| | Choosing Your Kitchen Floor
Getting the right flooring for a kitchen takes some thought. Kitchens are usually one of the most used rooms in homes so the flooring needs to be hardwearing. It will also need to be easy to clean as it will have food dropped on it regularly. |
Practical, durable and good looking choices for kitchen floors include:
Natural flooring such as seagrass and coir are completely unsuitable for kitchens as any food spilt may get stuck between the fibres and be impossible to clean. Wood Laminate |
Wood laminates give a good wood effect. They look like wood, and providing you choose a good quality one with a good top wear layer it will last as long as your kitchen. I recommend that dishwashers and washing machines are placed on a drip tray to protect your floor from minor spillages. If you have a major flood then no floor including wood will survive and you will need to replace it. Damage like this is usually covered in most household insurance policies. | Wood laminate starts from £30m2 fitted and should be fitted without the plinths on the kitchen cabinets. Wood flooring can complement wood cabinets and worktops but make sure it does not become too overpowering. It like me you are always dropping your crockery and glasses the other advantage of wood is that it can be forgiving and you may get them to bounce. If you would like more information of Wood Laminates including brochures of the products we supply and install. Plus if you are an able DIY'er information on how to estimating and installing the flooring yourself. Please Click here |
 [Top of the page] | Vinyl, Linoleum & Vinyl Tiles | |
Vinyl sheet is the cheapest option for a kitchen floor, prices start from £10m2 fitted. It is available in a huge range of colours and patterns. The advantages of vinyl include that it is soft and quiet underfoot. Some of the more expensive types are anti-slip. Vinyl sheet comes with patterns already printed on them. Some of the vinyl floors can look very artificial especially under fluorescent lighting so make sure you see your choice in day light and at night before making a choice. |
Linoleum and vinyl tiles have all the advantages of vinyl sheet but comes in plain colours so you can create your own design. The vinyl tiles also have feature strips which mean you can get the affect of ceramic, slate or quarry tiles without the cold underfoot.
This type of flooring is inexpensive to lay providing the existing floor is flat and dry. If you lay a vinyl sheet flooring on quarry tiles or an uneven surface it will soon start to wear on any areas where the sub-floor is raised. Vinyl sheet will discolour if it is laid on top of an old vinyl floor or thermo-plastic tiles. In all these situations floor preparation will be required and you should budget for the same amount on floor preparation as on the flooring itself. | [Top of the page] |
Carpets & Carpet Tiles | Carpets and carpet tiles should only be used in kitchens if they are specifically designed to be stain resistant, for example Flotex. Carpet tiles have the advantage that they can be moved around when they get badly stained. For example the tiles under the table could be moved to in front of the kitchen sink. | ||||||||||
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