New flooring can be an excellent means of giving your kitchen a new look. The choices for kitchen flooring are almost endless, depending on what best suits your sense of style and your pocketbook.
Style and budget aside, upkeep and lasting quality are the factors that most influence what ends up underfoot in the kitchen.
When it comes to wear and tear around a house, few finishes are subject to the kind of beating that a kitchen floor must withstand. Endless traffic from appliance to appliance and falling food and the occasional table scrap slipped to the dog are just a few of the day-to-day events that can give a kitchen floor a real run for its money.
Shopping for new kitchen flooring can be a chore. Most people begin by searching for a product that they’ve seen in a showroom, a model home or decorating magazine. Not a bad place to begin as long as you realize that these floors are generally viewed under the best of circumstances without “real-life” conditions. For example, the flooring needs for a growing family with children and pets are substantially different than those of a couple of pet-free empty-nesters.
Tip No. 1: Take a serious look at your lifestyle before choosing new kitchen flooring.
More than ever, consumers are looking for the best of all worlds – a floor that looks good, doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, is easy to maintain and will last forever. When you find it, let us know because we’ve yet to discover such a finish.
However, we can say that today’s choices are greater than ever. So vast are the choices that space will only permit us to touch upon some of the most popular choices, which should give you a head start.
All things considered, the product that offers the best bang for the kitchen-flooring dollar is sheet vinyl. It is kid- and pet-friendly and “no-wax” sheet vinyl is among the easiest to maintain.
Cushion vinyl might sound plush, but its paper backing and embossed-pattern construction place it at the bottom of the quality totem pole. It is especially susceptible to tears and gouges from high heels and the occasionally dropped kitchen knife.
So, if sheet vinyl makes the final cut for your kitchen, kick it up a notch with a better quality product such as an inlaid or vinyl-backed product. You’ll pay more for the goods up front, but you’ll spend less over the long haul.
Vinyl tiles are an especially popular finish in “retro” style kitchens. Don’t confuse these with the cheap peel-n-stick tiles that are best left on the shelves of your local home center. These tiles are installed with the appropriate adhesive with thought given to both color and pattern.
Vinyl-clad cork and a range of other vinyl tile finishes are available for style-conscious consumers who like the look and feel of vinyl. Unlike sheet goods, vinyl tiles can be relatively expensive both in terms of material and the labor to install them.
Floating floors continue to grow in popularity as an option. As the name implies, a floating floor is neither nailed nor glued to the substrate. Instead, the material – planks or tiles – is installed over a foam pad.
Although a floating floor can be installed over a wood subfloor, they are particularly popular over a concrete slab because of their ability to give. Though touted by some manufacturers as indestructible, a floating floor – plastic or wood – can be scratched or gouged, which could mean selective replacement, which is neither easy nor cheap. And unlike its hardwood counterpart, blemishes can’t be filled, sanded or finished.
Natural wood flooring still ranks as one of the most popular finishes for a kitchen floor. It is warm, durable and easy to keep clean and is available in a host of colors, patterns and finishes. Traditional options such as oak, cherry and maple have been joined by new “eco-friendly” choices such as bamboo and cork that are available in both tile and planks.
Appearance aside, there are many material options to consider. There are planks and tile, solid and “engineered” material, and pre-finished versus finished-in-place. The decision to use tile or planks is primarily an aesthetic choice. The other choices have more to do with budget, the type of substrate and anticipated lasting quality. Solid material can only be installed over a wood subfloor (or atop a slab that has been covered with a plywood underlayment) – which can create a floor transition problem.
If you have a concrete floor and like the look of planks (and opt not to install the plywood layer), you’ll need to install parquet tile or an engineered plank floor that consists of a plywood core and a veneer walking surface, which can be glued directly to concrete. Engineered flooring can be obtained with a factory finish or it can be finished in place.
As with a floating floor, wood and water don’t mix. Therefore, you can end up spending a pretty penny to repair damage resulting from a leaking dishwasher or defrosting freezer.
When it comes to abrasion resistance and design possibilities, it’s hard to beat tile. Tile is an especially popular choice over a concrete slab due to the stable base that it provides. In contrast to installation over a wood subfloor, no mortar bed is required and deflection isn’t an issue.
By the same token, floor tile can be the object of cracks and chips from shifting foundations and/or the occasional falling pot or pan.
An increasingly popular finish for people with concrete floors is an acid stain finish. Acid stain is not a paint or coating. Rather, it’s a coloring process made with water, acid and inorganic salts, which react with minerals present in the concrete. It gives concrete a mottled, multicolored, marblelike look in a range of beautiful (mostly earth tone) colors.
For more home improvement tips and information from James and Morris Carey, visit their Web site at www.onthehouse.com or call 800-737-2474 Saturdays from 6 to 10 a.m. The Careys are also on KRKO (1380-AM) from 6 to 8 a.m. every Saturday.
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