ᐅ Wood flooring as a surface material in the kitchen

Dear homeowners,

which of you have experience with hardwood flooring in the kitchen? We are currently planning our house, which will have an open kitchen, dining, and living area. For aesthetic reasons, we would like to install the same hardwood flooring everywhere, but we are unsure if it will be durable enough in the cooking area. We are not overly fussy, but we also don’t want to have to replace the entire floor after 10 years.

My parents built their house in 1984, and the parquet flooring is still in the kitchen today. Naturally, it has developed a patina over time (it has darkened somewhat), definitely more than, for example, in the living room. They wax the floor once a year and may have sanded it down once, but I’m not entirely sure about that.

We have had it installed here for 2 years, parquet flooring everywhere, and we will do the same in the new build with solid wood planks because I don’t really like the visual transition between stone and wood. Of course, wood is softer than stone, so you might get a dent once in a while, whereas stone chips or breaks more easily if something falls on it.

I am PRO wood throughout and would gladly install it in the bathroom as well!

pagoni2020 schrieb:

We have had it installed for 2 years now, hardwood flooring everywhere, and we plan to do the same in the new build with solid wood planks, because I don’t really like the visual transitions between stone and wood. Of course, wood is softer than stone and you might get dents, whereas stone chips more easily or everything breaks if something falls on it.
I am PRO wood everywhere and would even install it in the bathroom any time!

We did the same, solid oak planks everywhere except the bathrooms. In the entrance area it can be borderline during winter, but other than that I love it. You just have to be aware of the properties beforehand.

We also have hardwood flooring in the kitchen, but we place a waxable (!) rug in the “high-traffic” areas (in front of the stove and sink)... so it’s not such a big deal if something spills there.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any long-term experience yet, as I only moved in last year.

In my previous

apartment, I once dropped a pot on the tiled kitchen floor. The tile was badly damaged. I think if it had been hardwood, it wouldn’t have looked as bad.

In our rental apartment, we have hardwood flooring throughout, including the kitchen. After two years, you can definitely see some wear, even though we take good care of it. Water (or rather, a child with water) is the real challenge; everything else we can easily consider as “signs of life.” We also have a rug there, which helps.