New kitchen flooring

[Jim Andrew]

My wife wants new flooring in the kitchen. She has already ruled out ceramic tile, as it feels like concrete. Looking for a good material that I can DIY. My sister has some thick vinyl tile in hers, looks like something I can possibly install, but do not want to try linoleum, and want something that will last a long time. The original flooring is top of the line armstrong linoleum over 1/4" underlayment.

[Michael Weber]

My wife wants a cork floor. Easy on the feet. I'm looking into it.

[Rich Riddle]

Many floors don't belong in the kitchen, but you likely know that. Nothing that will keep germs, bacteria, etc. It sounds as though she has eliminated porcelain and stone as well. You could get 12" square linoleum. They make high-quality versions these days.

[Jeff Heil]

A suggestion to look at luxury vinyl tile, we put it in our new house in the baths and laundry room and back entry four years ago and have been very happy with it. Gentle underfoot and warm. Cuts with a utility knife and grouts like tile. We used Armstrong LVT, has a nice texture and looks like tile. Ours came in 12x12 size. Put pre-finished solid hickory in the kitchen, hallway and home office. Nice underfoot and looks great, held up to a golden retriever and two kids. I can send you pics if you want some (my wife needs pics to "see" any home improvement project). I installed all the LVT and wood floors, so I appreciate your concern to have something DIY friendly.

[James Tibbetts]

I am doing my kitchen floor in the next month or so. I decided on a laminate, probably Pergo. Easy to diy install as it lays right over existing flooring and has the foam underlayment attached. It is also water proof.

[Stephen Tashiro]

. You could get 12" square linoleum. They make high-quality versions these days.

What's modern linoleum like? Old type linoleum absorbed water. It also didn't take much heat to make it warp.

[Stephen Tashiro]

I am doing my kitchen floor in the next month or so. I decided on a laminate, probably Pergo. Easy to diy install as it lays right over existing flooring and has the foam underlayment attached. It is also water proof.

What keeps water out of the joints? Is there a sealer or caulk that is used?

[Mel Fulks]

I remember real linoleum from my childhood.Always liked it. I have looked on line at the various types available from same company and I am clueless as to what the different groups are. Not sure whether the different "collections " are different in composition and for different uses or what. Each group has its own name. Way too many words and not enough information. At least into 1960s some homes around here had family rooms with inlaid linoleum made on site. I remember one big ranch house .RANCH house with inlaid cacti, sombreros ,donkeys....quite tasteful!

[Rich Riddle]

Someone told you that laminate flooring is waterproof? That's hilarious. The water gets between the "boards" and then expands. Capillary action kills the "boards." Once it swells, it never returns to its previous state. It's ruined. There are stories all over the Internet about how laminate doesn't work. I have removed it from five houses because of its response to water. It shouldn't even be considered for a wet area.

One laminate installer says 30% of is income is derived from water damage to laminate. Here is a picture he posted.

352571

You can find some of his information http://www.fitmywoodfloor.co.uk/prevent-surface-water-from-damaging-your-engineered-wood-or-laminate-floor/
I am doing my kitchen floor in the next month or so. I decided on a laminate, probably Pergo. Easy to diy install as it lays right over existing flooring and has the foam underlayment attached. It is also water proof.

[Van Huskey]

Luxury vinyl tile (LVT) or plank (LVP) is one of the bigger sellers these days, being solid it is waterproof. My next door neighbor owns flooring stores and had some samples to show another neighbor and some of it looks really nice, much more 3D than the laminates.

The last 3 houses my wife and I have built had solid wood in every room except the bathrooms and we never had any issues BUT never spilled lots of water and cleaned any spills immediately.

[Wayne Lomman]

Overlay timber flooring. It's the real thing just thinner as it has the floor under it for structure. Cheers

[Rich Engelhardt]

Groutable vinyl tile.

I swear by the stuff. I have it in my house - in the kitchen and bathroom and in three rentals.
One of our tenants had lived in the house for over a year before she was aware the floor was vinyl and not ceramic tile.
We stopped by to pick up the rent & her daughter came into the kitchen with some heavy toy. She reminded her daughter that she wasn't allowed to bring heavy things into the kitchen since they might chip the floor.
When we told her it was vinyl, she still didn't believe us!
She had though all along that there were heating coils under the tile to keep it from being cold!

The tiles are made to be grouted and are the "peel and stick" type.
Peel and stick is all about surface prep.
Cheap out and you get a cheap job. Prep the surface right and the stuff is great.

[Mike Berrevoets]

We had glue down LVP installed about 6 months ago. Looks like wood planks (sort of). I didn't want a fake wood in our new kitchen but with a 90 pound rambunctious lab I knew that wood flooring just wasn't going to last. Wife didn't want tile as it was too cold and hard.

