hardwood floors in the kitchen, yea or nea?

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

Help Support :

C

Cybrvanr

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 23, 2005
Messages
1,287
I removed a wall between my dining room, and my kitchen. I'm pretty much finished the project, but have gotten to the point where I'm going the floors. One of the things I've discovered is the layers of flooring in the kitchen. There's two layers of vinyl flooring, with the latest one visible. I discovered taht beneath the lowest layer, is red oak flooring like the rest of the house has in it!

My original plan was to put down tile on the kitchen floor, but I'm having some second thoughts...I am thinking about stripping off all the vinyl flooring refinishing, and varnishing the original hardwood! Currently, I'm using some cheap particleboard woodtone cabinets that were put in by the previous owner, but when it's all done, I am going to have some 'retro' style cabinets built that will more fit the period of the house. They will be painted white, with white subway tile behind the cabinets. The blue seen on the walls is the final color for the kitchen/DR area. Getting my existing cabinets out for relacement of the flooring is quite easy i've found out, so it looks like the job can be completed relatively quickly!

So, whatta think? I've seen a few homes that have wood floors in the kitchen and it looks fairly nice. I am trying to maintain a 1951 period look to the house. Pardon the mess, as the kitchen is in use as the renovations are occuring!
 
My house was built in 1941. The floors are all oak hardwood except for the kitchen and the hallway that runs past it. They were originally black and white checkered 6X6" linoluem. I think most older homes had tile in the kitchens, but I've seen a few with hardwood. Go with what you like, be sure to use at least 3 coats of polyurethane on the wood. Hint: use a satin finish, it doesn't show dirt as badly as gloss. I learned this recently when I had the floors redone in two bedrooms and the other hallway. Cat hair and dust don't show nearly as badly as in the living room the previous owner finished in gloss (I do clean the floors regularly, but with gloss they look like they need cleaning every single day).

If you decide to use tile, do not use ceramic tile if the house is on piers. I did this, and despite several layers of old flooring (total floor thickness >3 inches), the tile has several hairline cracks.
 
With several coats

of a polyurethane or similar dressing, hardwood floors in a kitchen can be a good idea.

They're resilient, and pretty easy on the feet and back, you can drop things on it, and they won't always break....

There are some real advantages in using this floor...least of which, it's already there, and it's authentic to the period.

Of course, you are not me, but I would go with the wood.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
I would leave it also,

Steven. Especially if it appears to be the original treatment.
My last house had red oak but only in the living room, bed
rooms and a small hallway. It was original of the 1946 build
date. I bet your subway tiles are gonna look good.
 
Pining for a Floor!

We had wood floors, in the kitchen, in three different older houses. We took out the floor covering and sanded. In two of the houses my wife painted a border and design on the wood. We used Urethane. The first house was oil based. It stunk to high heaven, took a day between coats and a week to cure. If it got nicked or scratched a chip would come up leaving the bare wood.
We were encouraged to use water based Satin in the next house. It was on all the floors in the main level. I am an ardant supporter of water based Urethane. It dries for recoat in 30 minutes, cures in 24 hours, never chips and every year we would recoat it, with no prep, just like laying down a coat of floor wax and it would look new. The wood is heck of a lot cheaper and easier to care for than any manmade cover.
Kelly
 
I have to agree with Kelly, stick with the red oak. We have maple flooring throughout our 1925 bungalow. In the kitchen however, there are 5 layers of linoleum, so there is no way we're going through the ordeal of tearing all that out. The living room, dining room, and 2 bedrooms and hallway it turned out beautifully. Our bathroom has no-wax flooring also, only 2 layers though.
 
