This is a heavily debated topic on Gardenweb over the years. There are pros and cons to each that's for sure. We had travertine in our last house and while I loved the look at the time, I chose the warm wood this time around.

Here was a huge debate thread a while back for you to read. Good Luck with your decision.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tile vs. Wood Thread

Why limit yourself to ceramic tile or hardwood? At times, I've had kitchen floors of rubber, pine and, currently, slate. Linoleum has made a comeback. And there's bamboo (very green) and concrete.

I debated over this issue for several months...it's not an easy decision because there are so many pros and cons. I ended up with the tile ONLY because I wanted the contrast with the cabinets since my kitchen opens up to a large dining and living area that has the hardwood floor on it. Below is a blurry picture of the kitchen/floors (gotta fix my camera), but hopefully you will get the point.
V

Okay..no fair vfish...I'm dying to see your new house. Get a new camera quick! LOL

We have site finished quartersawn oak in our kitchen. The con of hardwood is possible water damage. We had water damage within the first year--a fitting under the sink cracked and water leaked into the cabinet below the sink which leaked onto the floor in front of the cabinet. It does not take much water, and the water does not need to sit on the floor very long, for the wood to get damp enough to warp. Also, the area of the warping will be bigger than the space where the water was sitting because the water travels down the cracks between the boards (wood expands and contracts so there will be cracks). The water in our kitchen was confined to a 2'x 3' rug in front of the sink, which became soaked, and then a brief flood when I got the water out from under the cabinet, but the warped area is probably 12' x 2'. It took over 6 months for our floor to flatten out. We do have a little discoloration between some of the boards from the water. Apparently oak flattens out pretty good after water damage and in most cases you do not need to repair/replace the floor. I'm not sure how other woods respond to water damamge. I would not use engineered wood in the kitchen because it only has a thin layer of hardwood on top and then (it is my understanding) that whatever is underneath soaks up water and warps but will not flatten out again like a solid wood floor so have to replace the floor. Since our water incident, I have talked to a lot of other people who had water damage, so water damage is not rare. Kitchens are full of things that can leak, so if water damage would be devastating to you, then I would go with tile. However, if you think you can survive a water damage incident, then get hardwood if you like it. I had tile in my old house, and I must say that hardwood is much easier to stand on than tile.

We have tile in our kitchen now. I HATE it. It is hard to stand on, the grout is never clean enough. I just hate it. I loved it when I picked it out, but I wish we would have gone with hardwood. When we finally settle on a floorplan and start building we are going to do bamboo everywhere but the mudroom and bathrooms. In those rooms I will be doing linoleum or vinyl sheet.

I agree with mkkristen. We hated tile in the kitchen we had for years. Too hard and when you dropped something either the object or the tile broke. We've got rubber in the current kitchen. Probably going with some sort of engineered product in the new one.

I had the ice maker leak into the family room on the current engineered floor. After things dried out, things recovered.

A future neighbor of ours did a beautiful mix of hardwood and cork in their kitchen. I didn't think I would like it until I saw it. It also made a very nice transition of hardwood into the family room. It is a diamond pattern of sorts, with the hardwood as the outline and the cork in the middle as the diamond.

FWIW, we are doing hardwood. I love the look of tile, but we aren't using it for the reasons others have mentioned.

We plan on installing wood in our new kitchen. But to be on the safe side I also want to install several Flood Stop Alarm signals that will turn off the water should there be any significant leaks from any sinks or dishwasher.

Here is a link that might be useful: FloodStop Alarms

Thread break,
Lindy, thanks to you, I LOVE the HW floors. BT. It goes SO well with the tile/doors/paint colors. Pictures soon.
Suzy, FWIW, I installed heated floor pads under the desk area and right in front of the sink/beverage/dw area for comfort. Ultimately, it's you standing on the floors, do what you think you'd be most comfortable with in the long run.
V

We chose hardwood.

I like the look of tile but I hate how hard it is to clean (for me). And without a doubt if you drop something it is going to shatter all over the kitchen. It's also hard and cold on the legs/barefeet.

In our last house our entire basement was tile and I will never, ever do that again. Loved the look but hated everything else.

I love my hardwoods in the kitchen! They are easy to clean, easy to stand on and any dings I chalk up to patina.

Amy

Keep your heat source in mind.

Hydronic floor is the 'gold standard' for comfort and can be super efficient if you have a geo system or good boiler, but it's generally considered to only be compatible with quartersawn solid hardwoods [engineered is ok, though].

I prefer tile because it's very easy to keep it looking good. I can actually pour out a bucket of hot soapy water and vac it up with my floor mate. Of course, I was smart enough not to use white grout, and an anti-crack membrane like ditra combined with a porcelain tile [especially a solid body] makes the floor practically bullet proof.

I don't have to worry about kids with toys, guests with shoes [even high heals!] dogs on a rampage, or undetected spills. No stress over scratches or scrapes or stains, no fear of damage when rolling out the refrigerator, no searching for the perfect felt/cork/rubber pads to protect the floor from the barstools, no issue if the kids roll the office chair accross the room on its hard rubber wheels.

