Wood Flooring for Kitchen - Questions

[David Bolson]

I’m looking for advice and/or direction.


We currently have a tile floor in our kitchen which my wife has hated for years. I’ve finally given in and gave her a green light to rip it up and put down a new floor. We have 440 square feet to redo (including a small bathroom off the kitchen). She wants a wood (or engineered wood?) floor. For reference, the rest of the house has a 50 year old red oak floor.


She picked out a wood floor that the salesman told her was on sale. Mirage Elemental Platinum flooring. Solid Maple with “Nanolynx” finish (some kind of polyurethane, I think). She brought a sample home and as a test, I spilled some curry sauce on it and left it on overnight. The next day I wiped it off and there was no trace of any staining. I was impressed.


I Googled this product a bit and the only knock on it seemed to be that it dented easily and that big dogs caused a lot of scratches. I don’t have a dog.


So, the sale price of this floor is about $6000 (not including installation). That works out to about $13.60/square foot. I told my wife to get another estimate.


I don’t know much of anything about wood and engineered wood floors. Is this a reasonable price given that wood prices have soared? What should I be looking for?


P.S. – I have zero interest in making a hardwood floor on my own.


TIA for any help.

[Paul F Franklin]

That seems high to me, but so much depends on the grade of the flooring (clear or character, etc), how wide the planks are, etc. Have you searched for online sources of that exact flooring to get an idea of price range? Another option is to look online at someone like Hosking hardwoods and find something close to what she has picked.

[Myk Rian]

I'm not up on present pricing, but:
Screw the sub-floor down after tearing out the old.
Use a felt underlayment to prevent squeaks.

We put down 2 1/4" gunstock walnut in the kitchen and dining room 15 years ago. It has held up very well to traffic, chairs, appliance replacements, etc.

[John Keeton]

Not related to your inquiry, but somewhat of a caution. We have hardwood throughout our great room, which includes the kitchen. Our previous refrigerator ice maker leaked slowly and seeped under the flooring and buckled it. Over time, it resolved for the most part. But, the takeaway is if you do this make sure to put a flexible metal wrapped supply line to the fridge and fully inspect the tubing within your fridge to make sure it hasn’t degraded.

[Tom M King]

Personally, I wouldn't want the v grooves between boards that prefinished wood flooring has anywhere, and especially not in a kitchen.

I put Coretec Plus luxury vinyl plank in a rental house here on the lake, and that stuff is bulletproof, plus waterproof, and extremely easy to clean. I was in our bank yesterday where I first saw it used. In that bank, it's been down for at least four years, and still looks like it did when they first installed it. It's a very busy bank.

When my Mom was in physical rehab, I saw some flooring in their lab room that I Really liked. It was like luxury vinyl, but had a layer of wood under whatever the surface coating is, so every piece looked different with no repeats of pattern. It was really an engineered wood floor, but there were no V grooves between planks, much like LVL which is what I thought it was and I'm not easy to fool.

I took a picture of it, and am not sure if this is exactly the same stuff, but it looks like the same.

https://www.wayfair.com/home-improvement/pdp/shaw-floors-scottsmoor-oak-916-thick-x-7-12-wide-x-varying-length-engineered-hardwood-flooring-shd6146.html?cjevent=c09ac1ec3f9c11ea80b001830a1c0 e0b&refid=CJ687298-CJ2975314&pid=CJ4441350&utm_source=pinterest&utm_medium=social&piid=44265002

[Robert LaPlaca]

Mirage flooring is really nice flooring, I installed 1500sq/ft in our home in NJ some 25+ years ago, it was 3 1/2” solid red oak pre-finished, the color was Allburn. I think it was $5.85 sq/ft back then, the flooring looked great for the 12 years we owned the home.

My sister in law liked the flooring so much they installed Mirage during a remodel, the flooring has been in use for 25+ years, looks pretty good..

[Dave Anderson NH]

Like Robert we installed Mirage 3" wide oak on our first floor including the kitchen but excluding the bathroom. We did it 20 years ago and while the floor has throw carpets in each room the flooring has held up very well. I would have no concerns about using it in our kitchen again.

[Mel Fulks]

Show your wife some photos of “floor cloths” . Painted canvas precursor of Linoleum. Easy to make , and also easy to commission or
buy ready made.

[Robert LaPlaca]

I forgot to mention, the Mirage flooring was installed in kitchens in both my previous home and my SIL home.

@Tom, the flooring had a very tiny micro bevel, still not the whole sanded in look, but very nice.

