Dear Kathe,
We are remodeling our kitchen – what type of flooring should we install?
The most important thing to consider when choosing a new floor for your kitchen is what is going on on the rest of your main level of your home. It is a critical and yet often overlooked rule-of-thumb that the most easily sold homes do not have more than two types of floor coverings per level. The trend decades ago was to customize flooring to the room. The living room might have been green carpet to coordinate with the living room furniture, the dining room might have been blue carpet to work with the custom drapes. Today that is no longer in vogue and for a home to feel updated, and not subject to the “dated home discount” it’s important to unify the floor coverings within the home. Floors are no longer considered an important opportunity for you to express your sense of style – that is better done with area rugs and other items that are easily removed from the home. So when you are choosing a new floor for your kitchen, first consider whether you have the opportunity to unify (or move toward unifying) the flooring in your home.
Hardwood floors are by far the best choice you can make for your kitchen floors. There are two basic types – finished in place and factory finished. Factory finished floors are the easiest – they come out of the box pre-finished and just need to be installed. However, finished-in-place hardwood floors have far greater durability and a much more classic look. You do have to endure the sanding & staining process inside your home, but the costs are roughly equal and in the end you have a far more saleable floor. Avoid trendy choices in wood – while hand scraped or hickory may be trendy today, it will quickly feel dated. Stick with traditional oak floors (of any board width), as styles change the most you will have to do is update the stain color – a far easier task than completely replacing the floors.
Many people choose tile for their kitchen floors. This is not a choice I would recommend however. Tile is the quickest floor covering to feel dated and the hardest to change once it is dated. Its also cold on your feet, anything you drop is likely to break and it can be a challenge to keep grout clean and crisp looking. Other trendy choices include cork and laminate. Laminate in particular is not a good choice for a higher end home.
In the end, finished in place oak remains the best choice for your kitchen (and for the rest of your home!)