Kitchen flooring

[iteles]

We have 27 m² of flooring in the kitchen.

It will have birch plywood countertops and furniture designed by our in-house carpenter extraordinaire (@nelsonic 🛠 💁‍♂️).

My preference for kitchen flooring is usually wood laminate, but for hygiene, cleanliness and durability, we made the decision in March 2018 when we were designing the kitchen (for the electrical plans) that the floor and walls would be tiled.

Flooring

When it comes to colouring, white would almost attract dirt 😊

I'm a real fan of the tiling we chose for the basement flooring, but they have run out of that tiling (Beton 'Fog')!
The lightest tiles from the same 'family' of tiles (Beton 'White') which we have used below are a good replacement though:

I did a little search to see how the grey looks with the wood:

I definitely prefer the lighter colours to the darker one:

So I propose:

• Beton 'White' tiles for the kitchen floor

[nelsonic]

@iteles while I like the effect of cement on the floor, I'm not a "fan" of using the tiles on the floor of the kitchen for the simple reason that, unless they are laid flawlessly, when (not if) someone drops something ceramic (e.g: a plate or mug) on the tiled floor, it will crack 😢 and look horrible.

Cracked tiles are a chore to change. Laminate floor is quick to replace.

I feel that we should make the whole floor of the middle and top of the house ("oak effect") Laminate.
The durability of the AC5 ("high intensity") laminate will be the same as the tiles and will have all the same benefits in terms of cleanability (real word!) with the added benefit of not cracking and being "softer" on things that will get dropped on it.
(I remember accidentally dropping crockery on the laminated floor in MDC without any damage...)

I'm a fan of having white walls (either tiled like in MDC) or Plastered & Painted.

The end-result of the Kitchen in Braga will be very similar to MDC.
see: https://github.com/dwyl/home#airbnb

https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-eco-kitchen-in-the-cotswolds-scandinavian-kitchen-phvw-vp~26626261

If you feel strongly that you prefer the floor in the kitchen to be tiled similar to the bathrooms,
please go ahead with it.

[iteles]

I don't strongly prefer the floor to be similar to the bathrooms but I do think that having laminate flooring + all wood kitchen flooring (especially when it's still possible that the countertops might also be wood), is not my preferred look - it's a little 'too much wood'.

It's not that it would look bad, but there may not be enough visual interest.

For me, it's much more about colour than it is about the material itself.
With a 'wood' floor I prefer either white or grey kitchen cabinets.

Having a laminate floor in the kitchen at our own home in the UK requires some care and there's honestly a sliver of stress when I drop a full glass of water on it for example 😬

I feel like the kitchen is the area of the house where things will most likely get dropped, spilled and the floor will be constantly wet from daily cleaning and wiping.

I think you're right - more than anywhere, we need to make the floor here as durable as possible.

Proposal: vinyl flooring

I'm still keen on the grey with the wood and I would suggest we consider vinyl flooring. If it's done properly it will be the least problematic and still look just as good.

The key will be to have either no seams or as few seams as possible (and for these to be in the least frequented areas. I imagine we'll get one piece of vinyl to cover the whole kitchen from the small window all the way to (and including) the corridor in front of the exterior door and then may need another piece for the rest of the corridor towards the main entrance. From what I've read, if this is a) done well and b) fixed immediately if one piece of the seam starts to lift, we shouldn't have any major issues.

We've had a recommendation for https://www.tarkett.pt, so I had a quick look for options, focusing on those that come in rolls of up to 4m in width.

Stylish concrete dark grey is my favourite of the ones I found:
https://casa.tarkett.pt/pt_PT/cole%C3%A7%C3%B5es-C000066-exclusive-240-factory/stylish-concrete-dark-grey

It also has a lighter grey sibling:
https://casa.tarkett.pt/pt_PT/cole%C3%A7%C3%B5es-C000066-exclusive-240-factory/stylish-concrete-grey

The 'No's

I was also a fan of the brushed concrete effect of the 'Vintage Zinc Silver' but sadly it doesn't come in rolls, only 'tiles' (60 x 32cm) so it's a no-go:
https://casa.tarkett.pt/pt_PT/cole%C3%A7%C3%B5es-C000798-starfloor-click-55-55-plus/vintage-zinc-silver

I felt something like Rock Charcoal was a little too 'plasticky':
https://casa.tarkett.pt/pt_PT/cole%C3%A7%C3%B5es-C000051-essentials-240/rock-charcoal

And that this if we're going for vinyl, the 'tile' effect on a larger surface like the one we have might just be a bit weird:
https://casa.tarkett.pt/pt_PT/cole%C3%A7%C3%B5es-C000053-essentials-280t/gres-middle-grey

Open to ideas/thoughts!

