We put real hardwood in our kitchen 3 or 4 years ago and I love it. I've never had tile in a kitchen and thought I would do that on the next kitchen remodel, but after reading what others have said, maybe not, especially since I usually walk around in socks.

I"ve never had wood in my kitchen and for the past 30 years or so; nothing but tile so I really don't know any better. I have no problems with aching body parts and I am certainly up there in years. However, I really think it's a matter of where you live and lifestyle. Here in So. Florida the coolness of the tile is welcome. It helps keep my home cooler. My yard/pool area is perpetually wet so tile works for our area. I have three small dogs who sometimes do what small dogs do with their tiny bladders.... so it works for our lifestyle. As much as I covet wood and would put it in a second home if the area called for it; I love our tile.

I live in Florida and had beautiful porcelain tile throughout our whole house. I wanted wood but we were on a slab foundation and I was worried abouit wood in that situation. We sold that house and are now almost finished with our new one. This is our last home.

The tile, while beautiful, was just awful to be on all day. It made my legs and back ache. I am very active, cook a great deal, and seldom sit down. I said I would never have tile again.

The home we are building now is on a slight pier foundation, as the original Florida homes were built many years ago. It is a simple log style home and will have all heart pine floors throughout.

I don't know how the engineered wood flooring holds up, as we are not using any engineered wood. With enough layers of pure tung oil the real wood floors will be waterproof. That does not mean we can flood the floors and let the water just sit there. However, even if water drips from the shower onto the floor, as long as we wipe it up right away it doesn't harm it at all. And we plan on a pool again eventually.

With the pool in our last house we were advised not to put engineered wood down and that is why we went with tile. I wish I had looked into using real wood, but I didn't know enough about it at the time. Still, we were on a concrete slab and it may not have been very compatible.

I will say that even though our tile had some slip resistance when wet, it still got slippery and we did fall a few times. Falls from wet tile are violent. Take my word on that. Unless tile is under 4 inches with lots of grout lines, you can fall when it gets wet, whether it be from a pool or from mopping it.

I would never have tile again. 12 years of it was enough.

Neither :) I have had both, and now we have Marmoleum. True, we have only had it installed for two months, but I love it! Soft, anti-static, easy to clean, looks great and does not seem to dent or scratch(although I know dianalo had a different experience with hers, so maybe some types show scratches more easily than others).

We went from vinyl flooring to hardwood about six years ago. Still love the hardwood. Beautiful, easy on the feet, and a dream to keep clean. We have a Roomba for daily vacuuming, and use Bona on it occasionally. Much easier to clean than the vinyl, which was a bit "nubby" and very hard to clean. I suppose the nubbiness was for slip resistance, but we have no slipping issues with the hardwood.

I'll be the naysayer. I hate wood for a kitchen floor. Too hard to keep clean (especially the cracks), too easily damaged by water, too icky feeling. Other than wood, I always had vinyl or lino (the real kind, like marmo) until I moved to my present house. I like them! There's a lot to be said for sheet goods for a kitchen floor. One of the few great things in my old kitchen here was the tile floor. It was ugly, but it was really functional and I loved it.

I got tile for the new kitchen, and I love it! I have some small foam rugs that were from something else that I put in my new kitchen because they go. They can make my feet tired. The tile doesn't!

I like the wood floors.....warmer, and easier on the legs.
I don't find mine any harder to keep clean than maintaining grout.

I find my wood floors easy to keep clean -- just sweep and occassional mop, and if something spills I wipe it up just like I would on any other floor. We have cold winters and we don't wear shoes in the house, so tile would be too cold for me in the kitchen. I think it would be hard on my feet, too.

We have tile in our front entrance foyer and back hall / mudroom, so that probably helps keep our kitchen floor clean as feet are wiped and shoes removed at the entrances before coming into the kitchen. (No we don't make our adult guests remove their shoes!)

