<p>We have oak hardwood in kitchen and hallway of our 1993 house. We’ve had it refinished a few time (without major sanding). It is in good shape - we plan to keep it when we redo the kitchen someday. </p>
<p>HINT - Put a small carpet in front of sink and fridge water dispenser.</p>
<p>I was going to post, asking what kind of floor to use.We have old ceramic tile, with many broken tiles. It’s rough on the feet, and as has been mentioned, everything shatters, and tiles break just by using the kitchen normally as a kitchen. We have a home that is heavy on the wood: pine floors and pine ceilings. It’s almost a log cabin, which we bought when we were romantic twenty year olds. We always ruled out a wood floor in the kitchen, but you all are so satisfied! We are do-it-yourselfers, so any recommendations about the kind of wood and the installation would be great.</p>
<p>I would suggest you use a hardwood…oak or maple. We have friends who used pine. It is soft and every time they dropped something on the floor, it left a mark.</p>
<p>I’ve had both oak and maple and I really liked the maple as it is such a nice light wood. The oak is pretty too but much more grain showing and more “color”.</p>
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<p>Only do this if you are willing to clean/wash the carpet every few weeks. You don’t want to create a nice incubator for nasty mold or other allergens due to the accumulated moisture. </p>
<p>Been in homes where they had neglected dirty carpets in front of major water accumulation sources…including a house where the entire bathroom floor had decades old installed carpet that hadn’t been cleaned in over a decade. Nasty.</p>
<p>My parents had oak and the finish completely wore off between the sink and stove. Because of the way the house was designed you’d have had to refinish the entire first floor to fix it.</p>
<p>Another endorsement for had (or even “soft-ish”) wood floors in the kitchen. Easiest to care for of any we’ve ever had. We had cherry. Started out with the mat in front of the sink idea but soon abandoned it. With the right finish (matte polyurethane as I recall), water just beads up if it does get on the floor, so you just dab it up. No point in having the mat/rug which just gets dirty.</p>
<p>No idea why mathmom’s parents had the wear issue with the finish. We are <em>heavy</em> cooks and our finish did not wear in that area in 14 years. Maybe theirs was a varnish or something.</p>
<p>Love our kitchen hardwood. Currently we have tan oak which is harder and less grainy than red or white oak. It’s held up well for 12 years…through several dogs, kids cats and a husband who likes to bring the outdoors in on his shoes, Also keep a small rug in front of sink and in front of cook top…we get the cheap ones, wash the often and then trow them away.</p>
<p>Parents have maple flooring and although they are much lighter users it is not holding up as well…much softer it seems</p>
<p>Twice we have had problems. Once when our washing machine flooded and ruined part of the floor and once when the refrigerator leaked and ruined part of the floor. We had to go through homeowners insurance to get it replaced. And it’s a bit of a hassle when you do need to refinish not to be able to go in the kitchen for a couple of days. But, other than that, I do love the way it looks and feels.</p>
<p>Not in the kitchen but in our bathrooms we have rock-maple floor. Beautiful. It is holding up for 8 years now. I am debating what to do with my kitchen floor, too. Tile floor is hard but doesn’t have to be cold. I’d put a heat mat under. Quite nice. I have tile floor in the poweder room with a heat mat. Pretty, too. It emulates the brick walk right outside of the powder room. In my old house we had french terracota, pain in the tail to clean but very pretty.</p>
<p>Had oak put down 16 years ago when we gutted kitchen and like the look, warmth and ease on the legs. </p>
<p>The mistake we made was we used a pre-finished board that has v-shaped grooves between each board. Not a good thing in a kitchen, as crumbs like to gather in there. We did this to save $500 on a 6 figure renovation and I regret it every day that we didn’t bite the bullet and put down raw boards and have it stained & sealed on site.</p>
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<p>We have always had a little rug in this area. What we do is we get inexpensive but nice rugs (think $12 range…there are a LOT of off price stores here that have them). We vacuum them every week just like the carpets upstairs. When they get old, we toss them and get a “new look”. Right now there is a “contemporary” look rug, but we’ve had braided, fake oriental, and plain colors with a sculpture. It’s a nice way to change the whole look of the kitchen on the cheap. We replace these little rugs about twice a year.</p>
<p>As an FYI…if your washer overflows or leaks, you will likely have “issues” regardless of what kind of floor you have.</p>
<p>Open floor plan downstairs and hardwoods throughout. Easy on the feet and easy on the eyes. The floors are 20 years old and the only worn spot is in front of the sink where I regularly chain H.</p>
<p>Have had hardwood in kitchen for 13 years. Love the look, and it’s worn well.</p>
<p>I’ve had my oak floors in the kitchen for 15 years now and am totally happy with them. I also had a dishwasher leak and several boards warped quite badly. A friend advised me to watch them for awhile before making repairs and sure enough, all but one went back to its original size and shape. I’ll need to fix that one at some point. I wonder if you could put a pan of some sort under the dishwasher to prevent that from ever happening, even if it did leak.</p>
<p>A quick note on dishwashers leaking. Aside form other features which I really like , Miele DW’s are equipped with a catch pan which will hold one cycle’s worth of water in case of some kind of leak or failure. IIRC…there is also a sensor which trips when the catch basin fills to a certain level and the machine simply stops. Luckily we haven’t had any instances.</p>
<p>A question for you would be - do you have a pool? I would have loved to put in hardwood a few years ago when we remodeled the kitchen, but the reality is that I still spend most of my summer mopping up puddles of water in the kitchen and hallway as the kids (and teens) will jump out of the pool and run right into the house to the refridgerator and powder room. I decided it was safer to stick with tile.</p>
<p>Is it the Bona spray cleaner or Bona polish that is best for the hard wood floors?</p>
<p>We have pre-finished wood (flat, no V) in kitchen, halls and our bathroom. there are a couple places messed up after 10# years from water but the warm feel of it is worth it. I’ll have to try Bona.</p>
<p>My house in England was built in 1899, and it has the original oak floors throughout, still going strong (the boards are about as thick as my arm though!).</p>
<p>We have bamboo flooring in our kitchen (11 years now) and it has held up pretty well. It’s a light color and I really like the look.</p>
<p>The biggest issue is that it darkens over time with exposure to light, so the flooring under the table rug and mats by the stove and sink are noticeably lighter than the rest of the floor.</p>