Armstrong Solarian here

I just had new stuff installed this past May, from their Urban settings line. It was expensive stuff, $27 a sq yard but looks nice and is one continuous sheet, which is what I wanted. I put it in both my kitchen and upstairs bath, and am very pleased with it. The pattern I chose has a nice retro look too!
I don't know that one is better than another, I'd say it just depends on what your taste is and what the "look" is you want for your kitchen.
 
hardwood in the kitchen

The house I grew up in is the house I live in...a mid20th Century modern. It had oak floors throughout, except for the bathrooms and kitchen. When I installed a new kitchen in '97, the room was gutted to the subfloor and new oak flooring was installed. Thanks to the experience of the floor finisher, you cannot tell that this floor is 45 yrs newer than the other floors. I have had no problems keeping them clean (1 cup vinegar in a gallon of warm water, sponge mop) and they sparkle like new. The other floors in the house were refinished in '93 (this might contribute to the exact matching) and I would never cover them with carpet or tile again..
 
I have hardwood floors in my kitchen now, and am putting hardwood floors in my new kitchen. What you want is a hardwood that each plank can be beveled so that it gives your feet a ''cushion'' to stand on. Hard floors of ANY kind can be dreadful on the feet and ankles. Mark
 
thumbs up on wood! You will be glad you decided uncover the floor, since it has been in a preserved state all these years under the subsequent floors. Now if the glue would only come off as easy as it was to take down that wall....

Ben
 
Wood and Birkenstocks!

I have a similar situation in my kitchen with flooring and intend on using hardwood to match the rest of the main floor. I have lots of clients with hardwood floors in the kitchen, and wouldn't think twice about using it in my own kitchen. Installed and finished properly, they are just as easy to care for as any other hard surface floor. Sweep or dustmop (pref.) frequently. It is key to maintaining the finish along with damp mopping as needed. Most scuff marks can be removed with firm pressure on a damp rag. Wood has drawbacks, of course, but I've cleaned acres of flooring in the last dozen of years and every type of covering has drawbacks to varying degree.

My kitchen looks about as challenging as yours, removing a wall into the dining room, new cabinets, etc. are all on the list. I have no idea what's under my "layered torte" - I would like it to be wood, but I'm not holding out much hope. I had a client that pulled up two layers of floor in her kitchen and found the most incredible wood flooring I've ever seen. When the home was built in the late 20's with 1" oak floors in all the rooms. All the wood was cut on site and the scraps that weren't good enough for the "good" floors were tossed into the kitchen, nailed down and used as the sub-floor for the covering she peeled off. All the pieces were discolored, cracked, knotted, small holes among other defects. She had the floor finishing company skim wood-filler over the entire surface, sanded and finished in high-gloss eurethane. It made the most wonderful mosaic of wood - really took your breath away.
 
Kitchen floors, what to do!

Steven:

I'll tell you what I don't recommend....laminate flooring.

We had laminate installed in the kitchen about nine years ago.
While it's fairly tough, there have been drawbacks. If you purchase laminate that is high gloss, beware. Water splashes from the kitchen area seem to act as dirt magnets. You will see nasty little dirt spots on your once-pristine floor (that must be cleaned). I have never worked so hard keeping a floor clean in my life!

If you live in a sandy area, the sand acts as an abrasive and wears away at the finish. Since this is just a coating over a Xerox-type copy of a wood finish, it will wear everything off; and there's no repairing or refinishing it. Furniture or appliances on rollers or casters just exacerbate the problem. We had an incident where our old dishwasher was leaking. The water seeped under the laminate and warped it big time. I don't know if these same problems would hold true for wood flooring.

We have since installed ceramic tile. I really like it. While it may not be forgiving for the occasional dropped dish, it is easy to maintain, doesn't scratch, and hides the dirt.

Whichever you choose, good luck on your restoration project! I hope it's ready for the holidays so that you can sit back and enjoy your efforts.
 
Refinish the existing floor!

Years ago I had a home that was about 100 years old. It had three layers of vinyl in the kitchen over the original hardwood that ran throughout the rest of the house.

I removed the vinyl myself with an ice scraper and lots of water. It was a beast of a job. I then had the floors professionally sanded and finished. You could do that part yourself if you know how but the floors were so gorgeous I didn't want to take the chance of ruining it with a bad sanding job.

They then covered it with 3 coats of some kind of xxxthane and they looked and performed really well. I was very happy with it.
 
