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tile vs. wood - Am I way off base ?
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Posted by quitemary (My Page) on Sun, Feb 7, 10 at 22:14
| I considering doing my small kitchen, ajoining dining room and ajoining living area all in tile. Am I crazy? All I see are wood floors everywhere, which I love but with three exterior doors opening into the space plus worrying about kitchen use damage I'm seriously thinking tile with area rugs would be more functional - but would it be too "cold" looking. I don't mind the temp of the tile or the hardness but I am concerned about looking dated or just plain wrong. Anyone have an opinion? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: tile vs. wood - Am I way off base ?
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| If you plan on selling the place, you'll wish you had wood. It is incredibly popular right now and shows no signs of letting up anytime soon. There is nothing "wrong" with tile, but the vast majority of potential buyers would prefer wood. |
RE: tile vs. wood - Am I way off base ?
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| Another choice is to do tile in the kitchen and wood elsewhere but that would depend on how the rooms flow together. Exterior doors leading into the area shouldn't be a problem. Just put down mats outside the doors and a rug inside. |
RE: tile vs. wood - Am I way off base ?
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RE: tile vs. wood - Am I way off base ?
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| You should not worry about damage. In my previous home we had the old pine floor which we refinished and in 11 years that lived there did not have damage at all (I have 3 messy kids). It is not like the old days that used shellac and wax. The poly now is very very durable. My new home still has the 100 year old pine floor and the main entrance is trough the kitchen. Still looks great and any damage is from abuse and wax (ancient). Even my bathroom has wood (maple) and 100 years later still looks great. I am sure it depends on the tile but in general I think wood looks cleaner with less moping than tile. And tile can crack or discolor. Again it depends on what you choose. So if durability is your only concern you should reconsider. But if you just love tile go for it. Is this house an investment property? If it is your house to live and "eventually" sell I would not bother of what the buyers would think. It is your house so choose what you love. |
RE: tile vs. wood - Am I way off base ?
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| I’ve just been agonizing over the same decision. In this area, tile in the kitchen and hall/foyer would be fine but tile in the dining, living and family rooms would really hurt resale. In those three rooms I had no real choice they had to be hardwood or broadloom. When I polled my friends about the kitchen/hall/foyer flooring the older crowd wanted hardwood; the younger crowd with small children preferred tile. Vinyl is not that popular in my area either. I decided to go with hardwood throughout because I like the continuity of the same flooring, and although the material costs are similar for hardwood and tile, the tile installation costs so much more money. Since I have 2 dogs, a number of patio doors and a snowy/ muddy climate I plan on not being super obsessive about a scratch/dirt free floor :-(. If I find I really can’t abide hardwood in the kitchen/ hall I’ll lift it and use it to replace broadloom on second floor and tile the kitchen and foyer at that point in time. |
RE: tile vs. wood - Am I way off base ?
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| The biggest complaint I hear about tile floors is how uncomfortable they are to stand on for any length of time. To prevent tile cracking the floors are made very stiff, and while the movement of wood floors may seem small, it does reduce the wear and tear on ankles, knees, and hips. Commercial kitchens are often all tile and get hosed down as part of cleanup, after the soft floor mats are removed for cleaning. |
RE: tile vs. wood - Am I way off base ?
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I love wood floor. My last house was all wood. This house I went wood in the living room and bedrooms and travertine everywhere else. Why? Because in the last house we had 3 leaks over 10 years. The first leak was in the kitchen from the ice maker on our refrigerator. By the time we realized there was a problem it had seeped under most of the wood floor in the kitchen and it buckled. The floor in the kitchen had to be replaced and the rest of the house had to be refinished to match the new wood. The second leak was from my dishwasher which flooded the kitchen and living room, I woke up in the middle of the night to find myself sloshing through water. All the floors had to be replaced. 2 months later we had a sewage backup in our shower which flooded the whole downstairs. Fortunately we were awake and called a flood service and they managed to save the floors. We had to move out for 3 days while the dehumdifiers and fans did their work. Our insurance covered some of the damage but our rates went up. But three times are the charm, so I decided in this house to use stone floors where there's water. And it turned out to be a good move when our old washer decided to die and leaked all over the place. No damage was done.
As far as softness, my current house is on a slab so wood and stone are the same. A nice side product with the stone tiles is the coolness is great in our hot climate and with my hoover floormate they are super easy to clean. The floormate does not work as well on the wood. |
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