[iteles]

@nelsonic You've mentioned that in your experience, vinyl flooring always ends up with a weak point at the seam. In our case, the seam would inevitably be in the middle of the busiest area of circulation in the kitchen, the corridor.

As such, we're back to the proposal for laminate flooring in the kitchen.

We had an issue with our laminate flooring on the 1st floor last week where a bucket of water was tipped over and got under the floorboards, soaking through the seams. It's possible that this is because the water was left to soak for a long period of time (overnight) before being cleaned up or because we don't yet have skirting boards and some of the water may have seeped in that way.

Given that the flooring there is really good quality, it slightly concerns me!

Whilst I still have my reservations about ending up with a kitchen looking like this: 😆

I'm pretty sure we can make it work once it's in place and add some good pops of colour, the whole point is the modularity ❤️

@nelsonic Let's go to Leroy Merlin tomorrow and talk to them about water-repellant/resistant laminate flooring?

[nelsonic]

@iteles, as we have verbally discussed, the dimensions for the kitchen don't "work" for the size of the Vinyl Roll. The widest roll available is 4m

Our dimensions are 5530mm x 5720mm (measured to the millimetre using Bosch Laser Measure)

I've run the following simulation to illustrate what 4m wide looks like in the kitchen:

The threshold would be in front of the storage cupboard.
We can try and ask Carlos if he thinks it's possible to do make Vinyl work.
But, as I've said verbally, I think our best option is the laminate.

Agree with going to LM tomorrow to ask about water-repellant ("hidrofugado") laminate flooring.

[iteles]

I think we’ve just said the same thing about vinyl here: the seam is in the corridor which is a high traffic area and therefore not a good idea.

Thanks for the plan - super clear. I don’t think there’s any point asking Carlos about it.

Added a trip to LM to our list of what needs to be done today.

[iteles]

The lady at Leroy Merlin seemed convinced that the best laminate flooring for the job is the one we've actually chosen for the whole rest of the house, which the addition of between-panel sealant.
When we told our builder this he was wildly sceptical. Let's speak to him in person tomorrow or Friday @nelsonic 👍

[iteles]

Our builder wasn't around but our carpenter has now also warned us off laminate flooring for busy kitchens. He mentioned that:

• He recommended vinyl flooring as the seam shouldn't be an issue if done right (I don't think he fully appreciates the traffic that the seam area would get)
• We shouldn't have too many cracking issues with ceramic tiles as long as there is silicone under the whole of the tile - if there's a 'hollow spot' (i.e. there is no silicone underneath) and something is dropped there, it will definitely crack in that area.

Ultimately it's up to us to decide whether we're going to be more likely to have heavy object dropped or water spilled/sprinkled on the floor causing water damage. If we go the ceramic route we should make sure we use dark grey grouting between the tiles (won't show the dirt, will look better with the tiles and won't show as much if one needs to be changed) and buy plenty of extras for long term storage!

[nelsonic]

@iteles to be 100% clear: I prefer the look of the Ceramic (with concrete effect) that we have in the bathrooms and basement. My only worry is people dropping things on it in the kitchen which is a 100% certainty. If Carlos can give us his word that the ceramic tiles will be installed well and we buy a couple of extra boxes of the tiles (to have spare for replacing them when they inevitably break) I'm "OK" with the ceramic option. 👍

[iteles]

I propose we go with the darker ceramic tiles (which are also larger) like we have in our bathroom floors: Smoke rather than fog.

[nelsonic]

@iteles sounds good. please place the order. 💸

[iteles]

This was done in around the very end of June 2019. I can't seem to find any photos so we'll have to take some!