Go with the Red Oak

But if you use polyurethane, be sure to check the safety information. Some formulations "out-gas" nasty stuff for quite a while.
Of course, you could do real linoleum. The checkerboard patterns or the slightly older border paterns were sometimes carried up to the countertops. Looked nice, was easy care (as long as you didn't put a too-hot pot down on it.)
Vinyl just seems inappropriate for the era, sorry.
Of course, I have horrid tile in my kitchen - the jerks covered up the oak flooring just before I moved in...hair-line cracks? Honey, you could sail barges down mine...side-by-side.
 
Yes to wood

Although not strictly "authentic" to the period the refinished floor would look fantastic with the white cabinets and white tile counter tops.
I have had hardwood floors in a kitchen and as long as you keep the finish up, they are great.
Some of the new less toxic finishes give a great soft satin finish and are very easy to use for touch-ups.

David
 
We have a floor finish called "moisture-cure" here....

Don't just evacuate yourself if you use it....warn the whole block!

I've never smelled a more potent, toxic chemical.
 
thanks for the suggestions guys. I think the HW floors are universally approved here The rest of the house has absloutely beautiful floors in it that I've been refinishing room by room with minwax semi-gloss polyurethane. It's an oil-base finished that takes about 12 hours to dry, but it's been VERY durable! I did most of the work during the summer when I could open the windows though! To avoid the cold feet issue, I put insulation underneath the floor when I moved into the home several years ago...that helped out a LOT. That moisture cure stuff sounds sort of like POR15 paint that I've used to restore appliances and undercoat my van with!
 
I like your dishwasher kick plate. :)
And the 1970s electric fry pan.

My opinion

As far as looks:
In conjunction with the cabinets. If you are putting in a light colored or painted cabinet it would work.
I have seen wood floors and wood cabinets and it doesn't work. It is too much, it is too "heavy".

As far as the old stuff:
Your almost guaranteed it will contain Asbestos. If you are going to cut into it your going to have flying particles all over.

As far as the the Wood:
Not to be discouraging, but. I have heard the "real wood" argument which falls flat. "We have "real" wood floors, we have "real" wood siding, we have "real" wood shingles." ?
I have real vynil siding, and real 3 tab shingles, and real NEW wall to wall carpet over 8 pound padding(and my feet just love it). And I wouldn't want it any other way.
There is a reason these products are a preferred. They last longer, there is more variety, and they are lowere maintenance.
wood belongs outside growing as trees or made into nice furnishings. Not raped from the land and hung on my house as a show of how piggish I can be.

You can say you have wood. Is it bare wood? Doubtful. In reality wood products have several layers of sealants to protect them, temporarily anyway. These are the same products that are used in manufacturing the products I mentioned above.

If I were redoing my kitchen I would do either vynil(glued on edges so it is easy to remove later and replace) or ceramic.

You said you found wood under the current floor. Was it at the edge? You may be amazed the difference between the edge and the heavily walked areas. Also, wood, especially in older structures shrinks opening up the the seams and it isn't pretty or sanitary.

And then there is the whole "restoring to original period" thing. Why? It is 2006. I understand that some people like "the look" fine. I get that.
But where do you draw the line. Are you going to live in the kitchen as if it were 195_?
And just because you have a house that is built in 1950, or 1900, or 1850 doesn't obligate anyone(specifically gay men with nothing better to do) to "obey" the decorator fashions of that time. We are people here in the year 2006 and there is nothing to be ashamed of in that!

How much work do you want to do?

Just my opinion.

I wish you good luck with what ever you choose.
 
I sort of enjoy the appearance of the house, which is sort of of "craftsman bungalow" style, with a little bit of deco thrown in. I want to sort of keep with this theme, and not go too modern. I love the mid-century modern "space age" look, and have a few elements of it around my house (like a Sputnik chandlier out of the picture frame) but too much of it will simply look out of place in a home with a more "down to earth" look to it.