We redid our first floor 2 years ago and I was concerned about the kitchen as we have 2 English Cocker Spaniels and my husband wanted wood floors and I was thinking tiles. Well we went with engineered wood floors - they are great - they don't show much from the dogs - more from what my husband and I have dropped (ie: patina). We have "real" wood floors on our stairs and they show everything from the dogs. So I would defintely choose our engineered hardwood for our kitchens/first floor.

We put engineered wood on the kitchen and dining room floors (1 room) about 10 years ago. I do tend to drip water and stuff on the floors. If it's really getting wet, I throw a dishtowel down until the messy task is done, then wipe it up and put the towel out by the washer. For single drips, I've been know to drag my toe through it to spread it out and let it evaporate. The floor has done fine with this cavalier treatment.

We installed hardwood floors in our kitchen during our complete remodel 7 yrs ago. I have never regretted it for one moment. We all love the wood floors. They are warm in the winter and cool in the summer. I have a dog, two older boys and a husband. There are always things being thrown or tossed. It is a rough household, and the wood floors have held up beautifully. As a Realtor in a previous life, I can say that the wood floors add value to a home, and do not ever have to be replaced. They can just be sanded and coated every 5 - 10 yrs and they look brand new. Tile, on the other hand is cold and slick all of the time. It is also very easy to clean the floors. Just dust with a swiffer mop, and damp mop periodically and it's finished.

I have wood in the kitchen, in fact my whole house is wood floors, and I love it. I walk barefoot and never find it to be cold. It doesn't seem to show the dirt thank goodness however we do kick our shoes off at the door.

When it starts to look like it needs a pick me up I get the Murphy's oil soap out. I love the smell of Murphy as the floor dries.

We had two standard poodles when we remodeled (we now have three). Because the dogs spend a lot of time in the kitchen & foyer (they stay with us as much as possible), we put down tile in the kitchen. Why?

(1) We saw the damage they did to the vinyl we had in our old kitchen in just three years.

(2) Friends of ours have one standard poodle and hardwood floors and in only two years you could definitely see the wear and tear caused by their dog. My friend lamented how they had gotten an extra top coat and that it was supposed to protect the floor longer, but once they got a dog that was no longer the case (by experience).

We decided we didn't want to have to refinish the floor every 5 to 8 years or so, so we decided to go with tile instead.

In the DR, though, we put down Brazilian cherry engineered wood...and in one year you could see the scratches, etc. caused by the dogs (only two at that time). Unfortunately, that means it's going to be even more difficult for me to convince my DH that we should put hardwood down in the rest of the first floor. I had wanted to re-do the DR as well as the LR/Music Room and Library/Computer Room in 3/4" Cumaru (Brazilian Teak) when we could afford it, but that may not happen now!

The tile has definitely held up with the dogs and they all love to sleep on it b/c it's so cool. We'll see, though, this winter w/the puppies... I also like the coolness in the summer of the tile. In the winter, I usually have on slippers b/c my feet get cold easily, so it's not an issue for me.

The BIG question...Is the tile hard on feet/knees/back? A year ago, I would have said "no problems here!". However, in the past year, I've noticed that my feet and back (not knees) do bother me after standing on it for an hour or more baking or cooking. I did get a GelPro mat last Christmas that has helped, but it's not the "magic bullet" to solving the problem. (I'm kind of surprised about the knees...I was recently diagnosed w/arthritis in both knees, but the floor doesn't seem to bother them...sitting for a prolonged length of time or climbing/going down stairs do.)

What would I do if I had it to do over? I'm not sure, especially as budget was an issue. Marmoleum? Something else? I honestly don't know!

Since we have wood flooring throughout our house, we considered both hardwood and engineered flooring for the kitchen, but the rear entrance to our house is through the kitchen.
And since we live in a corner house, the rear entrance is the one that gets used the most.
We were afraid that wood flooring wouldn't be durable enough to put up with all the grit, mud, melting snow and residual ice melt that would be inevitably tracked in over the course of the year.
We decided to go with 24x24 natural cleft slate tiles.
We read all the comments about tile being hard on the feet and joints so before we made a final decision we picked up a few samples, placed them along the sink run, and lived with them for a few weeks.
We had no problems and subsequently went with the slate.
It's easy to maintain, it looks great and it's almost bulletproof.
We love our new floor.

