Why do people install expensive hardwood flooring in their kitchens, the place where you are most likely to drop food, cutlery, spill liquids, etc?
Seems like a terrible idea to me.
You make one mistake one time and bingo, you cost yourself a few grand to have it sanded, leveled, varnished, and polished.
What the fuck are you doing to your floors?? Hardwood is easy to clean and doesn't crack like tile.
Wasn't my floor, friend dropped a steak knife which landed tip down, took a big ass chip out of it. Guess they didn't varnish/seal it, they just stained it?
You might look for more competent flooring people.
When I was working with a 3rd generation hardwood master, we would glue in a replacement chip or swap the board if the chip was huge. And stain to match (if appropriate). And refinish.
Always, ALWAYS make the finished product an even, flat floor.
Stained potholes? Wtf ever. Fire that team.
It looks nice. And if it's finished well spills will clean if you're quick.
If it's finished well you can leave spills for days, they'll still clean up nicely.
Wear and tear adds to the charm of a well lived kitchen imo
Couldn't agree more.
Our kitchen table was pretty expensive when we got it and is destroyed from a heap of kids use and family meals over about 22 years. It is firmly agreed (by them too) that when my wife and I die it will be the only thing the kids fight over possession of.
To me its the same as the thought about survivorship bias .... you want the best flooring material for the place that will most likely get the most damage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias
You seldom use the bedroom floor because all you really do there is sleep ... basically wake in the morning and walk on at night before bed. And you seldom bring anything serious into the bedroom like liquids, hot / cold food, drinks or cups or containers.
The living room has moderate traffic and again you don't really use it during the day.
A high traffic area is the bathrooms because everyone goes there on a regular basis.
The most high traffic area in any house will always be the kitchen because everyone is constantly working and walking there .... and it is always exposed to liquids, solids, spills, hot stuff, cold stuff, broken stuff, glass, ceramic, metal, pots, pans. And you sometimes have crowds of people there ... all working and basically scrubbing the floor with all those feet.
It's the reason why you should have the best, hardest and most expensive flooring in any house.
If you are going to invest in expensive flooring ... put it in your kitchen because that is where it will be most useful and last for years in your house. If you install cheap floor in your kitchen, you'll be replacing it in less than 10 years or even less if the flooring is really cheap. After you replace flooring two or three times, it would have been the same cost as buying one good layer of expensive flooring anyway.
Hardwood floor sealer exists. It's called vitrification
You'd be nuts to install a hardwood floor and not protect it!
I put whatever I want in my kitchen because I'm a superstar and fuck your disapproval.
I like the cut of your jib.
Trampoline floor
Better impact resistance compared to tile, easier to repair than vinyl or linoleum (sand and restain)
What kind of cutlery are you dropping that requires refinishing your floor?
tungsten spike maces. why do you ask?
☭
My wife and I had ceramic tile installed in our kitchen when we remodeled our house. Didn't like it so four years later we had it torn out and had oak flooring installed. Couldn't be happier. High quality hardwood floors are really durable.
It's easier to clean than carpet
Edit: I can only assume that one down vote is from the Big Carpet Cleaning lobby
If your one mistake is attacking your floor with sledgehammer or jackhammer, you may have a point.
Hardwoods & bamboo will weather damn near anything.
Even dog claws will take a few years before the floor begs for a refinishing.
In Brittain they often have carpet in the toilet. How tf do you clean that, it will get soaked with piss, you dirty fucking Brits.
Welcome to the 70's-80's when carpeting was de rigueur for bathrooms and kitchens.
Fun story ... my son was a climber so all food was in the highest cupboards. One time I needed a bathroom break, and in under 5 minutes he'd dragged a kitchen chair to the counter, climbed up, took down the flour and dumped it all over his little sister. Honest to gawd all I could see of her was her dark eyes in a cloud of white.
And just to boost his creativeness here, he decided to move the chair to the sink, grabbed a cup of water and they started making flour pies on the carpet.
Gotta love kids!
I have 3 kittens in their puberty, that's already more then I can handle. I'm skipping kids.
I am British, lived here for 35+ years (all my life) and I’ve never seen carpet in a toilet or bathroom.
Hey it's not me experiencing urine leakages often enough to develop such presumption, buddy
Are dropping kettle bells on your wooden flooring or something 🤣.
No, friend dropped a steak knife tip down on theirs, took a chip out of it. From reading comments I guess they must have not sealed/varnished it.
A good poly and an appropriate hardwood selection can do a lot to protect the floor.
Would I ever do a natural wood floor in a kitchen or full bathroom? Absolutely not because I actually use a kitchen and have a dog that would maul hardwood with zoomies.
I thought most people have tiles or vinyl/linoleum for their kitchen floor. Still, you do know that you can just remove and replace the damaged floorboard instead of sanding and varnishing the entire floor, right?
Our kitchen is integrated into the living room (open kitchen space) and the whole room has hardwood flooring. Due to the room layout it would be hard to establish a "border" where the flooring could change (e.g. tile floor in the kitchen area). It it easier to have one type of flooring across all the room.
We rent, and unfortunately we were the first ones after the hardwood flooring was put in, which means that every spill and every scratch is on us. We decided not to bother, as every spill leaves a mark (regardless how fast your clean-up effort is), and thus adds character to the floor. It's a living room after all.
We know that a chunk of the security deposit will likely be gone if we move out. It would probably be as much money as to have the floor sanded down by ourselves.
Despite hardwood flooring has some disadvantages regarding spills and scratches, it makes the room much more cozy than any other type of flooring. The most durable type of flooring would be sealed screed flooring you expect in a warehouse. But that wouldn't look cozy.
Spills and dropped items are kind of expected in a kitchen, no? Wouldn't most of this damage be categorized as normal wear and tear? As a tenant it's not expected that you hand back the property exactly as it was when you took possession - it's up to the landlord to budget for normal maintenance.
We are on good terms with our landlord, and repairs (mostly heating) are taken care of quickly. So far there are no problems at all. But we like to anticipate the worst. I too believe that spills on a wooden floor in a kitchen are normal wear and tear. I think it all depends on what else in the appartement is worn out (some things even due to real negligence), if we move out any time in the future eventually.
Every spill leaves a mark?
Hardwoods need finish coats. Sounds like a real half assed job you're living with.
it's very easy to sweep and mop!
Throw rugs and tile in mine
When I bought my house it had 2 layers of carpet in the kitchen. I replaced it with hardwood because I didn't want to stain the carpet.
Carpet in the kitchen is almost as nasty as fur on your fridge.
IMO the best flooring for kitchens is cork or real linoleum (not vinyl).
I have stained concrete and i love it. Spill or pets = spray it and wipe it up. Scrapes= reminders of the people we've had over, the chairs we've dragged up to the kitchen table, and the dancing in the living room. I also have soapstone counters because i like to see the scraped circles and remember bottles of wine and whiskey that we've shared. I'll be sad when we sell it. If they want new counters, I'll buy the old ones from them.
Same people install white or cream carpets just before they decide to have kids or a party.
Hey, it's better than carpet.
Though I do get your point, ceramic tile is probably best, but to each their own 🤷♂️
Yeah, but drop a pot on hardwood you might get a scuff or dent, while dropping a pot on tile might crack or shatter the tile.
You make a good point 👍
We happen to have that cheap lick and stick tile stuff. Came with the apartment. 🤷♂️
I have never seen a wooden floor in a kitchen, where do you live? May as well use a carpet floor lol
Mostly I have seen it to have seen it with cheaper floating options and even in the bathrooms to have a seemless consistancy throughout a condo. Never seen it done in a house.
Peacocking.
Those sound like poor people problems