Absolutely no problems, I LOVE my walnut floors in the kitchen, which are in the foyer, living and dining room, two halls and my pantry, as well.

Every house I had since I was married had tile flooring in the kitchen. With serious back issues, it only took an hour or two on my feet cooking before I was in considerable back pain.

The floors don't show dirt like tile, when something drops from the refrigerator, it seldom shatters into thousands of tiny glass shards, and the floors are warmer in every sense of the word.
Also--no grout to clean or reseal!

I think a lot of the decision would be the style of your home.
Some modern kitchens look better with tile.

I have never regretted going with wood.

I have never had a problem with wood in the kitchen. We had tile a few house ago but in the last two homes we've built we put hardwood. It is so much softer to stand on all day. Tile makes for sore feet if you have a few hours of cooking time in the kitchen.

We have tile in our entire house and I love it, especially the cleaning aspect (not my favorite thing to do). Also have traditional rugs here and there to soften things up. We had planned for carpet in our bedroom, my poor DH had already installed the molding and I decided I wanted to go instead with the tile, which I'm glad we did.

Wood in our kitchen and in our previous house, too. Far prefer it to tile which is cold and hard - when you drop things they shatter on the tile (if the tile doesn't chip and crack, too). Never had a problem with water. If a dishwasher leaks enough to cause a problem with a wood floor, it will also be a problem for a sub floor with tile.

Hardwood floors are never recommended in areas where water is present. If you read the manufacturer's recommendations you will see that repeated over and over. Many people are ignoring that directive. That can void warranties.

Are there any other alternatives besides hardwood and tile? I do worry about tile because I have arthritis in my feet. We have vinyl right now and I was hoping to get away from vinyl.

This is our third house with site finished hardwood floors. No issues at all.

Arcy, what warranty? if you buy a home that is more than a few years old, there will most likely be no warranties on the floor or other parts of the house. If you do have a major flood,your homeowners insurance would take care of the wood floors, the warranty wouldn't even come into play.

Tile won't really mean that you will have no damage if you had a broken pipe in the kitchen. Good chance of the cabinets and sheetrock being ruined, whatever flooring you might have.

If you are going to build based on a hypothetical broken pipe and flood, shouldn't you be using plastic or waterproof materials for everything in your house!! ;-)

I've had wood in kitchens in different homes for 40 years without problems. Oak, finished in place...I don't know what kind of warranty arcy is talking about? They weren't manufactured so there is no warranty. They are simply the easiest to care for floor ever. Mine have a Swedish finish and nothing affects it. Like dim said, any leak is going to affect whatever floor you have. Tile/grout is not waterproof unless you put a membrane down and even with that, with a flooded appliance it's going to seep in around cabinets and ruin the subfloor. I don't think you'll ever be sorry with wood.

If your husband does all the cooking and doesn't mind cleaning the grout and the foot and back problems that can arise from standing on tile floors, then go for it. If you do most of the cooking, get what's best for you.

I had hardwood in my previous open concept kitchen/family room. While I loved it in my family room area, I hated it in the kitchen. I guess it depends n how much you cook. We cooked a lot and everyone hung out in the kitchen. Spills happened and even if wiped up immediately, it was hard to get sauce out from between 2 planks. I think a lot depends on what kind of hardwood and how it was installed. Ours was oak pre finished planks. I am guessing something harder and site finished may be better. Dings happened because of dropped cans, pots etc. In my new kitchen, I opted for tile with epoxy grout for easy cleanup. With heated floors of course :). Northern California can be chilly.

Neither....high quality vinyl...you can get it to look like wood flooring if you want....durable, stands up to wet and soft under foot. We went with the stone look in the kitchen and the wood look in the rest of the family room, library and dining room.

Another hardwood fan here-I have it throughout my house. Only rooms with tile are the bathrooms and a florida room in the back of the house.

I think technology in flooring has come a very long way, and the traditional horror of wood anywhere near water is outdated. With methods of sealing, and engineered wood that can be easily replaced in sections anyway-it's just not such a worry.

Also, I don't believe in trying to decorate by avoiding anything that might possibly someday be affected by potential problems. Not every dishwasher and refrigerator will leak (far from it). And if you have the bad luck to experience such an issue, it's not impossible or prohibitive to fix it.

So go for the hardwood. It's a beautiful, comfortable and painless to maintain option!

