I can't think of a con that's con enough not to get wood in the kitchen! I mean yeah, watch for sitting water, but I love it..

You will probably get tons of answers for this but I LOVE my wood floor. I went back & forth trying to decide whether to get tile or wood. I went against DH and opted for the wood. Can't say enough about it. If I could afford it I'd do my entire home in it. I especially lve walking barefoot on it! And, yes, it's very easy to care for. Plenty of info here if you do a search. We have engineered Lauzon select birch in Amaretto color.

I have wide cypress barn boards which we installed ourselves. We have two big dogs and knew they would get worn in quickly. The floors were left natural and finished with urethane to give them a stronger finish (the color in the left-hand photo is closer to their appearance).My feeling is that I'd rather have a worn, wood floor than any other floor. They are so comfortable to walk on and look great. I sweep/swiffer daily, or so, and wet mop with a microfiber cloth as needed.

Well, the big con is if you have a water leak the wood is really messed up. We have a continuous wood floor throughout the entire first floor of our house. We had a leak in the kitchen. Now we have to refinish the entire first floor because a 12 sf area is warped.

But I wouldn't have anything else!

While I love wood floors and have them on the rest of my first floor, I did rip them out of my kitchen and powder room to be replaced with natural slate. While on vacation for two weeks in the summer of '06, the water line to our fridge had a slow leak. When we returned home it was to warped, water logged floors in the kitchen and powder room. The fridge is on the other side of the wall from the powder room and it had leaked under the wall and ruined the floors in there as well. We have 3 kids, 2 cats, and a very large dog. My wood floors definitely show a lot of wear from the last 7 years. But the slate I don't have to worry about. The dog can slop his water and I'm not in a rush to clean it up. On the rare occassion the slate gets scratched, it is easily buffed out. The slate always looks clean too. I love love LOVE my slate floors. Here are some pics of the water damage, you can see from the pics of the subfloor just how far the water travelled. In the first pic the fridge is at the top right and the water travelled all the way down beyond the front of the range:

And this pic is the subfloor in front of the refrigerator (remember the water line is in the back, so this is nothing compared to when we pulled the fridge out...

I'm not saying don't do hardwoods in your kitchen, I'm just saying that they weren't working for us. I would highly reccommend one of those new alarm things that goes off when there's a leak for both your fridge and your dishwasher.

Suzieca, Any pics of your engineered Lauzon select birch in Amaretto color? The color sounds beautiful. Thank you.

I ripped up my carpet and sanded and finished the Douglas Fir floors underneath in my 1924 house, and I can say one "con" is that when they are wet, they are VERY slippery, especially when newly finished. In my kitchen I am putting cork click-lock flooring matching the coloring of the Douglas Fir.

Carla in Sac

Here's a pic of Anderson Dellamano pre-finished, hand-scraped maple hardwood in amaretto color (this line also has hickory wood in various medium to dark tones). I was a little nervous about installing hardwood in a kitchen, and I'm being good about wiping up spills, but so far (4-5 months) I'm delighted to report no maintenance issues:

I've also been looking at prefinished grey wood floors and found Mirage engineered Maple Charcoal, 3/8" engineered. They also have a darker more stressed look with their Earl Grey color. I haven't purchased it yet, but am close.

We have handscraped walnut floors in our new kitchen- here is a pic before the islands went in

{{!gwi}}

and after
{{!gwi}}

I love the look, but since we aren't living there yet, I'm not sure about how they are going to hold up.

In our current home we have 3inch oak floors in the kitchen, and I find it so much easier to take care of over the tile we had in our last home. The swifter is the best invention of the decade!

My DH really wanted travertine in our new house, but I won out, as standing on that hard of a surface for long periods, like when I'm cooking for holidays, really bothers by legs.. Hes now glad I won out, because he loved the wood too. Our was not prefinished though, it is 6 inch walnut, no stain, only 3 top coats of something.

I have wood floors in my current kitchen and didn't consider anything else for my future kitchen. Mine are not pre-finished, though. They are just regular oak. I love the feel of wood on my feet and I think it is more neutral than tile.

