Kitchen flooring

[sammytko]

I'm finally kind of making up my mind about my kitchen floor. Sadly the 1930s era hardwood cannot be salvaged. It was under couple layers of plywood and stick peel tile.

I was going to replace with more hardwood, but now leaning towards those durable laminate planks. I have 6 dogs and 4 cats. I want something easy to maintain and durable. I won't mind changing it out in 10 years or so. I like to change things around....

Anyone have experience with this type of flooring?

[Suich]

1. The folks in this forum are really smart:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=287

[sammytko]

4. thanks! n/t

[tigereye]

6. that's cool, I didn't know there was one here, missed it...

I used to frequent Old House Web back in the day, not that we have done much with our 100 plus year old house.

[MichiganVote]

2. Sounds like you'll need ceramic tile for all those paws

[sammytko]

5. ceramic would be too heavy for my pier and beam foundation

and then it might crack. The dogs are small - heaviest is 17 lbs. The rest of the house will stay original hardwood. Will get that refinished. Just couldn't do it to the kitchen. Too many rusty nails left in the wood, big dark water spots, lots of rotten pieces under the sink and area where the washer used to be.

All base cabinets will be removed, underfloor fixed and new cabinets installed. I've had the cabinets for a few months. They were made by a local guy. Really did a great job. Went with drawers instead of regular doors. Have a trash can holder and nice little holders for sponges built into the sink face panels.

[femmocrat]

3. We got the laminate. Three dogs here, including a puppy.

It is very easy to clean and doesn't show scratches, etc. I didn't want take care of hardwood, and thought ceramic would be cold and hard to clean between the tiles.

We got the laminate two years ago and have been very satisfied with it. Their toenails do "click" on it though. It can be a little slippery if they run on it. But it is so easy to clean -- even with puppy accidents!

[IMATB]

7. Yes

I had it in an apartment. The previous tenants had a big 70 lb. dog and there were no scratch marks. I have 3 cats and they made no scratch marks. It's easy to clean and dust mop. Any spills you could use plain water and everything comes right up. Best floor I ever had. It didn't show the dirt.

Now I have scored concrete floors. They are cold and hard to keep clean plus all my socks get holes in them.

Maybe in a few years I'll be able to get laminate.

[krispos42]

8. The laminate stuff is pretty tough. I have some from Ikea.

And fairly easy to put in. Just remember to remove the floor trim and leave about 3/16 of an inch all the way around the room. Ikea has a kit with you can buy for putting in theirs... it has a pry bar and spacers and such.

I think using a fine-toothed saw works better for cutting it. I had to use a fairly course saw and there was some chipping. Not much, but a little.

Make sure each joint is perfectly clean of debris before you snap it in place, and tap each piece gently with a rubber mallet when joining the sides together.

[Rochester]

9. I wouldn't recommend laminate

It's not that durable. Laminate is easily damaged by water if it gets into the cracks between the panels, if you don't clean it up immediately. The laminate material peels up at the corners and then the filling swells and crumbles and pretty soon it looks like crap.

You can use high-quality laminate and seal the cracks with glue as you lay it, this will make it more durable, but I would still recommend using something that won't be damaged by water, or is impervious to it.

VCT is more durable and fairly cheap, but it sounds like you are trying to get away from VCT (stick-peel is very similar to it). If you really like the look of wood, you can get roll-out heavy vinyl floors with a wood pattern on them. They are thicker and tougher than linoleum, and usually require no adhesives if they are held at the edges by the baseboards (or the cabinets). You can glue it down if the baseboards aren't suitable.

They also make planks that fit together just like laminate planks but are made of a different material (vinyl plus crushed limestone) and these are very tough but also very expensive! They also come in different patterns including imitation wood.

[sammytko]

11. That is what the lady at the flooring store told me - no laminate or wood

in the kitchen. Well recommended. No one can really tell you what to do - lol. She showed me the luxury vinyl tile. YEs, that is what it is called. It comes in planks and the new stuff from Adura is a lok and go process.

I'm having a contractor family member do the work.

[Callalily]

10. Have you thought of bamboo?

I'm going to research it and may use that on my kitchen floor.

Good luck with your flooring project.

[tabbycat31]

12. This is bad--- I read the title as kitteh flooring

Which would definitely be very interesting.

I have tile floors in my kitchen

[ucralum]

13. Laminate in Kitchen

I have had two different brands of laminate flooring (Pergo and Wilsonart) in the kitchens of two different houses with no problems. We've lived in our current home for 11 years with laminate in the kitchen. In fact, we like it so much that we had it put through most of our downstairs (including a bathroom), on the stairs, and in the upstairs hall and one bedroom. Honestly, if I could afford it, I'd put it throughout the house. We have two dogs, three cats, and a pool (lots of wet feet coming in.)

[Dappleganger]

14. We have Kahrs engineered flooring throughout much of our home

in addition to tile, it has held up quite well to 6 people and multiple dogs (big dogs, too). You can refinish it up to 3 times but it is engineered--it's a little cheaper via ifloors.com, but far more durable than regular hardwood flooring. It's nice and thick and doesn't give a hollow sound like many other laminate/engineered flooring does.

[LiberalEsto]

15. Whatever you do, don't use handwood with spaces

between the boards. That's what came with our kitchen. Every damned thing gets stuck in those cracks.

If I ever get the chance to replace it, I'm going with laminate. If I have $$, I'll go for real linoleum, which I've heard can last for 50 years.