Best Flooring Option for Kitchen
Flooring option for Kitchen should be planned keeping in
view that the flooring should be comfortable enough for walking, standing and
working. The floor should be easy to clean, should last longer, should be hard
enough. All these benefits might not be achievable with a single option. But we
can know material properties so that we can select the best material which we
will consider as the best flooring option for kitchen.
Let’s talk about a few most popular or best flooring option
for kitchen and understand about their properties.
Ceramic Tile
Ceramic Tile is the widely used flooring material in
kitchen. Ceramic tiles are manufactured by shaping, glazing and firing the tile
under intense heat. Ceramic tiles are not the hardest material- in fact they
are brittle. But they are durable. They are easy to mop in case you got stains
on them. Ceramic tiles prevent water from entering inside their surface because
of their glazing properties. It is resistant to breaking easily except you drop
a very hard substance above them.
Nowadays, ceramic tiles are available in various sizes and
shapes- they resemble like wood, like marble, like granite, like parqueting and
many other designs. You can place ceramic tiles and can feel like you have in
fact placed natural stone.
Natural Stone Tile
Natural stone tile
includes granites, marbles and sandstones. All natural stones don’t have
similar properties. For example, marbles could look bright and shiny, but they
can’t be used in busy kitchen and in countertops because they easily get marks
when scratched and can catch stains. You might look for marbles that are as
hard as granite though. Limestone also
has similar properties to marble and they are even less hard as a material. But
granite is a very durable material among natural stone tiles. Stones such as
sandstones wear very quickly.
Therefore, Granite is the
most popular, stainless and durable tile among natural stones.
Hardwood
Not all woods are
favorable in kitchen flooring because kitchen floor have high tendency to
become wet daily. Parqueting is not considered an option for kitchen flooring
because they are made up of soft wood. Hardwood is the only option if you want
to use wooden flooring material.
Hardwood is not entirely
resistant to porous. But if you mop the floor immediately when water is poured,
it doesn’t give long-standing problem. But you can’t keep hardwood floor wet
for a long time because they absorb and transport water and will be the reason
for seepage.
A great advantage of
hardwood floor is that it will be warm to step on the kitchen floor during
work. For this advantage, you have to make sure that you maintain humidity and
temperature in your kitchen because hardwood will warp when there is less
humidity.
Engineered wood have been
seen to be used as flooring option, but they are not as durable as solid wood.
We are referring to the solid wood as the hard wood because engineered wood are
not as hard as solid wood.
Vinyl Kitchen Flooring
As it’s name suggests,
Vinyl Kitchen Flooring option is made up of Vinyl plastics. This is one of the
most durable options for your kitchen flooring and this is getting more popular
day by day. The most important property of the vinyl kitchen flooring is that they
are resistant to worms attack, chemical attack, changes in temperature and
humidity and stains. Their negative side is that they are not resistant to
scratches.
Vinyl Flooring can mimic
other kinds of tiles like wooden tiles, ceramic tile or natural stones. This
property along with resistance to worm attack, chemical attack, temperature,
humidity and stains makes them one of the emerging kitchen flooring option.
Concrete Flooring
Concrete Flooring is not
one of the most preferred kitchen flooring options for a home. But they are
used in restaurants and public kitchens. Concrete Flooring can be stained all
over using paints-giving them attractive looks. Before applying any kind of polish,
concrete flooring must be waterproofed because concrete easily absorbs water.
Concrete can resist very high temperatures, so it has no issues related to
heat.
The top layer where paint
is applied should regularly be renewed- once in every two to three years.