Not all hardwood floors are alike when it comes to wear and tear. From engineered wood to various hardwoods and whether the finish is water or oil based makes a difference. I have hardwood floors throughout the house, including the kitchen. My gut remodel will again have brand new real red oak hardwood floors with oil based finish. Our runnerless staircase to our only bathroom was last refinished 20 years ago. Looks like it was done last week :)

I have Florida Tile Pietra Art Chiseled Edge Travertine in a modular pattern, color Picasso. LOVE this tile. We've had it 2 years in our kitchen, eating area, mudroom, laundry room and bathroom. ALWAYS looks clean even when it isn't so I have to remember to vacuum and wash it : ) Has taken abuse from our busy lifestyle with a big lab, 2 cats, lots of bushels of veggies being dragged in, lively kitchen. I couldn't imagine having hardwood in these busy areas. I have hardwood in every other room in the house, but I wouldn't want it in my kitchen, mudroom, laundry room.

We have wood throughout the house but tile in the kitchen and sun room).

Our cabinets are wood so tile was a nice contrast. Wood would have been too much wood, and would not have matched the old oak floors in the rest of the house. The checkerboard tile floor just works better.

Our two little dogs were also a big consideration -- as is the fact that the kitchen and back hall/entry are contiguous and see a lot of action.
The tile is so easy to keep clean with a steam mop.

But if I had a white kitchen, and no dogs, not much traffic, and never dropped anything, I would consider wood floors.

Love the look of both, never even considered hardwood for the kitchen. The coolness of the tile is actually a plus in a climate like Texas.

I've read many warnings here about MDF or particle board cabinets regarding water damage, but what about hardwood floors? We had one instance in the bedroom (engineered wood) where a plant saucer leaked small amounts of water over several days, and one of the boards still sticks up along the edge. Our old toploading washer malfunctioned a couple of times and we ended up with about an inch of water over the entire kitchen. DW did the same some years later, just on a smaller scale. Luckily the floor was vinyl/tile. I'm pretty sure hardwood would have been ruined, or at least visibly damaged.

Tile hard on you body? Possibly. Of the various chores that have the potential of messing with my back, though, standing on tile for a while is way down my personal list. Not saying that it doesn't affect others worse.

When I was deciding between tile and wood, I read every thread on the topic and generally found a lot of people in support of wood. The most common complaints for tile being having to clean the grout, it's hard on the back to stand on, and it's cold. The main wood complaint was water ruining it - from dishwasher leaks and in-door ice machines dripping.

I already had wood (oak) in the entryway and bath so I had some idea of how it handled, but was really concerned about the kitchen where water was on the floor constantly it seemed.

In the end, we ripped out all the oak and replaced it with birch, as well as putting it in the kitchen. It's been in well over a year, and it's been wonderful. You get used to wiping up water after loading the DW, and you be sure to have your ice maker on the interior of the freezer, not the door, but even the accidents that slip through the cracks and leave major puddles have not caused any damage. I think wood holds up much better with water than people give it credit for.

As for having a fairly soft wood, it is dinged up, but you can't even tell. That's another thing I love about wood. It hides the wear really well. Our previous linolium had unsightly black gouges all over, our neighbors ceramic is chipped all over, grout get dirty, but wood dings and you as the owner are the only one who knows it's there.

Happy bamboo user. I'm a little creeped out by the slight gaps between (prefinished) floorboards. With time they may become very groddy. But this unease is something that will wane with time I think. It's very comfortable and looks good. But sometimes it just doesn't *feel* cleanable iykwim.