I always highly recommend wood floors in a kitchen. We had them in the last kitchen we redid and will have them when we redo our current kitchen. I find the wood floors to be much easier to clean than tile. We recently moved and the kitchen in this house has white tile floors. They are cold and impossible to keep clean. I will do a happy dance the day they are removed!

I never had any maintenance issues in our old house. We had white oak floors with several coats of poly and they held up great.

Thanks everyone for the responses and the gorgeous pictures! So far it's a go for the wood floors. I was leaning towards the Anderson hand-scraped appalachian wood floors in hickory, but I've not seen any hickory floors in person, just the sample. I love the maple pictured here! That walnut is so gorgeous and just the color I would love to have. As a matter of fact marciab10 I just want your beautiful kitchen and I would be so happy! If anyone else has any hand-scaped wood floors please post pictures.

Fpr the picrues of the water damage, that is such a shame. But I have to wonder if that has happened with any floor, wouldn't it ruin the sub floor and cause serious damage. What a nightmare!

here you go...

My daughter had damage to her wood floors near her dishwasher. The wood darkened and warped from moisture and steam from the drying cycle. She was told she needs her entire kitchen/family-room floors redone to fix this problem. She was also told the damaged wood may need to be cut out and replaced. This will cost a fortune. Her kitchen and family-room are one large room.

Her house is 8 yrs old and she has lived there for 4 years. Does anyone know if a damaged section could be repaired without redoing all the flooring?

Jane

Suzieca, I love your engineered Lauzon select birch in Amaretto color floors so much! They do not look engineered and look like solid wood! They look like a natural stain on my monitor which is beautiful. I thought Amaretto stain was reddish?

Bluekitobsessed, your Anderson Dellamano pre-finished, hand-scraped maple hardwood in amaretto color look wonderful in your kitchen with your kitchen cabinets and furniture. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you, remember engineered wood is NOT laminate...it is real wood. I have concrete slab floors so I had to use engineered. This color was the one that looked best w/our maple cabs. Also, the select birch doesn't have a lot of grain which I didn't want (as compared to oak, for example).

I have walnut floors in my new house (similar to Marciab10's but a bit darker with more contrast with the grain) and I think I prefer tile in the kitchen. I'm having a hard time deciding on a cabinet color -- I want dark/espresso but am afraid it will be too dark with the floors. Then, I just dinged the wood floor by dropping something on it. And, I'm more paranoid about water droplets than on tile. The only bad thing about my previous tile was that the grout was never sealed and got a bit dirty looking (to me). I've noticed that there is a BIG difference in how well wood floors hold up -- my old house had dark hickory in the living room and throughout the upstairs. After 4+ years, it still looked as good as new and didn't show dirt much. These new walnut floors (Anderson) are much easier to dirty and scratch and I've only been living with them for 3 weeks. I will NOT be repeating this brand upstairs when we replace the carpeting; it's more expensive, doesn't look as nice and is harder to maintain.

Our kitchen isn't as pretty as some of the others here, but we're working on it and have installed brazillian walnut. It's a very dense, dark wood and we love it. Still under construction so excuse the mess.

{{!gwi}}

Jane NY, I am surprised that will cost a fortune. I installed my own 3/4" hardwood, but hired someone to sand and finish it. I admit I found a guy mostly used by contractors and he is a little less expensive than others, but for sanding and 3 coats of oil based poly it was 1.65 per sq foot (obviously, I live in CT). I think other flooring contractors were charging in the range of 2-2.25 sq foot. I could have my kitchen, livingroom and hall sanded and finished for about 500.00. Unless they have to replace a large portion of the floor or she lives in a very large house, I wouldn't think it would be prohibitive. Does she live in NYC by any chance? Have walnut floors? If it is going to be a lot, I would also think homeowners insurance would cover it. No? Good to know what is involved in case of a leak since I have wood in the kitchen for the first time myself now.

I would get more quotes and make sure they know if insurance isn't involved so they don't up the price.