We love the LVP. It is durable. The dog runs around on it and I can't find any scratches. But, I think the great thing is that it is repairable. The glued down planks don't interlock so if one plank is damaged we can heat it up and pull the plank and put a new one in its place.

Cons are that it does expand and contract a little bit. It was installed in the heat of summer and now in the cooler dryer winter I can see tiny gaps betweeen the planks. I'm talking about 1/64 of an inch. Not a concern but I can see it and notice it. The rest of the family does not notice it. If I did it again I'd find planks with a beveled edge to hide that a little more.

The other downside is that the floor is more of a cherry/mahogany color that I talked my wife into choosing. The lab is a yellow lab, more of a beech or maple color. He sheds a lot and the hair is very noticeable on the floor. We should have picked a color closer to the dog color which is what my wife was insisting on. That's my fault. And yes, I'm reminded of it occasionally. :)

[Lee Schierer]

When we redid our kitchen over 10 years ago, we chose a laminate floor that came in squares and the surface finish looks like ceramic floor tile. It still looks like new and has shown no signs of swelling doe to any liquids that were spilled. The tongue and groove edges were assembled with a waterproof glue. The flooring was made by Formica. I don't know if it is still available.

[roger wiegand]

Birdseye maple hardwood with a heavy duty catalyzed urethane finish in our kitchen for the last 20+ years. Feels good underfoot, you get at least one bounce before dropped objects break, and still looks great after decades of heavy use and abuse-- and plenty of spilled fluids of all sorts. Relatively easy to DIY. We like it much better than other flooring we've experienced in earlier houses or in rentals we've had.

I just put down a prefinished maple floor in my son's kitchen, regular 3/4" hardwood, not engineered. Not quite as seamless as a site-finished floor (the edges had the corners taken off to produce what they describe as a "microbevel"-- I guess it makes slight height differences less apparent), but done in a day without all the sanding.

If you had sheet flooring before you need to pull up the underlayment to end up with good floor height matches.

Oh-- and the good or bad news, depending on your viewpoint, is that dirt is nearly impossible to see on the birdseye figure.

[Dan Hulbert]

Over the years we've had vinyl tile, carpet (came that way), vinyl sheet, pre-finished hardwood, slate, and ceramic tile. Of them all, the wife preferred hardwood. One note, in the two places we replaced the flooring (slate and hardwood) we continued the flooring into all the adjacent areas. The continuity of the flooring really made the places look bigger after they where done. Unless your kitchen is closed off from other areas, I'd recommend expanding the area for the new floor to include all the adjacent areas.

[Brian Deakin]

If you do decide on vinyl tiles consider laying them diagonally to the main door This is what we did and it does look my appealing

[Mel Fulks]

If you do decide on vinyl tiles consider laying them diagonally to the main door This is what we did and it does look my appealing
Agree the LOZENGE look is nice...less static ,and more engaging. "They're not just for sore throats anymore!"

[Ole Anderson]

Three years ago in my kitchen I went with stranded bamboo from Lumber Liquidators about $3.50/sf. I had it nailed, although it can be glued also. DIY? What is your skill level? Flooring is a basic skill simpler than many typical woodworker projects. Do it once, and you will be hooked. Whether it is a floating laminate, engineered wood or solid flooring (the three basic types of wood flooring) it is what most folks do these days. Easier and less stressful than ceramic where the mud set time has you on a timer. I have done ceramic, vinyl planks and squares, floating click style laminate. I had a friend do my kitchen floor just due to a time crunch. In the next week or two I am helping my son lay over 1000 sf of bamboo planks, likely getting a HF flooring nailer for the job. It will include the kitchen. Stranded bamboo is harder than oak and has a super hard ceramic (aluminum oxide) finish. Sanding and finishing raw oak or maple flooring does bring in a whole new set of skills. I would recommend prefinished flooring if you choose to go that route as a DIY project.

[Kev Williams]

A few years ago I bought some crap from HD, very nice looking, flexible vinyl stuff, looks like cermamic... it's 1x3' sections with adhesive lap joints. Designed to 'float'. Was easy to cut, easy to put down, still looks great-- other than the fact that nearly seam has pulled apart. Two sections going under the fridge get farther apart every day. Don't know where they're moving to, or why, since the 28 cu/ft fridge hasn't moved in 3 years.

And oddly, I put the cheapest grooved wood flooring Ikea sells in the kitchen of our mobile home. It's survived 2 years of us, 5 years of our son and his daughter, and 2 years of some friends renting the place. That cheap stuff still looks like new...

[Jim Andrew]

Thanks for the replies, will look into your suggestions.