Last Updated on February 25, 2025 by Caesar
Not all flooring solutions are created equal and when it comes to the kitchen, there are many aspects to consider when choosing the type of flooring that will work best for you, your kitchen and your lifestyle. Here we look at the flooring to avoid, the flooring to consider and the best kitchen flooring all-rounders.
How Do I Choose the Right Floor for My Kitchen?
When we think about what makes a home special, we think of personal touches, pictures on the walls, and little touches of personality…but most of all we think of the people who come together and bring life to the bricks and mortar, notes Mark Thomas Management experts. For many people, the kitchen truly is the hub of the home, it’s where we gather friends and family for meals, it’s where parties gather and it’s where daily activities take place!
You put a lot of thought into your kitchen flooring. With spills and drips, dropped dishes, and frequent foot traffic, a kitchen floor has to be able to handle everything life can throw at it – and look good in the process! It should be comfortable underfoot, whether you’re strolling barefoot through the kitchen in search of a midnight snack or if you’re rolling around preparing dinner after a long day at work. It should be stain-resistant, easy to clean, and low-maintenance while also being hard-wearing and durable.
There are many flooring solutions on the market but not every material is suitable for the kitchen (eg carpet!) and choosing the right one can ensure the longevity of your kitchen flooring. There are some important things to consider – do you need to consider compatibility with underfloor heating? Who uses the space the most? Do you have children or pets to think about? How do you find the perfect kitchen floor for you? Balancing function, comfort and style can elevate a kitchen space and ensure it serves you well for many years to come. Your flooring experts at Hamilton Flooring can help advise on the perfect kitchen flooring for your home!
What are the best options for kitchen flooring?
So, what is the best floor for a kitchen? Traditional options like hardwood and tile are beginning to lose popularity as luxury vinyl tile/plank, wood effect flooring and eco-friendly options like bamboo and cork lead the way for affordable, stylish and sustainable kitchen flooring solutions. Here at Hamilton Flooring we’ve broken down kitchen flooring options with three key descriptors. Avoid, Consider and Go for It!
Flooring to Avoid in the Kitchen
Carpet and Carpet Tile in the Kitchen?
First of all, we’re big proponents of mixing and matching flooring and textures across residential and commercial properties, but that’s not to say that carpet doesn’t belong in the kitchen! Installing carpet in the kitchen can lead to sticky messes, major cleaning issues and the carpet fibers can trap and trap cooking and cleaning smells, creating a cacophony of smells that quickly become a nuisance – not the best kitchen flooring solution! While the softness inherent in a rug may seem appealing while cooking, its tendency to soak up spilled liquids, stains and more on the floor means we would recommend area rugs as a more suitable solution – with the added bonus that rugs offer the option to change and transform your decor with minor changes if you wish.
Considering Kitchen Flooring
The flooring options that follow are those that have characteristics that lend themselves to kitchen flooring but have potential downsides that should be considered based on your lifestyle and the way you use your space before choosing one as your flooring solution.
Laminate: Affordable Kitchen Flooring
Not so long ago, laminate was the ‘in thing’ and was considered one of the best options for kitchen flooring, especially for those on a budget. With laminate flooring it absolutely pays to invest in a high-quality product. While there are many budget options available, kitchens require a hard-wearing and water-resistant surface that is not necessarily achievable with lower-end laminates. Higher-quality laminates offer more realistic designs (avoid cheap ones – similar in appearance to wood but not quite – in appearance) and planks that can survive minor spills and spills. Laminate is quite tough when it comes to scratches and scuffs, although when damaged it is more difficult to repair than other types of flooring. Laminate is made up of an HDF core, a melamine backing and a wear layer that is made up of a high-resolution image that creates the look of wood, stone or tile. Not all laminate floors are compatible with underfloor heating systems and some will require an underlay or additional preparation. Laminate is a relatively affordable option that doesn’t require high maintenance or regular resealing.
Ceramic, porcelain or terracotta tiles: a good option for the kitchen?
Tile can make an incredibly stunning finish for kitchen floors and is generally low maintenance, hygienic and easy to clean. Porcelain is a harder version of ceramic tile and comes with a price tag to match! Although ceramic and terracotta tiles are slightly more affordable and have many of the desirable properties of porcelain tiles, they are prone to chipping and cracking. Tile is generally compatible with underfloor heating and is available in a range of designs but without an underfloor heating system, the tile will cool and the lack of ‘give’ in the surface means they can make an uncomfortable surface to stand on for long periods of time. While ceramic, porcelain and terracotta tiles can look absolutely beautiful, we would recommend either using them to create a feature or in an area where there is not a lot of damage, such as a kitchen. The clean surface and stunning appearance make them ideal for wall tiles in a kitchen space and the feel of these tiles can be complemented by the appearance of the tile achieved through artificial stone or vinyl.
Hardwood – A Classic for Kitchen Flooring
Hardwood has been a popular choice throughout the home for decades and the kitchen is no exception. Hardwood can be a great way to bring in a scheme of things in more open-plan spaces but the main issue for kitchens is that wood will tend to warp and warp with significant changes in humidity and temperature. Engineered boards are more suitable for kitchens, made with an HDF core and topped with real wood. They are more structurally stable and are sometimes compatible with underfloor heating (unlike standard hardwood). Hardwood alternatives such as naturally bacteria-resistant bamboo or quirky cork are growing in popularity due to the durability and eco-friendly qualities of these materials. As with all examples of natural wood, the surface needs to be sealed and protected and will require regular attention. Scrapes and dents are also a known hazard of wood flooring, this hazard can be reduced slightly by using engineered board which is slightly more durable and natural wood can also be repaired by sanding and refinishing although this has a limited nature. There are certainly some very positive aspects to real wood flooring that make it an option for kitchen flooring but it should be considered that it can be an expensive flooring solution and that vinyl and linoleum based flooring solutions can successfully recreate the look and texture of wood with fewer disadvantages!
Vinyl Sheet for Kitchen
One thing to note about LVT is that due to the installation process, the entire LVT floor is water-resistant but not completely waterproof. The gaps between the tiles allow water to seep between the tiles if there is a large amount of water, for example if a pipe bursts or a catastrophic failure of a washing machine. One way to avoid this is to use vinyl sheeting. Laid wall to wall, vinyl sheeting leaves very few seams which increases the durability and ease of maintenance of the floor. You may be wondering…isn’t it just linoleum? But there are some clear differences between linoleum and vinyl, as well as shared characteristics.
Linoleum for the kitchen
Linoleum is biodegradable and made from all natural materials (linseed oil, pine rosin, limestone, cork flooring and jute backing) so not only is it a budget-friendly and stylish flooring solution, it also ticks the eco-friendly box.
One key difference that can be noted about Vinyl and Linoleum is that Vinyl is more flexible and easier to cut and with Vinyl there are more design options available due to its synthetic properties and design layer. Vinyl is made from a variety of synthetic materials, primarily Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) resin. Linoleum is stain-resistant, antimicrobial, and environmentally friendly – all qualities that make it great for the kitchen. However, it fell out of popularity in the early 1950s, usurped by slightly less expensive and more exciting vinyl and rubber tiling products. More recently, linoleum has been making a comeback as a residential flooring solution thanks to consumers turning to the fact that linoleum is a natural material without the environmental drawbacks of synthetic vinyl flooring. With linoleum, it is important to take care to collect liquid spills as the porous nature of the material means that standing water can cause long-term damage.
Like vinyl, linoleum is available in sheets and tiles and both materials have a number of installation techniques and coatings that add to their longevity and resilient nature.
