, we used the porcelain tile (porcenalosa from italy i think) for the kitchen and service hall in our recent renovation. it has a rough texture so slipping is not a problem. I really love it for a couple of different reasons. first of all, it can go under all the appliances and provides a stable surface for them. secondly, it is incredibly easy to keep clean and the taupe color really doesn't show much dirt. and lastly, i don't have to worry about water spills like i do with my wood floors in the kitchen of our house. we are in year six in the house and though i am extremely careful about wiping up around the dishwasher and the water dispenser of the fridge, it is showing signs of wear. That happened with our house in alaska too and redoing the floors was an expensive and messy process which we had to do before putting it up for sale. all that being said, the wood floors are very easy on your back but oddly enough, i haven't found a problem with the porcelain but i do keep my shoes on in the kitchen and that must help. The Architect and Design center has several showrooms with these tiles and i think we purchased from Hastings. We received the architects trade discount of 30% and that price seemed comparable with other outlets. the salespeople were very helpful there and seeing the tile used in a sample installation really helped me understand the look.

Country tiles on 16th street will solve the problem. On the expensive side but worthy of your penthouse.

We did a throughbody porcelain tile from Ann Sacks, and I love it! We have a galley kitchen, and used the 11 7/8" x 23 5/8" size.

I'm on year 4 of wood floors in kitchen (first time). Previous apts renovated by me had slate and limestone.
So far, so good. In our current place, having a non-wood floor would have been very jarring as it's semi open to both LR & DR. I'm very careful about wiping up spills. I don't think things are going to look great by year 15 but by then, we'll have to do a minor reno of kitchen.

Shoeless household.

Linoleum.

Not vinyl -- REAL, old-fashioned, natural, friendly-to-the-environment linoleum.

It's a "hard" surface" that's not hard as stone (a jar of peanut butter won't shatter if you accidentally drop it) and has just enough of a cushion that it won't literally crack open your skull or break a bone if you step on a drop of water (God help you if you slip and fall on marble, slate, etc.).

It's better in wet areas than hardwood (never understood the practicality of hardwood floors in a kitchen for that reason), and cleans up like a dream (no special treatments or grout to deal with).

Linoleum? Really? That is the last thing I would use

as someone with wood floor in the kitchen, I wish I had stone.

"Linoleum? Really? That is the last thing I would use"

Why?

It's the most environmentally friendly (and responsible) flooring available, and THE most practical for a kitchen floor.

"Sooner or later I'll get around to getting chef's clogs, which are the only solution other than laying a mushy mat runner or other obtrusive rug-like thing down on the nice stone flooring that you chose for its look."

Or just getting rid of that stupid stone altogether.

Or cover with asbestos-vinyl tiles.

Matt's kitchen floor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTnAfOmvBc0

alan, what happened that time you visited Long Island City?

Alan, I think you just out-gayed yourself.

NYC1007, why don't you consider cement? With new unlimited tints and really great sealers, either gloss, matte or semi-gloss, they really last forever. With minimal hassle and maintenance, by the way.

Nyc Matt,

I have chefs clogs, they dont work as well as they should. They also have made great stides in green tiles, I saw one the other day , if you like green which is made from recycled money.

alan, that was hillarious! and damn if i didn't spend the afternoon chuckling over old mary hartman mary hartman clips on youtube.

"I have chefs clogs, they dont work as well as they should. They also have made great stides in green tiles, I saw one the other day , if you like green which is made from recycled money."

There's still nothing "greener" than linoleum.

There is NO adverse impact on the environment during its manufacture ... it lasts for FORTY YEARS ... and when it's finally disposed of, is 100% decomposable in landfills because it's all natural.

Dirt floors are even "greener" than linoleum, and you can get red wrigglers so that you just strew your garbage on the floor and in short order it turns into compost.

Nyc Matt,

Matt I can appreciate what your saying but this topic isnt about green flooring. Maybe the person cares what it looks like?

I've had two wood floors and loved them. Never had a problem with spills or leaks or buckling. I'd never use anything else.