ᐅ Looking for Suitable Flooring for Kitchen/Fireplace Area

MachsSelbst schrieb:

Kitchen = tiles. Unless you are extremely meticulous and always wipe immediately or mainly use the kitchen for reheating food in the microwave.

You can tell me whatever you want. When I grill a steak—3.5 minutes full heat on both sides, then 10-15 minutes at 80°C (176°F) in the warming drawer—the floor under the stove is covered with grease splatters afterward. Under my built-in coffee machine, there are always small coffee stains.
With kids, things constantly fall down; I wouldn’t even want to see the scratches on parquet...

If it’s a real kitchen that’s used often... go with tiles. Even though there are some diehards who convince themselves parquet would also be great and really easy to maintain. Not true...

That’s the difference between hearsay and personal experience. I have had parquet in the kitchen for at least 20 years, and did the same in our house because it is simply not a problem at all. I cook a lot and enjoy it, and by the way, I don’t even have a microwave. I have neither scratches in the parquet from things constantly falling, nor a permanent grease film or water stains.

Everyone should do as they wish—I’m not here to preach. What annoys me are these absolute statements from people who don’t even speak from their own experience.

I don’t need direct experience with parquet flooring when I see how our kitchen floor looks after 3 days without damp mopping... but never mind, I already said that. For the tough ones, it might work because nothing ever falls on their floor or they wipe twice a day without thinking.

For the average family, there is nothing more impractical than parquet flooring in the kitchen.

MachsSelbst schrieb:

For the average family, there is nothing more impractical than hardwood flooring in the kitchen.

That’s what I meant by "absolute statements from people who don’t even speak from personal experience." Where does your strong conviction come from that your opinion is always and 100% the only possible truth?

I just wrote that I have been cooking a lot and enjoying it in a kitchen with hardwood floors for decades, and my personal experience is that the scenarios you described have never been a problem for me. Your response basically amounts to: "I have no idea, but I’m definitely right anyway!"

Of course, I do drop things sometimes. But that doesn’t mean the hardwood is immediately damaged. What exactly are you throwing around in your kitchen?

Oh, sorry, I always forget. There is, of course, the option to make a nice solid wood floor waterproof with clear varnish. I really didn’t think about that horror story at all.

Then it might be suitable for the kitchen, but it has of course lost every quality that makes a wooden floor a wooden floor. You might as well use vinyl.

MachsSelbst schrieb:

You can say whatever you want. When I cook a steak, 3.5 minutes on high heat on both sides, then 10-15 minutes at 80°C (175°F) in the warming drawer, there are fat splatters all over the floor under the stove afterwards. Under my built-in coffee machine, there are constantly small coffee splashes.
With kids, things are always falling down, and I definitely don’t want to see the dents in the parquet...

I’m sticking with parquet flooring – even with three kids and a large dog. BUT: If I have a small countertop only 60cm (24 inches) deep, it obviously splashes more than a properly deep countertop. I honestly can’t imagine a kitchen with such a narrow work surface. The space is worth its weight in gold.
By the way, dents in parquet depend on the type of wood. Oak hardly dents at all, but if I use maple, birch, larch, and so on, the parquet definitely gets more damaged.

We have had hardwood flooring in the kitchen for 13 years. No problems at all. Neither with the microwave.