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Do you have wooden kitchen floors?
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Anonymous
| OP here, we will be renovation a newly purchased house and I am considering wood. The people I know that have them tend to be very careful with spills and so on. In my family, if something drops on the floor, it can be a long time before it is recognized. There is HEAVY traffic and dirty cooking. We drop lots of things and our floor is often sticky. I am not a fan of grout, so I gave some thought to wood floors. |
Anonymous
| Sorry, "renovating" |
Anonymous
We have wood floors and aren't that careful with spills. The wood isn't any worse for the wear. That said, we have a dog who is VERY attentive to spills so maybe there's the difference. I think tile can be beautiful but grout grosses me out. Plus, it's cold. We call our dog the Furry Roomba. |
Anonymous
| We have wooden floors, and I like them. But I would say that if wear and tear will bother you, you might think twice. I think it makes the floors look charming. We do have lots of spills (mostly milk from sippy cups dripping) and they all come up with a little elbow grease, even if they've sat for a while. We have dents and scratches in the finish, but it doesn't bother me. Much better than grout, IMO. Plus, our kitchen is open to a living area, so it would look odd to suddenly start another type of flooring. This looks much better, dents and all. |
Anonymous
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"We call our dog the Furry Roomba. "
LOVE it! |
Anonymous
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I'm loving my wood kitchen floor, but we have a wipe-spills-promptly rule. It may not be absolutely necessary, since there's a lot of polyurethane, but I'm just not cool with letting spills sit.
I'm also loving the dark finish we chose, but it's really the root cause of visible wear and tear, since scratches really show. Lighter finishes will do better in this department. |
Anonymous
| We have a house that is about 10 years old that has wooden floors in the kitchen. The only place that is beginning to show wear is in front the refrigerator where the in-door water and ice dispenser is. I do try to wipe up spills immediately, but over time, the drips from the water and stray ice cubes falling out and melting have caused the finish to darken and wear off slightly. It's not horrible, but just be aware that, in the long run, wood will not be as durable as tile or stone. |
Anonymous
| I do not think worn and dented wood floors are charming, unless you live in a charming one hundred plus year old house. |
Anonymous
| We've had ours for 8 years -- since we renovated entire house. They have stood up very well, despite 3 kids (including teen boys), a dog, and lots of cooking. No dents -- I can't say we drop things a lot though. We have a runner on the floor in front of the sink, but we do need to wipe up spills elsewhere. We're not compulsive about it, but we do it pretty promptly -- I think I'd do the same thing with other surfaces, though, just so nobody would slip. If you do wood, definitely put those little covers on the tips of the legs on your kitchen stools or chairs. As an alternative, I'd look at linoleum -- the colors are beautiful and, compared to tile, it's much easier on dropped glasses and the cooks' joints and back than tile. |
Anonymous
Our dog's middle name is "Hoover". We have wooden floors in the kitchen, and they have held up well. About 5 years in the house, with a large dog and a 2.5 year old. |
Anonymous
| I think it depends what kind of wood floors you are looking for. Our previous house had cherry engineered hardwoods (so the hardwood layer is on the top only). They were absolutely beautiful and we got so many compliments, but every water drop, grease mark, and crumb showed (even though they were pretty dark). My husband is a messy cook in the kitchen and it drove me nuts. Our new house has bamboo hardwoods (actual bamboo, not fake laminate to look like bamboo) -- our home inspector told us that bamboo floors are actually the strongest wood floors out there, even though I thought they would have been the softest -- and I am liking them SO much better than the cherry hardwoods. Hardly anything shows on them, and they do not scratch easily. |
Anonymous
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Spills left unattended will cause buckling. It is not immediate esp if the floors are recently sealed, but you do have to be attentive.
The hard part is the kids spilling cups. Many people I know have mats underneath sinks and dishwasher to reduce the urgency on adult messes. As for sauce, oil I have not had a problem but our floors are well sealed. As one postermentioned you can get scuffing from barstools |
Anonymous
| Have always had them. Nicer on your back in the kitchen than tile or something harder. I do use a mat around the sink and stove area mostly b/c I like to stand on those more and I can throw them in the washer easily. Just sweep mostly, wipe drips with a wet rag. The problem with tile is not only cracks but staining and grout issues. They're harder to clean since stuff gets caught in the grout and just less comfortable all around even though it can be pretty. |
Anonymous
| BTW - I am going to take a big guess that the majority of people talking about dents and scratches on wood floors have floors made of the prefinished wood (or engineered wood varieties). Those really don't hold up well compared to getting 1/2 or 3/4 inch thick planks of unfinished flooring and then having it stained and sealed in place. You will have virtually no problems with anything then, and these can be refinished many times over their life if need be - probably only once every 20 years or so! |
Anonymous
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We cook a lot, and the floors in the rest of the house are red oak. Red oak in the kitchen would be a nightmare, since water stains it so easily. We're planning a kitchen renovation, and so far, stone tile in the kitchen is winning out.
However, I'm listening to all of you who are saying that you can keep the wood floors looking nice in the kitchen. Convince me that red oak floors in the kitchen wouldn't be as horrible as I imagine. |