Kitchen tile floor. What is the most practical?

[marit]

I am weighing ceramic vs. stone vs. porcelain (am I missing anything?).

I want something that doesn't show stain easily, easy to clean and won't absorb permanent stains.

We just bought our first house. I am excited without words. We've been living in this country for 8.5 years now, and I can't believe this is happening to me. Maybe I should be careful opening my mouth because the escrow takes about a month to close, but I had to ask my knowledgeable pretend friends for advice...

Thank you!

[daniele_ut]

Ceramic and porcelain are essentially the same and the advantage is that they are pretty much maintenance free. Natural stone needs to be sealed and then resealed periodically.

We already had tile in our kitchen when we bought this house and I was happy about that before we actually moved in. Now I actually don't like it at all. It's cold, our grout is dark and unattractive, and anything you drop shatters into a zillion pieces. I'd like nothing better than to rip it out and extend the hardwood that's in the rest of our main floor into the kitchen, but it's not in the budget since we are trying to get the basement finished.

[marit]

Isn't hardwood a bad idea for a kitchen? if something leaks, like say, the dishwasher, wouldn't it make irreversible damage to the wood?

[deannanb]

we have had hardwood in our kitchen for 7 years - (redid the kitchen)
also hardwood in laundry room - just off of kitchen

if your dishwasher leaks (which has not happened to us) - then you let the wood dry and see what happens -

my last house had tile floors and like pp said - you drop something and it shatters - not to say that doesn't happen with wood -

[zag95]

We have larger 12 inch ceramic tile in our bathrooms- I would agree with pps that hardwoods would be nice in the kitchen! WE just got HW in DR/Entry and Hall- DR is adjacent to Kitchen- the the HW floors look so awesome, compared to the crappy vinyl flooring!

[smiles33]

We have hardwood, too, which looks gorgeous but I'm always worried about warpage (as DD spills water, my dog tracks in water, the dishwasher could leak, etc.). I'd actually prefer to switch it out for stone, but since hardwood already makes DH's knees hurt after 3 hours of cooking, he nixed the idea. I'm not sure how tile/stone is, but DH thinks it will be even worse than hardwood.

[geochick]

We have wood floors. I don't worry too much. I have an absorbent rug from LLBean under my refrigerator's ice-maker (my kids are always dropping ice. My wood floors are 4 years old, and look just like the day we moved in.

I wouldn't do natural stone. Sealing MUST be done regularly if you want to keep them clean. On a counter top, I don't think that's so bad, but sealing a floor every year is a lot.

Tile - I HATE how gross grout gets in a kitchen. I'm not a fan of tile.

[DebbieJ]

I HATED hardwoods in my kitchen.

If I were remodeling I would want to do something like cork floors, not tile--easier on the feet and legs.

[C99]

I HATE my ceramic floors. I would never, ever put a ceramic floor in a kitchen or bathroom. I cannot wait until we can re-do our kitchen and bath and rip those floors out, probably to replace it with marmoleum, cork or hardwood. HATE our ceramic floor. Why? It is hard and has no give, which makes it very painful to walk on when barefoot. Glass and ceramics shatter in a million pieces when they hit the floor. It is COLD. And the style of mine is such that it never looks clean, even after scrubbing it on my hands and knees, and it gets slick and slippery when grease (or grease and water, eek!) is spilled on it.

[infomama]

Is Pergo an option? We have had it in our kitchen (and the entire first floor) for 10 years and it still looks great.

[writermama]

Another "nay" vote for tile. We had it in a kitchen in our first house and hated it after the first week -- always looked dirty, slippery when wet, painful to walk on, and unforgiving if anything was dropped.