Hi: When we built our house we put carpet everywhere. BIG mistake. So we went back years later and did tile in the bathrooms and hardwood floors every where else but the bedrooms. Really like the changes now a few years later. I live in Tennessee and there is an abundance of oak hardwood and that is what most people use. After looking at a lot of samples of prefinished hardwoods we decided to go with Brazilian Cherry. A little more pricy than oak but it has a darker, rich appearance and it is a lot harder wood than oak and a lot more scratch resistant. It will scratch but not near as bad as oak. Most oak floors I have seen look like they need to be refinished after a number of years. Maybe the people haven't taken as good of care of their floors as they should have but if you don't remove your shoes when you come in you will bring in grit sooner or later and it can lead to scratching if you don't clean real often. I don't like to take my shoes off and would hate to ask my guest to do that. I have three grandkids and the Brizilian Cherry still looks great after several years of use. I keep a swiffer vac plugged in and use it around the dinning area after people eat and in the kitchen for dry spills after baking and such. For serious cleaning I use a cup of vinigar in a bucket of water and wipe them down and follow behind with a dry cotten towel so as not to leave water spots. Then they look just like brand new again. The only thing I have to deal with is if you don't clean up the crumbs or food drops right away it can get in the seams and I have to use a tooth pick and run it down the seam to get a good cleaning. No big deal. If I were doing new construction I might have installed the flooring then had it finished but I didn't want to create all the dust from finishing them after they were installed. I doubt I will ever have to refinish them as they are holding up extremely well. Now after several years were I to have the chance to do it all over again I would use the Brizilian Cherry and do just what I did again. I LOVE MY HARDWOOD FLOORS! Hope this helps you decide which way to go. John Sissom

I have white oak on my first floor addition and kitchen to match the old hardwood flooring from the original house. (Upstairs everything was new and we put in red oak) There is not much difference between the two, but I do prefer the red oak...just a little more color. They all are natural and without stain. I believe we had 3 coats of a water based protective finish put on when installed. Upstairs, where there are bedrooms, I would say that they have held up very well. In high traffic areas on my first floor, there are definite signs of wear and tear after about 6 years. (And we have a very busy household and I have not babied the floors.) Still, the most is in the kitchen, by the sink...darkening and scratches. My children and their friends do take off their shoes when they enter as a habit. They play outside and run around so this is what we have taught them to do. My DH and I do not always, neither do we ask other adults to remove their shoes. I would like to have a machine to use to clean the floors. I think this would help to clean better and therefore cut down on the wear and tear of areas. In the past I have used a vacuum followed by a wood floor cleaner with a damp mop. I am not so sure this was the best for protecting the finish. And I am not so sure that there were enough coats of finish applied in the first place. We were novices back then and did not have GW to consult! Sometimes I felt like I would have liked a different surface in the kitchen because I wanted to really scrub the floor like I would imagine I would with tile. It is not hard under foot though and I do love the look. I do plan to refinish the floors on the first floor and I definitely need to in the kitchen. I did not keep a rug underfoot near the sink, but when we refinish and do the remodel, I will. Yes, I love my hard wood floors and would probably do them in a new kitchen. I would just research which wood floor and be sure of a good finish. Finally, I do not have issues with food in the cracks. Hope this helps.

No regrets for me! I love them.

Here is a thread from last week with lots of replies.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wood flooring in kitchen...good idea?

This is only my 2nd post. I so appreciate this forum and all I'm learning. Everyone is so helpful and I'm amazed at the wealth of knowledge and experience among all of you. We are planning a remodel of a home we just moved into that hasn't been touched since it was built nearly 30 years ago! WOW! It was a spec home in 1981 and most everything is "builder's grade." The kitchen is atrocious to say the least. You can imagine how dated and worn out it is. What a challenge to make all the changes necessary within a budget.

Anyway, I do have some food for thought on this subject. For the past 12 years I had oak floors in the kitchen of my 1930s Acadian cottage in southeast Louisiana. The kitchen was an addition so we matched the floors in the original house and they were nail down & site finished. My children were young teenagers at the time and very active. We did take our shoes off (all of us) inside the house to help protect the floors, but other than that we did nothing special to baby them. When necessary in the kitchen I only spot cleaned the floor with a damp rag and I would immediately dry it with a soft cloth. I always wiped up spills or dropped ice cubes immediately. I found the floors in the kitchen (and the rest of the house) very beautiful, comfortable to walk on and easy to take care of. We had no problems at all in 12 years. When we sold the house last month there was not even a scratch anywhere throughout the house. In my opinion they looked as good as the day we put them in.

That said, there was a day disaster might have struck. I just so happened to be at home when the pipe to the kitchen sink sprung a leak and it was not a drip....but a trickle. I was able to use lots of bath towels to keep up with the leak until help arrived to fix the problem. There was no swelling to the sink cabinet (it was all wood) or the flooring. But, I know if I had not been home and the leak had continued unchecked for hours it would have been a disaster for the floor. Due to that experience alone I may have a tile floor in the kitchen at this house. Then again...I just loved my wood floors in the kitchen! :-)

Thank you everyone for your input. I agree with storklady, I also very much appreciate the wealth of knowledge and experience here.

It seems as though the general consensus is that wood floors are great in the kitchen. Perhaps we were just not careful enough with our previous wood floor. My experience has been similar to fleur's. It got quite scratched around the kitchen table. We had felt pads on the chairs, we usually went shoeless in the house, but evidently that wasn't enough to prevent the floor from becoming very worn. I live in New Hampshire where there is always a lot of grit and sand on your shoes in the wintertime. Hence the decision to go with tile in our new kitchen.

Storklady, we have done a similar thing. We purchased a house last fall that we have completely gutted and remodeled. It was built in 1985, but really needed updating. You said it -- a challenge to make all the changes necessary within a budget. It has been quite a project, but the transformation has been amazing. I am happy to finally be choosing flooring and paint colors. It's more fun than siding, roofing, windows, insulation, HVAC, etc...

We also had a pipe burst in our previous home -- ours happened in the laundry room. That room was tiled but it was right next to our master closet, which had hardwood floors. We did mop up the water right away, but there was a lot of water flooding the room. The hardwood cupped, but after several days the cupping pretty much flattened out and I never noticed it later. It was just the closet, after all. The tile, of course, was unaffected.

As far as my new kitchen goes... the tile has been purchased and the cement backer board is down as well as the heating mats. My DH is ready to strangle me because I'm second guessing this decision. Can't say I blame him!

Sorry to write so long, but it's been a frustrating few days! Thanks for listening!