Ann

Hardwood or a engineered wood laminate. When we first purchased our home it had carpet everywhere with vinyl in the kitchen. After a few years of living with the carpet (Yuk), we laid hardwood in every room on the first floor. LR, Foyer, DR, FR, 2 offices, LR & kitchen. Love that I can completely clean the floors. That was never possible with carpeting. I would shampoo, yet with dogs, kids, pool and other realities of daily life, the carpetiing grossed me out. When we pulled it up there was all sorts of stuff under the carpet, despite daily vacuuming, shampooing, etc. With hardwood I can completely clean all surfaces. Some wood manufacturers require that you clean with a certain product (usually something they sell). However, I use whatever I have on hand, and love how clean the floors are because I can get to the actual floor to clean them. No odors, no stains, etc.

Tile is certainly an option, but in the kitchen I would worry about dropping heavy pans, glasses or similar kitchen items. I would imagine that a dropped kitchen item could easily crack tile and make for a hassle to cut out and replace individual pieces of tile.

Engineered wood laminate wears like iron. Another option.

I like tile, but it doesn't have the same warmth as wood. I guess it depends on the look/feel for the rooms you are planning to re-do.

Hope you and your DH can agree soon.

We have traditional, site finished, oak floors throughout. It's softer and quiter underfoot than tile. Love them! I'd only put tile/stone in full baths, laundry rooms, and mudrooms.

Had hardwood in the kitchen for 20+ years. No problems despite kids, dogs, etc.

We have hardwood in the kitchen and I love it. There is no problem cleaning it. I have a rug in front of the sink and prep area. I live in the north and would not want cold tile in the kitchen.

I have had tile and Hardwood and prefer the wood. I HATE cleaning grout!. :) I put cork in a bath and have seen a few kitchens on the kitchen forum with cork in them. I am not sure how it held up because I moved not too long after, but it was gorgeous!

I only have a few pics and they were not of the floors specifically...

We had shiny poly put on top, but you dont have to do that I am sure. It was sooo nice to walk on. Very cushy.

My first house had tile, hard on your joints and cold. In 1980 I put random width oak in my 2ond house. Refinished once since then. I know new owners didn't replace them. This house I put in 12-20 inch oiled pine planks. One thing I now wish I did was after the planks were put down we covered to protect until they were oiled. I saw another house that put in the wide pine and they were left with workmen dropping tools and walking on them etc for over a year. Then they were finished & actually look like old floors with beautiful patina.

as much as dislike grout, if i were doing it again, i would have put nice tile in the kitchen... not because of water or spills, but because of the dogs... way too many scratches!! (and i'm really not fussy!!) maybe a brazilian cherry would hold up better than our oak... it's supposed to be a significantly harder wood... but, that said, if the kitchen wasn't the home of large dog/s, i would go with wood again in a heartbeat- i love hardwood floors!

I've had site-finished red oak in my kitchen for 13 years with no problems, and I spend LONG hours in my kitchen cooking. I also hate rugs or mats in a kitchen...well okay, anything that I have to pick up and clean under. LOL

I do like tile, a lot, but not to stand on for any length of time. I'm all about making things easy to clean, so it certainly appeals to me, but my back definitely wouldn't like it where I stand all the time.

I agree with all of the pro-wood points here, not that I don't also like tile. The problem with tile for me, is that no matter how much I love it today, there are more definite trends and styles to tile, whereas hardwood is more classic. I have had site finished oak with a natural finish for the last 21 years, and have never tired of it. We first had it in our last house, which was 10 years old when we bought it, and the former owners had 5 kids. We did refinish it once during the 14 years we lived there, which I think is much easier to live through than removing and replacing tile floors!
When we built our new house we went with the oak again, and I just love how the variations in color hide a multitude of sins! I have always had an icemaker and dishwasher, and have never had a leakage problem with either. And as mentioned above, if you do have a serious leak the subfloor under tile could be damaged and I think it might be a bigger job to try to replace a section of tile, if you can still find the same tile!

Also, I like have as few different types of flooring as possible for a more cohesive and expansive look.

This post was edited by terriks on Sat, Mar 2, 13 at 12:54

I put tile in my kitchen, a pattern I've wanted since I was in my 20s. I like the contrast between it and the wood.

I find wood floors hard on the feet and back just like tiled floors are. So I wear houseshoes all year long and have no problem being on my feet.

A lot depends on the location of the kitchen and who will be using it. Like big dogs whose water bowls are in the utility room but come into the kitchen with water dripping from their mouths. lol.

Last week I heard a constant dripping in the kitchen. Thank goodness I was home because hot water was leaking from the dishwasher door. Having tile under it saved the floor.

My kitchen is also close to the backdoor and muddy paws goes directly to the kitchen, which means I'm always wiping the tile. If I did that to the wood floor, I'm sure it would lose it's sheen sooner rather than later.

I also use matching braided rugs near the sink and stove which adds to the charm of the room and comfort for me. And the dogs while they lay there hoping a big slab of meat will fall on the floor. :)

I think comparing solid site finished wood to prefinished engineered for this review is comparing apples to oranges.