The ditrius of country life just doesn't effect it-- sand, mud, pebbles-- doesn't matter, the floor is tougher.

A dropped platter or bowl or bottle might break, but it won't make a huge gouge in the floor requiring re-sealing [or filling or refinishing].

I don't find it hard, but if you do, you can always add a mat in front of the main appliances.

carolyn53562,
Just curious why you were not able to file a damage claim with your homeowner's insurance after the leak onto your floor? I had a friend whose icemaker leaked at the back of her refridgerator and her insurance replaced her whole hardwood floor! That's great that your floor "recovered" for the most part!

Our old house has a tile floor which I hated for many of the reasons mentioned (couldn't keep grout clean, it was cold and extremely hard on my back when cooking, and everything breaks when you drop something -- even the tile itself when my son dropped a hammer on it!)

We chose hardwood for this house mainly because we have a very open floor plan that would look chopped up with different floorings. However, I don't think I would want anything else anyway. Wood is warm and comforting underfoot and is low maintenance. A light microfiber mop every so often is all that is needed to keep it clean (vs. the steam cleaning I needed on the grout).

If you have young children, you will have to get used to small scratches and dings with wood. If that bothers you, chose another flooring like cork or rubber. Since it's just my DH and I, our wood floor stays remarkably untouched. Even our dog doesn't do anything to it when she's running around.

I really like hardwood. I think it is comfortable on the feet, etc.

One thing about tile--when you drop something, it can go everywhere. My friend has a beautiful tile in her kitchen and her DH wouldn't let her have anything but plastic cups!

Oops--I just saw the post above. Peterbog says the same thing.

twotogo--we could have filed a claim with our insurer but decided not to. We have an open floor plan and about 900+ sq ft of contiguous hardwood with an oil base polyurethane finsh and it was our understanding that we would need to refinish the whole floor if we replaced part of it and we didn't want to go through the hassle of moving everything out, including ourselves, so we decided to wait and see how the floor recovered. If I had it to do over again, I would probably get an oil finish (not oil based poly) on the floor because it is my understanding that you can spot refinish a floor with an oil finish which makes repairing the floor much easier.

I have lived in a house with both. I love the look of the tile, but everyone is right. It is very hard to stand on, cold and hard to keep the grout looking clean. The house we are in now has hard wood and I am finding that I like it more. It is warmer, easier to keep clean and not as cold. It is true if you drop something it is gone or you may possibly chip or break the tile.

We've had hardwood for the past 7 years. We've had three major water disasters. In the first one, a faulty kitchen or too-old faucet started spewing water everywhere, and by the time my husband found the cut-off valve outside, the entire floor was flooded. He and a neighbor (I was out of town) quickly mopped it up, used a wet vac, etc. Even so, when the floor dried out, it was warped. These are antique oak floors. Believe it or not, the floors "healed themselves" in a matter of weeks. Even my floor guy was amazed, said he'd never seen just badly warped floors settle down again. THEN we had a slow leak problem in a powder room toilet (the plumbers didn't seat it properly after the floor installation). By the time we figured out what was happening, the bathroom floor was really badly damaged. Floor guy discovered other damage, less obvious, in contiguous areas, corner of dining room, pantry closet, hallway, etc. We made an insurance claim, which after the deductible would have paid for a good bit of new flooring, all floors re-sanded and re-stained. BUT we elected just to rip out bathroom floor and replace it with ceramic, as we were soon going to move. (Our house will be demolished eventually; long story--we don't own land but the college where DH teaches does and they want land back. They made all of us an offer we couldn't refuse, so are now in process of building a new house.) Third disaster: sewer got clogged, sewage backed up into powder room and a downstairs bathroom toilet AND a bathtub. Most disgusting mess ever. We quickly cleaned up the floors; water didn't damage the wood though the nasty sewage soaked through carpet in the bedroom, which we ripped up partially. Just so glad we'd done the ceramic in powder room! We chose NOT to make a claim this time, having made one such a short time ago, fearing our rates would go up. So we paid out of pocket for the repair to the line and for new clean-out valve to be installed in the old, 40 yr. old, part of the house. Anyway: despite this, I love the look and feel of HW and the ease of keeping it clean and looking good, so we are planning on installing HW in kitchen, dining room, Great Room, one long hallway, entry, up the stairs, etc. BUT I am going with ceramic in bathrooms as I like the idea of being able to clean with a weak bleach solution occasionally. I LOVE the suggestion here from someone about putting in concealed tile and drains under the kitchen sink, refrigerator, etc. That is a super good idea and I will discuss this with our architect tomorrow and the floor guy who is coming over this afternoon. He sells antique flooring and did such a fantastic job before that we will use him again. Nothing FEELS or LOOKS better than wood. I don't worry about cold ceramic floors in bathroom, since I live in Texas, but I do love the idea even so of radiant heating under bathroom floors and may talk to architect about THAT, too. Love these forums. Thanks to everyone...