This is not a problem however, as I really *like* the original 1951 appearance. Like you said however, it's 2006, and there are modern ways of doing things so while the look may be 1951, it's function will be 2006. This is one of the reasons why I asked for opinions on it. HW floors may have been the thing in 1951 prior to the development of high tech plastic flooring technologies, but how good did it actually work? In the rest of the house, the varnished hardwood floors have held up exceptionally well, and are extremely easy to keep clean with a little bit of soap & water

I'm not a big fan of carpet because it traps so much dirt and dust that no amount of cleaning will remove. Yea, it feels nice, but don't ask me to lay down on it unless it's brand new ICK!

If I wanted to go back to the "perfect" rendition of the home when it was built, I would stick with only a set of cabinets along the far wall, where the stove and sink is, and the washer / dryer would be where the fridge is.

Significant changes are happening to the layout of the kitchen area. The back door which is in the kitchen is going to be filled in, and a new set of doors installed out the dining room. The cabinets will then wrap around the rear portion where the door previously existed, with the sink and DW re-located to those new cabinets. The stove will be situated where the sink is now. The fridge is going to remain put.

I haven't been much of a fan of vinyl flooring because it's so soft and easily damaged. Linoleum was a common material back then too. I've been contemplating the black on white tile, but I figured it would be too much white with white cabinets and white tile too. Of course, I could change the color of the cabinets to something else too... I just want to stay away from the latest kitchen "fad" which seems to be mediterranean garden nowadays...can't stand the country kitchen look either that was popular in the eighties.
 
I am all for the hardwood.

The hardwood has lasted this long, with proper care, you could have a floor that can last a long time. I was looking at a house to buy and was told that it had something that i had never seen in a house before, I thought that it was a nice alternative, it was Marmolium, the previous owner even put the inlays just like all of the hardwoods in the house, it looks like stone and is very durrable..Very high end.i like what you have done with your kitchen, love the Hobart Kitchen Aid. Good luck with the rest of your project. Ritchie :)
 
I vote for the wood. I like original wood flooring as a unifying element throughout the home, and having one base floor definitely facilitates mopping (no seperate chemicals, or in my case, even seperate MOPS for each type of flooring)....

I have to redo the kitchen floor upstairs soon, and in a bit of a quandary about it. It has very worn vinyl tile...it's gotta go...but I've looked at replacement vinyl options and am finding the patterns/textures to be boring beyond belief...the resiliency factor doesn't seem to have improved much over the years, either.

I'm happy to have more options to choose from, flooring-wise, but disappointed that what could be a nice, inexpensive way to rejuvenate a tired-looking kitchen isn't really marketed anymore...
 
You said you were thinking of taking up the old floor(s). I would think that there is at least one layer of subflooring beneathe the vynil and perhaps 2. regardless of how they are fastened you will have a mess.

If they are stapled/nailed you have to figure that there is literally a fastener in every square foot of the flooring. If there is 2 layers you will have twice as many. So when you do get the old removed you will have all these nail holes randomly in the flooring. And you should figure that where the underlayment came together it is nailed more frequently on both sides of the seam, usually every 3-4 inches. This will appear on the hardwood as a not so sublime line.

If the first layer of underlayment was glued to the hardwood, well they will appear as unevenly stained even with sanding because the glue soaked into the wood where it was applied.

If you are set on the hardwood idea, in my opinion it would be better to remove it all down to the subfloor and start with fresh wood.

Also because you have removed an original wall it is doubtful that there is hardwood flooring where the wall WAS. so your going to need to find a solution for that regardless. New floors would be able to butte up to the existing floors.

It was mentioned the vynil floors are easily damaged. As someone else mentioned wood is too. I think you have an easier time repairing vynil. Lets say you put a 1/4" deep, 10" long scratch in these floors. With the vynil you can simply get seam sealer and fuse the edges back together. With wood that scratch will alway there even with filling and it will be difficult and time consuming to fix.

Frankly in considering your excellent question. I realized there is no perfect floor. All we can do is maintain what we have in hopes it will last for a reasonable amount of time.