This post was edited by snookums2 on Sat, Mar 2, 13 at 21:59

Highjack...Annie what brand are your vinyl floors?

We had a floating Wicanders cork floor in our kitchen and sunroom/dining room for about 5 years before Sandy flooded us out. For the remodel, we decided to put cork throughout the entire house (except bath) because we liked it so much. Soft (easy on feet/back), we've dropped a light bulb from a ceiling fixture and it did not break, quiet to walk across, insulating so warm on the tootsies, easy to clean (we steam clean the entire house), easy to install and if some type disaster does happen it's easy to remove a section and replace. Cork is also a green product - no trees had to give their all for my floors. The only downside is cost. They are at least as expensive as site-finished hardwood, maybe a tad more depending on what cork and what wood you compare.

Here's a link to the type cork we just installed after Sandy.

/tricia

Here is a link that might be useful: Wicanders Cork

Aside to Ellendi...Amtico...wood is rosewood, stone is garcia stone....

Here is a link that might be useful: Previous thread on my floors

This post was edited by AnnieDeighnaugh on Sat, Mar 2, 13 at 16:50

I have site finished wood floors in my kitchen and I have grown to love them even though shortly after we moved in I noticed that the individual boards were cupping in front of the fridge from a very slow drip from the ice maker connection.
It is not simple to fix. You can't just refinish one area in the middle of a large hardwood floor.
As the floor dried out, the cupping improved but it never has totally gone away.
I've just kept a rug in front of my fridge.

I do think they are harder to keep clean than a tile floor. You just can't use harsh products to wash them.
When you have babies crawling on them you realize that they aren't as clean as a freshly washed tile floor.

We've had hardwood and tile. Like others mentioned, I found the wood difficult to keep looking nice after awhile. I love the look of our travertine Versailles pattern kitchen floor so whatever extra maintenance is worthwhile to me (rest of the home is hardwood so we also like the variety the tile brings). I keep after the grout with a steam cleaner. Yes, breakage results in a mess but I think we've had three breakages in four years, so not a deal breaker.

Both wood and tile bother my back. I've learned to wear my Dansko's or Clark's inside now which has made all the difference in the world (previously would go barefoot or wear flimsy slippers, flip-flops, etc).

I personally like hardwood and have had hardwood in my kitchens since 1970 when I had it in a rented home. There, I fell in love with hardwood with children, dogs and cats.

I have also had engineered hardwood. I find that engineered hardwood absorbs the smells more than hardwood.
Hardwood is porous and when cleaned, it releases unclean.
Engineered hardwood is less porous, will not handle a good scrubbing because it will start coming off the floor and if you do not, the smells of food and dogs can permeate the flooring.
JMHO. I returned to hardwood in 1988 and have never regretted it.

We have had hardwood floors in our kitchen since the home was built in 1985. It came standard with the house in the kitchen foyer hallway eating area and the powder room. I have had no issues with the hardwood even in the bathroom. Our 3 kids grew up here so there was lots of activity. After we built, they did not put the hardwood in the powder room.

We have site-finished oak flooring in our kitchen and absolutely love it. We had tile for many years and it was a PITA to clean. Our house is older, built back when oak flooring was put in every room and then covered with wall to wall carpeting. We have taken every bit of carpeting out through the years. We do have tiles in the 3 1/2 baths but that's it. I like tile in bathrooms.

We got pre finished maple floors in our kitchen last year and we love it. Like everyone else, I was worried about water and stuff but we have had no issues (knock on wood) so far. I have started learning how to cook and couldn't imagine standing on tile for so long

I always have had wood floors in the kitchen and would not have any other flooring surface in a room where you do a lot of standing and making messes (lighter wood floors hide the dirt).

Site finished are better IMO, because you can usually match the product down the road if there is damage. I once had 100 year old maple floors in my kitchen. We tore up the linoleum and vinyl to find those floors. There were a few large dark patches that hired skilled professional flooring guys repaired pretty effortlessly. That floor was gorgeous. It had a nice warm glow to it that can only come from age even after refinishing.

I had two flood accidents on another floor. That floor buckled a bit, but after about a month the swelling went down as if nothing had occurred.

Tile is hard and it is subject to chips and cracks and the grout is a pain.

Put a pan under your washing machine and make sure you get a some sort of automatic turn off mechanism for your hose lines, of which there are several solutions.

"I had two flood accidents on another floor. That floor buckled a bit, but after about a month the swelling went down as if nothing had occurred."

Engineered, on the other hand, becomes permanently damaged.

Refinishing is also an issue.

You have to understand the differences and limitations between the different types of hardwood flooring today, to make the best decision for yourself. Sales people and installers are of little use there.