Kitchen floooring recommendations

[mg123]

Hi guys, I'm in the middle of a house extension, whereby I'll be increasing the size of my kitchen.
I'm just looking for some general advice for which style of flooring you would recommend alongside and watch outs to be aware of.
The new part of the kitchen will be levelled with self levelling compound ocer an insulated concrete slab, the older part I've now found really tidy looking red quarry tiles in good condition. I do like the quarry tiles and am not totally against this style, however they are cold and they would also case a slight step between new and old.
Therefore I'm looking to lay the same flooring throughout the whole space with self levelling compound over the quart tiles to match height with the new floor.
Old kitchen is approx 3.2 x 2.6 metres, the newer part is 4 x 3.8 metres (length x width)
The new kitchen will be a shaker style "cashmere" coloured door with a white ipanema style worktop (a bit like stone effect). Wall colour is yet to be decided.
Much appreciate any advice.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If you insulate under your tiles, which you should, you might be able to get the floor height evened up by using different thicknesses before the compound. Think whether you need underfloor heating now, don't regret not doing it later.
https://www.google.com/search?q=xps...g1NDAxajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

[akirk]

Last year we gutted and rebuilt the back of the house including kitchen - three different floor levels all made level then underfloor heating and then large porcelain tiles - looks smart, very tough, easy to clean and warm!

 

[Doug71]

I don't have any myself but I work in a few houses that have Karndean type flooring, seems to be good stuff.

 

[Geoff_S]

Amtico & Karndean

 

[heronviewer]

Amtico - we used them in a similar situation 36 years ago - still in excellent condition and they are insulating.

 

[eribaMotters]

Have a look at Polyfloor. If you think about the bobby rubber flooring you see in the likes of airports you'll get the idea. We have had it in two houses and have been impressed with it. It deadens sound slightly [compared to the Amtico we have had in bathrooms] and is warm to walk on. It undercuts Amtico on price, but if you want to blow the budget look up Dalsouple or Freudenburg which are the originators of this type of flooring. They make Amitco look positively cheap.

Colin

 

[SDev]

Have a look at Polyfloor. If you think about the bobby rubber flooring you see in the likes of airports you'll get the idea. We have had it in two houses and have been impressed with it. It deadens sound slightly [compared to the Amtico we have had in bathrooms] and is warm to walk on. It undercuts Amtico on price, but if you want to blow the budget look up Dalsouple or Freudenburg which are the originators of this type of flooring. They make Amitco look positively cheap.

Colin

Have a look at Polyfloor. If you think about the bobby rubber flooring you see in the likes of airports you'll get the idea. We have had it in two houses and have been impressed with it. It deadens sound slightly [compared to the Amtico we have had in bathrooms] and is warm to walk on. It undercuts Amtico on price, but if you want to blow the budget look up Dalsouple or Freudenburg which are the originators of this type of flooring. They make Amitco look positively cheap

Colin

 

[SDev]

Maybe worth a look at “Marmoleum”, a modern take on old fashioned Lino. Feels warm underfoot, no petrochemicals, loads of designs including some indistinguishable from polished concrete and very hardwearing. We put it in a kitchen refur a few years ago and have been very happy with it. Price competitive with vinyl alternatives such as Amtico but it is a professional job installing I think.

 

[gmgmgm]

We dug up lots of terracotta quarry tiles and changed over to Karndean/Amtico. Huge improvement. Generally "feels warmer" underfoot (even when UFH is off). Much much much easier to clean. No grouting. Much more level surface. Better colours/choices. Dropped items sometimes survive. Did I mention how easy it was to keep clean?

It also makes the room much lighter. Quarry tiles in a large area can suck the light out.

If you really want the quarry tile look, see if Amtica/Karndean have something similar in their range.

 

[Richard_C]

All good suggestions but we know nothing about how you will use the space, not that we need to, but you should think about it.

When we moved to this house we had a 2 year old and a baby. The kitchen had ceramic floor tiles, the late 80's trendy octagonal white ones with black squares. Plastic bowls and plates dropped from the high chair could break, a toddler tumble was a waaahhhh not a whoops, crawling was unpleasant and often cold.

Out it went and in came budget friendly cushiony-vinyl (budget was challenging back then) - worked perfectly, visually a bit 'meh' but you could drop food, children and plates with no ill effects and it cleaned up well.

When I rebuilt the kitchen, new units and everthing, we replaced it with inexpensive click-lock type mock-wood. Looked fine and was easy enough on the now much bigger small people. Although it was rated for kitchens and bathrooms, after a while we had a slow leak behind a unit, probabaly dripped for a couple of weeks, water travelled along a joint, never went back quite right again. Not a disaster though.

It lasted 12+ years and was looking a bit scruffy so we went for higher quality similar, this time profesionally fitted along with some other bits of the house, all good so far (4 years in).

We have retired friends with a recently extended kitchen, underfloor heating, fancy tiled floor, looks really magazine-advert excellent, easy to clean, will last forever. Wouldn't want it with very young children in the house though. Not sure how dog and cat friendly it is, never had a dog or cat.

We also did up a rental property 3 years ago (mother's old house, son lives in it now) and had karndean fitted in the dining area and entrance hall. Dining area is also the way in and out of the back garden. Excellent, no joints to move, feels and looks good - not 'wow' but inoffensive. Stood up to a family renting it - until they bought their own house - and unmarked after 3 years. If I had seen it before I re-did the kitchen I think I would have gone with Karndean but I suspect the underfloor needs to be prepped very well.

Floors always seem (to me at least) to look a bit darker when fitted than they do in the pretty pictures. on the box. Our excursion into vinyl seemed a bit too dark in practice, so if you are undecided between 2 colours maybe go for the lighter option.

So - no single answer, loads of choice, but think about what works for your and family needs, its easy to be 'seduced' by wow-factor looks.