We went w/White Oak site finished w/oil based finish - 4 coats in kitchen - that was 5 1/2 yrs ago - I agree w/biker chic above. There are many differences in quality of hardwoods and finishes -
In researching what floor to use, I found many are fooled that tile is "waterproof" - Again, variations in tiles, hardness, types, stones - Tile is not waterproof & grout certainly is not.
There was mention of upkeep and having to refinish wood floors in high traffic areas like kitchens - again, not my experience. I had an excellent flooring guy and follow his recommendations - Don't use any oil based product on the floor (Murphy's oil) and "screen" floors & apply coat of poly every 2 yrs - this process is quick, easy, inexpensive & maintains the finish.

Good luck

We're going with radiant heated floors in the kitchen, so we're going with tile. If we weren't heating them, we would go with wood.

You can do radiant heating under wood. My in-laws have that. It's nice.

The rest of the house has original oak hardwood, but I kept tile in the kitchen for practical reasons. There is too much dirty traffic through the kitchen door (especially in the slushy-snowy winter and spring, which is about 7 months here), no mudroom, a dog and a kid, so I needed something indestructible and very easy to clean. I chose dark gray slate-look porcelain tile - commercial grade- with gray "dirt-colored" grout. It has been great. You really can't see the dirt. My back does start to hurt if I cook for 6 or 8 hours, like a holiday or dinner party, but frankly I think my back would hurt standing anywhere that long. I love the look of wood in other people's kitchens, but I needed the ease of care of my gray tile floor.

I have maple hardwood floors in my kitchen. They are about 10 years old now (we moved into the house two years ago) and they look 10 times worse than the floors in the rest of the house - they are beat up! I'm pretty enthusiastic in the kitchen (my DH calls it messy) - I drop pots, fling knives, splatter sauce, you name it. Every time we move an appliance, we scratch the floor; when the dog gets excited for a treat, he scratches the floor. There's dirt in the crevices.

However...it's an open concept space, and I wouldn't want to disrupt the flow by using a different material. Basically I've just learned to accept that the floors in my kitchen will look...well used. We have an older character home, so it doesn't look as out of place as it would in a pristine house. I've put a rug down in front of the stove, sink and main counter area where most of the knife dropping occurs.

After living with it, I think hardwood in the kitchen is a terrible idea, but it's still the best option compared to the others out there. When we replace the floors, we'll replace with more hardwood.

I think the sheen and the color variation in the wood make a difference in how much wear and tear shows. A solid colored high-gloss will show more than a matte-finish wood with lots of color variation.

For instance, the top pic shows my floor in an area I have more than a few deep dents. You can't see them in person and you can't see them in the photo. However, the bottom photo shows a few of the dents up close. They are there, but the wood texture hides them well.

floor with at least 12 deep dents in this photo (that are invisible):

3 of the dents up close - one is shaped like a circle. Even if I pointed them out in person, you'd have to move around a bit until you hit it at just the right light angle to see them or else get on your hands and knees to see them:

I had red oak floors in the kitchen of our last house. When we bought our new house (which we've been in about 6 weeks) I saw the tile floor in the kitchen and thought ugh, I'd really rather have wood again. But so far I've liked the tile. I haven't noticed any aches or pains (I do have a gel mat in front of the sink), it's easy to clean, and I didn't sweat it when the fridge's water line gurgled suspiciously. Our wood floors had major water damage from a leaky fridge in the last house.

As far as flow, it is pretty typical where I live to have wood throughout the first floor except for a tile kitchen, and when we were househunting, none of the tile floors seemed to "pop out" iykwim. Most are what the builders put in, and they used muted colors, tans, browns, or, like ours, a reddish, terra-cotta-ish look. I'm in Southern California, so cold tile isn't a problem. My wood floor in Maryland was over a crawlspace and it was COLD in the winter. So I would say wood is only as warm as what is under it.

Like Bobby99, the floors in our old kitchen showed much more wear than the wood floors in other rooms. The tile floors in our new house look pretty good in spite of the previous owners' kids, dogs, and generally lax attitude toward maintenance of any kind. :-/

I wouldn't say I like the tile *better* so much as that I think there are really benefits to both and you have to decide what is most important to you.

