ᐅ Tiles or vinyl flooring in the kitchen and hallway

We are planning to build a new house. From my work experience, I am really impressed with vinyl flooring (we will also have underfloor heating). So the decision is already made for the living and sleeping areas. Until now, I thought tiles would be best for the kitchen and hallway. Or should we also use vinyl there? What are your experiences?

I have never encountered a vinyl floor that didn’t have some kind of odor. I wouldn’t want to install it in a heated floor system – so I would definitely prefer tiles over vinyl.

Our floor doesn’t have any odor... and I don’t like tiles.
Except for the bathroom, we have vinyl flooring everywhere and we think it’s great.

Müllerin schrieb:

Our floor doesn’t smell... and I don’t like tiles.
We have vinyl everywhere except the bathroom and we really like it.

Same here. Installed glued down on the ground floor, so there are no issues with water in the hallway and kitchen. I usually go barefoot or in socks and find tiles terribly cold underfoot. Also, the often mentioned argument for underfloor heating doesn’t really hold up in summer or during transitional seasons.

We have had good experience with glued vinyl flooring, which has recently become available with the Blue Angel ecolabel from at least two manufacturers. Make sure to check and feel samples beforehand.

If you have no objections to tiles, such as cost or comfort, I would recommend choosing tiles as they are more durable and always safe in terms of health.

There are also vinyl-like floorings (often called luxury vinyl tiles or planks, but this is not a protected term) made from PE or PU plastics without plasticizers. Vinyl itself is a very rigid plastic that is softened by adding plasticizers. There is no vinyl without plasticizers. In the past, phthalates were used as plasticizers, which were found to be very harmful to health. Nowadays, other plasticizers are used, although long-term experience with them is still lacking. Vinyl flooring is generally not recommended for rooms used by children.