If it gets wet in the kitchen (leaking refrigerator, ice/water line, etc) the wood will get trashed and not an easy fix....

I've had oak floors throughout my house for years, including the kitchen. I find it easy to clean, pretty, warm, I don't get uncomfortable nor do things shatter terribly easily. There's virtually no maintenance. I guess if we ever sell I'll buff and polish. But for now it's great. Two little kids BTW.

Wood. Drips wipe up re a pp comments.

Looks great! No grout to clean. Friends moving from a home with wonderful tile floors---the first thing they are doing in new home is redoing the floors there (tile) to hardwood.

We have had both. You may have trouble matching the wood in the other rooms, and may not want to, either. (Yellow old oak?) We have tile now, 18x18 with matching grout. Stays very clean. Wood floors in the kitchen is for the careful cook who never gets anything wet. There are pluses and minuses to either. Our tile is aged stone same color as a wood floor and very warm looking. Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:I HATE our tile. I'm a dropper, I suppose, and I've broken a lot of items. I would switch to wood in a heartbeat, if I could.

+1

Our old house had wood, and I loved it. Yes, it got worn near the sink and stove, but I had a floor guy come in and do a light sanding and recoat it. It did not look perfect, so if you are a perfectionist and hyper-clean, then go with tile. But I hate standing on tile, hate the coldness of tile, hate the look of tile. If we had more money, I'd rip out the tile in the kitchen in our new house and put in a wood floor. If I put in a new wood floor, I would put mats in the high traffic areas to protect the floor. I'd also have them put a few extra coats of polyurethane on the floor, even though it will cost more. It will save money in the long run because they won't have to back as often to sand and re-coat the floor.

I am a very messy cook and have engineered wood gloors in my kitchen, and they look fine. I clean them with a steam mop.

I had to have a thin floor covering in the kitchen due to some idiotic moves by our kitchen renovators, so I chose something that matched the rest of our hardwood as closely as possible, and it looks great. Very warm and pretty. Sure, they have some dings on them but that's ok.

Ours are wood and I love them for all of the reasons mentioned. Flow to the rest of the house, warmth, comfort on back and legs, we don't break dishes that drop as easily, we also don't break tiles. Broken tiles look terrible. There's no grout to try to keep clean. We clean spills immediately so we don't notice the problem others have mentioned with cleanliness of tile over wood, but I'm also OCD.

I wouldn't do tile. I've lived with a tile kitchen floor for almost 10 years, and I hate it--my back hurts when I cook, and stuff shatters when dropped (I'm clumsy). I have wood floors in the rest of my house and have no problems keeping them clean and in good shape, so I wouldn't worry about that in the kitchen.

FWIW, if it were my kitchen, I'd choose cork. But I'd definitely do wood (or synthetic) over tile.

I HATE our tile. I'm a dropper, I suppose, and I've broken a lot of items. I would switch to wood in a heartbeat, if I could.

Another sheet vinyl here too. Money was not an issue. Tile is too cold, hard if you drop something and hard to clean. Hardwood would make me paranoid with keeping it clean and splashing water.

We have wood and love it. The look is warm and welcoming, and it's easy on the feet. No, it probably won't stay perfect-looking over the course of time but to me that adds to the charm.

Tile with white cabinets and grey counters is likely to look (and feel) very cold.