Another vote for wood! We just refinished a remodel and debated between keeping our existing ceramic tile, do new tile or doing hardwood. Went the hardwood route and even extended it thru foyer and family room and love it!!!

We have the original (the house was built in 1928) heart pine wood floors in our kitchen and I love them. They were under linoleum for 75 years but were uncovered 8 years ago and still look great. They're easy to take care of (I sponge-mop them with Murphy's Oil Soap) and they give a nice warmth to the feel of the kitchen. I'm in the middle of a total kitchen renovation and it's the *only* thing I'm keeping!

Re standing on tile, to Buehl: Since the tile doesn't bother the arthritis in your knees, I have a guess that the problem isn't so much the tile as how you're standing when you're not paying attention. People tend to think they're standing right when they're concerned about this or that hurting, but then when they start concentrating on what they're doing, they give up thinking about posture and do the things that cause the hurts. Thinks like cocking a hip, pronating, etc.

Another possibility, considering I know more or less how old you are, is that you're losing muscle tone in a few key areas that aren't the ones that the "now that you're X years" exercises target. If you concentrate on the lower back and abdominals, it might improve a lot, including the feet.

Or it could just be the tile. :) But minding my posture has worked for me. I've been putting in days on end just now, baking bread, pies and pastries for the coming holiday without it bothering me, whereas awhile back I was getting obscure pains.

Another "Woody" here.... soft pine with 330 years of patina. We are having them refinished this year because the three pups have done a number on them; however, wood is very forgiving and gentle on your feet - especially on cold New England mornings when it is near freezing in the kitchen...

To prevent tile and grout from cracking the floor must be built much more rigidly.

This removes the slight flex present in a typical wood floor on joists.

It is so bad in commercial kitchens that foam mats are often used for the workers (creating one more thing that must be cleaned).

I am definitely going with hardwood in my kitchen reno - and have been asking around too. Consensus seems to be hardwood, and I've heard the same thing about tile chipping if something heavy falls on it. I also just love the look of it...
http://www.houzz.com/photos/query/hardwood%20in%20kitchen

Same question that I am in the process of researching.. I think for ease of cleaning and the piece of mind of not having to worry about water damage, I'm going with tile. I like wood everywhere else, just don't think the wood can survive the snow, slush, mud, and everything else that will get dragged into the kitchen, nevermind the cooking messes...Seriously how do you get rid of egg yolk that get caught in between the grooves of the wood floor( I'm known to be somewhat of a klutz). Plus you can do more designs with tile.

I had pine floors in my last kitchen, and Saltillo tile in this one. No strong feelings either way...just one trade off for another!

The tile does break things more easily if you drop it, but the coolness is no problem at all in our warm climate in New Mexico. My old Saltillo has the wide and deep mortar gaps, hard to clean except by vacuum. But we love the old handcrafted texture.

Pine is incredibly soft (especially if you have a big romping dog) but I learned to accept the marks that occurred from normal life. (Houses are for living in.)

We had a refrigerator malfunction and leak on the pine floors, and it did cause some small gaps to open in between the pine planks right under the fridge. I realized when we moved in here (with tile) I was happy not to have to worry about any potential water damage from a misbehaving dishwasher or fridge.

I have one of the first Pergo laminates on the market throughout most of my home. It is easy to clean and we drop stuff constantly and it is indestructible! When we did our kitchen our handyman dropped a hammer more than once... nothing! not even a ding or dent. The floor has lasted through my sons trains and tonkas unscratched. I have dropped mugs and glasses, they bounced, but didn't break. Our golden retriever doesn't even scratch it with his nails when we play tug on it.

It may not look as beautiful as the real thing, but it has lasted 10 years w/ out any problems.

