What’s the best flooring for the kitchen
Foe many of us, the kitchen is the heart of our home, we want it to be stylish just as much as practical. With wood flooring growing in popularity, many homeowners are considering laying it in their kitchens. While wood flooring certainly comes with its own benefits, it’s not always the best choice for kitchens. Luckily, there are plenty of alternatives that will give you easier maintenance, a cheaper price and just as stylish.
Solid wood flooring is without a doubt one of the most luxurious and beautiful floors you can buy. Not only does it look great but boasts incredible durability and will last for a lifetime if cared for properly. Despite all this, we wouldn’t recommend it in your kitchen for a few reasons. The first being that it isn’t as good at coping with water exposure as other options, which isn’t ideal as spillages are common in the kitchen! Solid wood is also not able to cope with the fluctuating temperatures of under floor heating, a feature especially popular in the kitchen for a warm and homely feel. If this is something that you’ve got your heart set on, then you’ll have to go for engineered wood as it is able to cope with fluctuating temperatures.
One of wood’s most useful benefits is that it is able to be sanded down a number of times to eradicate stains and scratches, something very common in the busy life of the kitchen! However, in terms of everyday cleaning it does require a little more maintenance than alternatives, so be aware of this.
With this being said, we wouldn’t say it’s going to be a disaster if you do decide on real wood for your kitchen, as long as you’re aware of the dangers then you can certainly enjoy this beautiful material in this room.
With all this in mind, it’s worth looking at alternatives that are generally better choices for the heavy use of the kitchen. Since your kitchen is amongst the highest foot traffic areas in the house, something that’s going to cope with this without showing wear is paramount.
Laminate and Luxury Vinyl Tiles presents us with a very resilient and easy to maintain flooring. Laminate will cope with heavy use, along with being scratch, stain and water resistant – all the things your kitchen floor will have to deal with – but, LVT is fully proof to all of these, so you’ll have no concerns if you decide to go for this option. You don’t have to sacrifice the beautiful authentic look of real wood, with both of these options you get some very convincing replicas of natural products, that often it’s hard to tell them apart! They’re also a lot easier to clean than natural products, with only a quick sweep and simple mop a few times a week necessary.