Sue

Do NOT use Murphy's oil soap if you use hardwood. If you use Murphy's and the floors get beat up, the Murphy's residue will interfere with a fresh coat of finish bonding to existing poly. You will be obliged to sand down the floors. With a Murphy's-free floor, the floors can be lightly scuffed/buffed, and a new coat of finish applied-- much less work.

A little vinegar in water is the best thing to damp-mop your floors.

There is a Murphy's hardwood floor cleaner, not the typical soap. It's one that you squirt and mop and works on tile and laminate, too. Still, vinegar and water is cheap and makes the floors shine really nicely.

jane ny, when we first found the damage to our hardwoods, our insurance company came out and cut us a check for 5k. Has she talked to her insurance company about filing a claim for the damage? The 5k was to tear up and replace all the hardwood in the kitchen and powder room and install new, then sand all the floors down and restain them to match. Does she know if her floor was a pre-finished floor and what brand it is? My flooring was put in more than 7 years ago when the house was built and is still available at Lowe's. They can cut out the section that is damaged and replace it, but matching it might be the problem. Even if she did find out what the brand is and was able to purchase the same flooring, chances are her existing floor may have darkened or faded so the patch might be noticeable. So replacing the damaged wood and sanding and restaining all of it might be the way to go. I honestly don't know that much about it, just letting you know what our own experience with water damaged wood floors was.

HTH
Robin

We have Mannington pre finished for 2 1/2 years now. It their Heritage collection in the color 'Clove" I love them.

oh, jane ny, forgot to ask...how big is the area that needs to be patched? Is it possible to remove flooring from a closet or pantry and use that for a patch? Then use new flooring to patch the pantry or closet where it won't be seen?

mdmc

What is the color of your granite? Santa Ceceila? It looks great with your backsplash

jane--our house has the original white oak flooring, not pre-finished. We had white oak installed in the kitchen, which the floor guys weaved into the exisiting floor in the adjacent room. Yes, there was some waste/loss of the original floor in the ajacent room--something like 10-30% (?), less than 1/2. Looks great BTW.

Yes granite is Santa Cecilia

mdmc

Gorgeus kitchen all the way around. Looks like it belongs in a magazine! Are the floors Hickory? I counld't find that color in doing a search on Mannigton. Beautiful rich warm color and the perfect compliment to everything!

lukkiirish ,

Are your gorgeous walnut floors prefinished, and what brand are they??????? They are gorgeous Love the deep rich colors. I've head walnut is harder to dent and scratch. It's certaibly a beautiful choice. How easy is it to maintain so far?

Suzieca, I also live on a slab since my home is built in the middle of the beautiful preserved wet lands with woods behind me. I have to use also engineered wood. I really do love your floors that go so well with your cabinets.

Some engineered woods look just like solid wood and some use a rotary peel cut and I do not like the way they look. Your floor is a top grade and it shows it being so beautiful with a nice sawn layer.

Hope this helps! We tore out tile, had radiant floor heating installed and then had reclaimed from the neighborhood (free!) pine installed then had it sanded and refinished with BonX products.

Here is a link that might be useful: floor with rugrats

I have had hardwood in the kitchen for years with no problems. I prefer it to tile which is so hard on your feet. Just wipe up spills and you'll have no worries!

We had wood floors in our kitchen in our old home and I LOVED them. When we bought the home we are in now, the previous owners had pulled up the wood floor and put down tile to sell the house and we are pulling that brand new tile up and putting wood back down......how sad is that????
The tile is definitely easier (don't have to worry about the kids dropping ice cubes and leaving them to be found as puddles hours later:) BUT the wood is so warm and inviting that I don't care about having to be a little more vigilant. I do have to say, that when they pulled up the tile floor and I moved the rug from under my kitchen table, I was horrified at how dirty the grout had gotten in just 9 months in the house!!!!

We are experiencing serious warping ("cupping") of engineered oak floors in our kitchen. We will be removing the section next to the sink/dishwasher and replacing with tile in complimentary color with a pattern edge to add some style to this functional change. I prefer the look of all wood but am not confident that this will not happen again.