My SIL is re-doing her floors with a wood look tile. I think it looks nice, but I am too lazy to keep that grout looking clean! Her floors will look similar to this:

Here is a link that might be useful: wood look tile

I don't know why so many people believe that wood is so soft under foot. Yes, compared to stone or ceramic, it is a softer material. But when you stand on it barefooted for a period of time, it is still very hard on your back. And some of the earthy colored tiles are very warm looking just like wood.

I forgot to mention that with tile you can really sanitize it. With wood you have to watch what you use. Also, I have a few friends who have wood floors and say that they hide dirt so well they hardly ever actually have to wash them, instead they just sweep or mop. I told them to come over and see my tile after a few days.. and that's what is actually on their floors. They just don't see it! With tile I do routine washings, and then once in a awhile I use a disinfectant to really clean them.

Unless you are sticking to the floor or eating off of it, who cares? LOL just kidding!

I have had wood installed after having to have to put up with carpet in the kitchen for x number of years.

Karen

I had water damage in my house and the tile in both foyer areas held up and still look like new. The engineered wood floors all now need to be replaced. I am going with tile in my kitchen for that reason as I have a sliding door there and the dogs go in and out to the backyard to potty with my supervision. If I did not have the sliding door in the back, I may have went with the wood in the kitchen but snow and leaves come into the kitchen.

I am confused by jejvtr's comment about "site finished w/oil based finish - 4 coats in kitchen" and then the final comments on "screen" floors & apply coat of poly every 2 yrs - this process is quick, easy, inexpensive & maintains the finish." Does that mean 4 coats of oil based stain and then four coats of poly that are lightly sanded and polyed every 2 years??? Please explain!

I would look at luxury vinyl plank tile. It gives you the wood look without the maintenance headaches and without the hardness of ceramic. We went with amtico flooring throughout the public spaces in our house and are delighted with the performance, though it wasn't cheap. There are other manufacturers out there now who make the equivalent for less.

Wood in the kitchen vote here. I've had stick and peel tiles, linoleum, ceramic tile, and oak. Oak wins hands down for me. Our last house we were in for 17 years. Around year 12 we got tired of the light stain, sanded it down, stained it dark, and it was like a new floor. Very fun and little stress. We had a number of large dogs and 3 boys and never had regrets. I suppose if I were super OCD about little dents and scratches it would be a different story. But, I didn't find cleaning my wood floors or wiping up spills any different.

Good luck with your decision

I just ordered vivaldi in fall, lajoanna can you share your grout color.

I am ordering Spring for my whole house. Do you still love it? or would you have chosen a darker color?

Site finished hardwood throughout our home, no thresholds. Only baths and back hall have tile. No pains in joints here.

Tile throughout our Maui condo. I have to wear supportive shoes or suffer.

BTW, since I have yet to eat off my kitchen floor, I'm happy to keep it as clean as all the other floors in the house. (I don't iron either.)

I'm not sure why a four-year-old thread has been revived - there are so many more choices since this thread was started. If I had to do it all over again, I'd go with the wood tile (tile that looks like wood) although it is very expensive. The original ones were awful but the new styles (see the post above that is only 1 1/2 years old) look and feel amazing. Some of them have some sort of coating that is "soft" and if you feel it you can't tell if it's real wood or tile or what.

We agreed on hardwood floors and narrowed it to two. We even have an install quote......and discovered a leak tonight. The on site maintenance guy is fixing it now. 50+ year old pipe. hopefully this is our one and only leak. We are still getting hardwood, handscraped with micro bevel edges.

He said it's an original pipe

We just replaced our wood floors with tile (in the kitchen). The wood floors did NOT have a waterproof membrane under them which, for a kitchen, seems to be imperative! I believe the wood floors were approx. 7 years old (PO installed them) and in that time probably saw water more often than I'd like to admit (from washing the floors, spilling things, the dogs having accidents, etc). When we tore up the floors we saw LOTS of water damaged subfloor (soft, spongy and weak) and water stained floor boards (from the underside). We ended up having to replace the subfloor in the kitchen before tiling.

Having said that, I'd vote for tile in a kitchen long before I'd ever consider wood.