So start from the other direction what are absolute NO's. To me they would include slate and marble(too expensive, fragile, slippery, sterile looking, few desirable patterns), 12x12 vynil tiles(too many seams, impossible to line each one up), laminate flooring(puckers at the seams if water is allowed to sit and causes permanent damage, odd pattern layout of boards usually doesn't match the printed pattern on the flooring), stained cement (OMG barf out), poured in place vynil (way too expensive, looks like a hospital from the 1960s, gag me), prefinished wood strip flooring(again, WAAAAAAAY too many seams, boards shrink and open the seams further allowing dirt in the cracks, floor does not wear evenly due to the way the boards are finished at the factory, when viewing this floor from an angle all the seams are obvious, doesn't look right and gets worse with age),....

(you finish the list. 1 piece vynil, site finished wood, ceramic. And in those there are alot of choices. You could get a vynil floor that looks like polyurethane finished wood (I have unintentionally fooled people more than a couple of times with this one). Ceramic in all kinds of colors, sizes, grout colors. Wood from micro strips to 12" plank and you can do inlay borders and in a variety of species.

Again, not meant to be discouraging. I speak from experience. I'm sure you'll find the right choice for you.
 
Here is a shot of the 1870's-era hardwood in part of my showroom. We didn't sand the floor back to "new" appearance. The floor had a lot of character to it & we didn't want to lose it. I think we put down 3 or 4 coats of clear polyurethane. Also, do the refinishing yourself. It's relatively easy, but time consuming.
 
runematic

Those floors are beautiful. I can see why you wanted to keep them. Scratched wood has character, scratched vinyl is cheap.
I had to replace several hundred feet in my folk's basement this last year - water damage. Once the foundation was dried out I went to look at what was available. Settled on industrial quality, 100% colored through vinyl. Very expensive compared to the 35c. tiles you get otherwise - but actually looks good. The fit and trim was so exact the seams do line up. And because it is colored all the way through, it is no problem if there is a scratch or two.
This said - I still think real linoleum is the way to go in such a situation. Washertalk is probably right about the conditions of the floor. As far as the asbestos goes - the city tested the damaged floor for me (35$) and said "no - no asbestos". If there had been, it would have been a haz-mat problem ---thousands and thousands of dollars.
I don't honestly know how much of the asbestos thing is real and how much hysteria.
Of course, some of the newest laminates for bathrooms and saunas are usable in kitchens - and they aren't all ugly. Question of cost, as usual. So don't just reject an idea because one of us didn't like the technology the last time we looked.
Oh - and yes, the "moisture" cured stuff is deadly. Disqualifies the house for some loans, even.
 
I used Behr oil-based poly urethane on my oak floors about 10 years ago. It's been very trouble free, has never chipped. It did stink a lot but I did it in the spring and was able to air the house out pretty well. Of course, I think I did about five coats because I couldn't get it "right" to my satisfaction... so it will probably last forever. It's in the living room/diningroom and one bedroom. The rest of the flooring is vinyl or lino or unfinished (master bedroom).

If the kitchen area were already wood in good condition, I might consider refinishing with urethane and trying that. But I wouldn't put new wood in for a kitchen... I just think it's too risky, what with all the water sources and lfooding possible. I would probably try ceramic or porcelain tile, or maybe just sheet vinyl. Current kitchen has sheet vinyl over 1/2" particle board (yeech) and then more, older flooring under that. Eventually I plan on ripping out all the old floor covering and putting down porcelain tile, but first I have to do the master bed/bath... it never ends...
 

Similar threads

petek
New boiler after 66 years
2 3
Replies
61
Views
481
petek
petek
philcobendixduo
1987 Kenmore Washer is Leaking Water on the Floor
Replies
10
Views
315
philcobendixduo
philcobendixduo
P
1957 GE Wall Refrigerator In The House
Replies
9
Views
199
delco1946
D
N
Samsung Bespoke 4-Door Flex Refrigerator (RF29DB960012)
Replies
1
Views
247
simpsonencore
S
S
GE Wonder Kitchen Center dishwasher
Replies
17
Views
245
sarahperdue
sarahperdue

Latest posts

Back
Top