ᐅ Real wood in new construction: dining area, living room, kitchen, and hallway

Hello everyone, we plan to install hardwood flooring throughout the entire ground floor of our new build.

What are your experiences with solid wood floors in high-traffic areas? We have some concerns about grease splatters in the kitchen (with an island) that occur during cooking and frying.

Additionally, the living area will also be used by our 1 1/2-year-old daughter for playing.

An alternative would be tiles, which tend to feel rather cold even with underfloor heating, and we would probably add several rugs in the room.

Thanks for any information, advice, or experiences you can share.

Best regards,
Stefan

I would be more concerned about the entrance area.
With a good two-component oil finish, the kitchen floor won’t be affected much.

For playing: we have had solid wood floorboards in the children's room for 4 years, and they still look like new.

Hi,
thanks for the reply.

Our entrance area will be used only rarely, as we will mostly access the living area via the stairs from the basement. Of course, guests will use the hallway. Still, I don’t see a major risk there.

If anything, only an oiled floor would be considered.
What is the experience with expansion joints for lengths over 9m (30 feet)?

RobsonMKK schrieb:
I would be more concerned about the entrance area.
With a good two-component oil finish, the kitchen floor can handle a lot.

For playing: we have had solid wood planks in the children’s room for 4 years, and they still look like new.

As always, it depends. If everyone is careful with things, the floor will look new for a long time. But it can also go the other way. Tiles are always more durable.

So... experience from 6 months with double-oiled bamboo flooring inside the house, tiles in the kitchen, entrance, and bathrooms, and 3 children.

The kitchen is used as a kitchen, not just decoration: I would never choose hardwood flooring for that. Same for the entrance... we currently still have a gravel patch outside, and the kids bring in so much sand that I’m really glad we have tiles there.

In the dining area: you can already see some wear in spots, but that’s mainly because one chair lost its felt pads without anyone noticing. That chair made a few superficial scratches, but they can be fixed.

Otherwise: I would definitely do it again, but the last 6 months have not left the floor completely unmarked. My 2-year-old son contributes plenty: “I am a chainsaaaaw...”

From experience, I can say that hardwood flooring in the kitchen is a bad idea if the kitchen is used "properly." We had it once in a rental apartment. For the entrance area, I would always choose something hard and scratch-resistant. Moisture is also to be expected there, which is not good for wood.

We use our kitchen regularly and have parquet flooring (also bamboo). It looks great, and in an open kitchen, you don’t get that less attractive transition between the parquet and the kitchen tiles.

What really sets a kitchen apart from other rooms? Not much usually falls on the floor, maybe a bit of moisture or some dropped food… This doesn’t affect the sealed parquet as long as it’s not left there for hours on end (who would do that?!). Of course, the parquet can get scratched sometimes, but no more or less than in the dining area. Children’s rooms, for example, experience even more wear and tear, yet we still have parquet there because it simply looks nice—especially for the kids, since the feel of the flooring is truly unique.