Tile for kitchen floor: pros and cons

Most modern homeowners’ choice for kitchen floor is hardwood, as it gives the space more sophisticated, even though quite warm and homey feel. On top of that, as traditional houses have joint kitchen and living room areas, it’s just easier to extend hardwood from the living room to the kitchen and avoid combining two kinds of flooring not to make the house finishing more complicated.

However, while adding value to the home, having a pleasant appearance, being quite durable and providing comfort to feet, hardwood floors are not probably too practical in kitchens in terms of clean-up, water damage, scratches, and dents that inevitably happen to it in the high-traffic cooking and eating areas.

Being significantly less expensive, low-maintenance and nearly life-long flooring material, tile is making its way back to the kitchen floors. Thus, let’s see what the benefits and disadvantages of having your kitchen floor tiled are in detail to determine whether it’s better not to create additional remodeling challenges and stick to the hardwood continuity all over the area or opt for a special, more forgiving kind of flooring material for the kitchen and dining space.

Reasons why you might want to choose tile for kitchen flooring instead of hardwood

1. Affordability and diversity

   Even for $1 per square foot, you may find an endless number of tile design and finish options, which leaves much more space for your imagination when it comes to designing the entire kitchen and making it look not too basic, but still timeless. The installation prices will range depending on your local area, the tile laying conditions, the tile contractor’s pricing policy, the kind of pattern you choose and the size of the tile. But, it could be as low as $2-3 per square foot.

2. Superior durability, especially in the kitchen

   When properly cared for, hardwood floors may last for 50 or even 100 years. Unfortunately, it won’t wear that long in the kitchen, as it will get damaged by the heavy traffic, water spills, tiny debris and furniture scratches, moisture dents, etc. They may get shaky after a while as well. But, if you choose mid-range or high-quality porcelain tile for your kitchen, it will remain in a great condition much longer than the hardwood, with no cracks, chips, discolorations and definitely no shakiness.

3. Low maintenance and easy clean-up

   No special cleaning products are required to clean the tile. Grime and dirt come off in a few sweeps. And, you don’t have to be as careful and particular about its maintenance as of the hardwood’s. The only thing you might want to get professionally done to your tiled floors after a long period of wear is grout renewal. No refinishing required. And, one of the things I like the most is that you don’t have to worry about every single water/liquid food spill or pet accident on your kitchen floors if you have them tiled. Also, modern tile finishes won’t get damaged by pet nails. They won’t get stained and they surely won’t soak up the odors.

4. Tile is nontoxic and hypoallergenic

   That’s is perfect for people following ‘green’ lifestyle or/and suffering from allergies. It doesn’t have to be laid over a completely even surface either, which contributes to the easier installation with minimal preparations.

Things can’t be completely perfect, can they? While ceramic or porcelain tile is great for bathroom and kitchen floors, there’re certain drawbacks you’ll have to deal with if you decided to get them installed in your home. If these doesn’t change your decision, make sure to leave an installation request on HireRush.com to get matched with an experienced local contractor for your remodel.

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Cons of tile kitchen floor you need to be aware of

1. Some kinds of tile are slippery when wet (e.g. glazed tiles). But, that’s just the matter of a careful material choice and reasonable seller’s advice.
2. If something falls, it will break. When having tiled kitchen floor, you need to be quite careful not to drop something fragile on them. As the tile, while being quite forgiving in terms of cleaning, won’t leave any chances for survival to your favorite mug, plate or phone if you accidentally drop those.
3. Tile is cold. When cooking, you need to do a lot of standing and walking back and forth in your kitchen. It doesn’t scare me, as I prefer wearing socks or slippers during the cold season anyways. And, you may totally fix this issue with the help of the easy to clean area rugs designed for kitchens. In addition to that, tile is a perfect ‘topper’ for warm floors systems that gain their popularity among the American homeowners.
4. Grout may get dull and dirty over time, but you may fix that by deep cleaning or regrouting when necessary.