5 of the Best Flooring for Kitchen

Kitchen is the most pounded place with considerably high traffic in your house. Being a place where you work daily, the kitchen needs a resilient flooring that can withstand both the heavy foot traffic, hot equipment and scraping effects of the kitchenware. More often, children may do their assignment in the kitchen too. Moreover, the kitchen floor experiences a lot of water spill and stains. Therefore, excellent flooring material for your kitchen should be durable, waterproof, easy to clean, scratch resistant, stain proof and fireproof. The flooring material should also be slip resistant as well as beautiful to add more elegance in your kitchen space. Can your kitchen floor look fantastic with all the spills, heat, and scratches? Yes, it can be by using the following flooring materials.

Porcelain

Porcelain is a type of ceramic flooring tile that is strong and more resistant than ceramic tiles. Due to the relatively high foot traffic and ground pounding equipment, with some having sharp edges, porcelain tile is a good option for your kitchen floor. Due to its impervious nature, this type of flooring material is waterproof, with only 0.5% absorption rate. They are also easy to clean, thus reducing chances of regular staining. Also, porcelain floor can withstand high temperatures with no or little damage to its surface. Porcelain flooring lasts for several years. When broken, you can do spot repair with a similar type of sheet. However, the main disadvantage of this type of flooring lies in its weight and fragile to handle before installation. Ideally, porcelain flooring can be used in any part of the room as well as in commercial places.

Sheet vinyl

Sheet vinyl flooring is synthetically made materials with a look like vinyl tile but distinct due to its large flexible and continuous sheets.  The flooring has no spaces like luxury vinyl tiles or planks, thus making it more waterproof. Due to its synthetic nature, sheet vinyl is resistance to scrubbing, cracking due to impact of heavy and sharp materials. The flooring is easy to clean and fire resistant. With the technological advancements, a high technology 3-D printing has been used to give sheet vinyl a mimic of wood, stone or any other beautiful color that makes it a perfect floor décor in your kitchen. Besides, sheet vinyl flooring is warm under the feet, thus making it more comfortable than porcelain. However, the main disadvantage of sheet vinyl is that heavy appliances such as fridges, freezer among other equipment can cause denting, thus use coasters under appliances legs.

Engineered vinyl plank (EVP)

This refers to a type of flooring material consisting of hyper-realistic durable vinyl top cover compounded with a high-density fiber core. The two components are made by high tech expertise and then backed to achieve a desirable outfit such as plank or panel format. The flooring material has received significant market attention due to its wood look-alike appearance that makes it more authentic. Moreover, its click-and-lock feature makes it more user-friendly and enables most of the homeowners to install it by themselves. Also, engineered vinyl plank is highly waterproof, stain resistant, tolerant to high temperatures and resilient to high foot traffic. It is also tolerant to scraping and other forms of abrasion. With this type of flooring, you need not worry about removing the pre-existing floor as you can directly install it over the old floor. However, sharp legs of heavy appliances can cause denting, thus use coasters.

Cork flooring

Cork is a renewable flooring material made from the back of the cork oak tree that grows in Southern Europe and Northern Africa. The cork is then ground and mixed with resin to form two types of flooring materials, namely solid-cork tiles and laminated cork planks.  Cork flooring is undeniable due to its decorative feature when laminated to give a wood-like appearance. Also, cork is soft and gives cushion with warmth, has antimicrobial property, hypo allergic, quiet to walk on, easy to install and can be easily refinished.

Moreover, it is cheap and environmental-friendly. However, cork can be easily scratched on the surface. Thus,  you should be careful when using it.

Engineered hardwood

It is a type of hardwood with advanced features that makes it water resistant. The natural wood beauty is authentic and brings the elegance of nature in your room. Its insulating features makes it warm and comfortable to work on. Moreover, the material is hard and resistant to denting and scrapings of the floor. With the current technology, engineering wood has “do it yourself” (DIY) features that enable the use of click-and-lock techniques.  Fire risk is the main disadvantage of this type of kitchen floor.

Bottom line

The choice of flooring material will depend on your preference of material, anticipated price margin, color, texture, easiness to install and water resistance. The above list is just meant to guide you, but further scrutiny and informed decision making are necessary.