[Stan Calow]

We have standard red oak floors in our kitchen. Pros are that it's warmer than tile, and less breakage of things that fall. And no grout lines to maintain. But your test regarding spills is I think misleading. We have water damage in multiple places - especially in front of the dishwasher which has had leaks a few times. Other times water from sink, coffee maker, fridge, dog bowl and back door has caused damage. It's not the surface coating, it's the small gaps where boards come together. Liquid seeps in, and then warpage occurs. There must be a clever way to establish zones in vulnerable areas that are isolated from such potential damage, like a tiled area under the dishwasher area.

[John Goodin]

My kitchen floor is constantly wet from something. We have luxury vinyl plank in there and it is not an issue. Our plank has a rubber padding so a small water leak didn’t require lifting it up. We just let it and the slab dry out.

if you have wood through most of the house I would use same in the kitchen to make it match.

[roger wiegand]

Site-finished birdseye maple here for the last 25 years. No problems, looks great. Much cheaper than the prices you're indicating, but I installed and finished it myself.

[David Bolson]

Thanks, guys. I've relayed your info to my wife and she is going to continue to investigate her options.

[Lee Schierer]

There are lots of laminate floors that look exactly like real wood which have less installation labor costs and hold up better than real wood. The floors in our house have survived two cats and two very active dogs over the course of 28 years. Ours have no v-grooves and have resisted many spills and wet pets.
494678494679
The one on the right even has surface texture like old barn boards without the splinters.

[Ole Anderson]

Eight years ago I had a friend install a stranded bamboo floor in my kitchen. Nail down, I would have installed it but was running out of time before a 6 week vacation. Janka hardness about 5000 (red oak is 1290) and with a ceramic (aluminum oxide) finish, no scratches from the grand dogs. Got it from Lumber Liquidators. Based on its performance, I installed a click lock floating stranded bamboo floor in two bedrooms, a hall, living room, sewing room and stairs. This one was from Lowes, Cali brand and currently goes for about $7.70/sf.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Cali-Bamboo-Fossilized-5-in-Mocha-Bamboo-Solid-Hardwood-Flooring-19-91-sq-ft/1000000496

[Brian Elfert]

I had site finished oak strip flooring in my previous house. I had a bunch of water leak from my freezer because the door was left cracked open for three days. The floor swelled up. I left the floor to dry for a good six months and then someone came in with a moisture meter and tested the moisture content. They declared it was dry enough to refinish. I had it refinished and within six months the floor was cupped the other way. The floor was not completely dry when it was re-finished.

I don't know if I would do wood flooring again in a kitchen.

[Thomas McCurnin]

Engineered flooring (pre-finished) has to be installed on a dead flat surface--no imperfections, because you cannot sand after installation to even out the surface. For this reason either buy standard raw flooring and sand and finish, or spend the time necessary to get that subfloor dead flat, like a 1/16th over eight feet.

[Dick Strauss]

We've had several quotes in excess if $20/sqft for out 110 sqft foyer using material that was supposed to be $5.99 or less per sqft. By the time you factor in the labor, trim,etc., it has gotten a little out of touch with reality.

This doesn't really pertain to the OP's kitchen but I have a hard time justifying $20-22/sqft when I can get really nice carpet installed for $9.00/sqft.

[Alan Lightstone]

We put the same engineered Cumaru wood flooring in our whole second floor. Including the kitchen.

Putting it in the kitchen was a big mistake. Water damage is notable in several locations. It will have to be replaced, which is a big deal considering all the cabinets/islands are directly on top of it.

I would say, in my experience, don't do it.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

In the house I had 30 years ago, We put in beautiful high end cherry cabinets.. The old floor looked like crap against the medium red cabinets. It was not a big kitchen, the whole room was only 15 x 12. We ripped up three layers of flooring (house built in 1955) and I took a class on installing tongue and groove red oak flooring. Old school type tongue and groove flooring. The actual flooring went down fairly easy. I spent the next week on my knees with a belt sander sanding everything glossy smooth. So smooth in fact that when you ran your hand sideways, you could not feel the differences from one piece of wood to the next. I then used a paste grain filler on the floor and when it dried, spent another few evenings sanding the floor to a glassy smooth. I think I went all the way to 600 grit and only sanding with the grin. I put down 5 coats of polyurethane to seal the floor, sanding between coats. except after the last coat. Then waxed the floor. The floor looked extremely good against the contrasting darker red cabinetry and stood up to a series of kids, spilling things, as well as a family dog. In our current house, built in 2016, we have engineered floors and visitors like it, but I think it is crap compared to real old fashioned hardwood tongue and groove. Nothing worse than pushing a vacuum cleaner across some of these new floors with the clack clack clack going over the grooves.