Kitchen Floor Options...

[vaking]

Few years ago I installed laminate floor in my family room, 12" square vinyl tiles in the kitchen and 12" stone tiles in the bathroom. I underestimated one thing- my family room has a sliding door to the deck and to the pool so it is as exposed to moisture as any kitchen or bathroom. The results now- laminate floor shows heavy year, vinyl tiles are showing ware at the seems even though it was the best and most expensive tile with 20 year warranty. The stone wares well. If I were you - I would go with ceramic or stone tiles. I never tried sheet vinul but I would not trust it anyway. Beware - the stone tiles must be granite, not marble. Marble is very delicate, wash it once with wrong detergent and it is ruined. Also note - when I was installing vinyl tiles I removed all the old layers of vinyl. It was actually harder to remove old than to install the new - still did not help.

[Hallagan]

Thanks for all the info guys. I got some good stuff to ponder here. At this point, I have eliminated laminate due to wear and ceramic due to my wife and I both have back problems and don't need added back aches on the hard floor. Between hardwood and sheet vinyl now.
Thanks!

Corey

[JimD]

When I redid the kitchen in our last house, I took up the sheet vinyl with an old iron and a putty knife. Slow but didn't cost much. It had 1/4 luan glued and nailed to the subfloor and I put the ceramic on the luan. The sheet vinyl was in good shape, just worn, with no sign of movement so I figured it would be OK for ceramic and it worked.

In your case with multiple layers, I would recommend stripping to the subfloor and then installing concrete board and ceramic tile. I did this in the guest bath in our current home (actually no stripping it was new construction) and am confident the final product will be worthwhile. We have oak flooring finished in place by the builder in the kitchen. I have already refinished once and it is showing significant wear again in less than 7 years. Maybe prefinished would work better but if it is my choice (and it won't be since it's the kitchen) this will get switched to ceramic. It looks good and it holds up. If you put it in yourself and don't go wild on the tile, it is also not very expensive. I do complicated cuts with an angle grinder and a cheap abrasive blade sold to cut brick and concrete and make simple straight cuts with what I call a cracker. You need to use thinset with latex in it, the stuff with the latex added dry is a lot cheaper and seems to work the same for me. Not that many tricks or tools required. Simplier than most people think.

Jim

[Jeffrey Schronce]

We put down Laminate in our kitchen 3 years ago. As we were also concerned about moisture and spills, we put 3 coats of poly on and have had absolutely no problems with any type of moisture on it. Has really worked out great.

The real problem is exposure to larger amounts of water such as a dishwasher leak, refrig leak, etc. Typically this will require replacement of the entire area unless you have enough saved to make the repair. It is a good idea to buy a extra box in case of accidental damage. This is easily repaired if you have extra, however if you do not have a surplus after a few years it is practically impossible to find replacement.

[ElRay]

Might just be personal preference, but IMHO, the best kitchen floor is real linoleum (not vinyl sheet goods) over cork. Real linoleum is relatively self healing so dropped knives, etc. don't do as much real damage as they would to sheet goods.

The worst kitchen floor is tile, but if you have to go that route, go for porcelain tile. It's more water and chip resistant than ceramic (at least until they start making ceramic tile like ceramic body armor).

Ray

[LJR]

Back on page 1 Cobob mentioned a strip "linoleum" that looked like wood. There is a product made by Amtico that is actually a vinyl available in strips made to look like wood. It goes down with a two part (epoxy) adhesive but that's the only different part of the installation. I would consider linoleum tiles. Forbo is one company that makes linoleum in 2 foot square tiles with some really nice color patterns available.