Kitchen Floor Materials - Weighing the Options

Beyond style and aesthetics oneshould bear in mind price, durability, maintenance and ease of installation.The main contenders in this race for the flooring prize are stone, wood,ceramic tiles a...

Beyond style and aesthetics oneshould bear in mind price, durability, maintenance and ease of installation.The main contenders in this race for the flooring prize are stone, wood,ceramic tiles and vinyl flooring.

In the first place it is easy to rank the materialsaccording to price. Basically, stone, whether its sandstone, slate or someform of marble will be very costly. Wood varies enormously wide, reclaimedFrench farmhouse boards are very dear and thin slivers of oak on a plywood basearent if one is prepared to shop around a bit. Ceramic tiles are comparablewith the lesser end of the wood world depending on size of tile. By far thecheapest option is vinyl floor tiles, although there too there is a wide rangein terms of cost and corresponding quality.

In terms of durability the same rankings will apply; it willtake decades to go through a stone floor and similar for solid wood butlaminates wear out comparatively quickly as do some types of vinyl flooring,although some more expensive types do wear well. Ceramic tiling is immenselydurable right up to the point you drop an iron casserole on it and then itsruined. Essentially, when it comes toultimate longevity you get what you pay for but it is worth bearing in mindthat a floor surface in a modern domestic situation probably doesnt need tolast five hundred years.

When one thinks of maintaining floor surfaces one isthinking of basically two things; sealing and cleaning. Natural materials likestone and wood need regular application of a protective layer to prevent theunderlying material becoming stained in the hustle and bustle of kitchen life.Ceramic and vinyl floor tiles do not (Although porcelain tiles do need aone-off treatment) Failure to keep up with the maintenance of stone will leadto unsightly discolouration and with wood, inconvenient and immenselydisruptive floor sanding.

Cleaning wood and stone in a kitchen environment takes moreeffort than the ceramic and vinyl alternatives simply because of the grain ofwood and texture of stone which creates little hollows in which grime willaccumulate and therefore require hard work to remove. Ceramic tiles and vinylflooring are usually completely smooth in texture and can be cleaned as easilyas in television commercials.

With ease of installation vinyl flooring is the easiest, acraft knife is about all you need. Wood, if one is confident with a saw, iscomparatively straightforward although there is a difference in complexitybetween click-click laminate and complete replacement of boards. Ceramictiles and stone require water, specialist cutting equipment, cement, grout,goggles, a truss for when youve wrecked your back and probably reinforcedjoists to take the absurd weight of a two inch thick layer of the Jurassic erain your modest terraced house.

So whats it to be?