Flooring for kitchen

Hardwood is more forgiving on your back and feet if you stand for any great length of time in your kitchen. For me the reason is personal - I have had multiple back surgeries and have arthritis in my feet, right knee and hip. So if anyone has any health concerns, my vote is for hardwood.

Since you are on the shore, tile might be easier to maintain and not have problems with moist air as you would with hardwood. Heated tile floors in the wintertime would be heaven! Plus easier to sweep sand up off of tile floors too.

Hope you are ok with all the repeated storms on the east coast, be safe!

I would go tile, I have tile in my kitchen and wood look tile in my backroom, but hardwood in the bedrooms, hall, dining room and living room. Our dogs, even with nails clipped are hard on the finish of the wood and much harder to keep clean of the dirt, dust, mud and water they bring in when they come in the house (they have a doggy door). We have one ankle biter, one medium sized, a chow-chow and two large dogs, shepherd and shepherd mix. The three love to play outside all the time no matter the weather.

Personally, I never use wood anywhere near where There be water and other liquids getting on my hardwood. Unless you’re wanting to use a exterior finish on your kitchen flooring and resealing your flooring from time to time depending how often it gets wet? Water itself is like acid to lacquer or varnish, etc. and will eat right thru your finish over time and start destroying your flooring. All it takes is some water being spilled and forgotten to be cleaned up and dried right away! Water not only eats the finish, it makes wood swell and warp and twist as well as dry rot! Being a contractor myself I have seen a lot of water damage over the years where people had no clue the damages water causes to hardwood floors as well as tempature and humidity! You can destroy a hardwood floor in no time just by not controlling the temperature in your home. Allowing your temps to drop below even 70 degrees where the home starts drawing moisture will start flooring to swell, twist, and warp. Then when temps are raised wood shrinks and cracks! Unfortunately this is the biggest reasons why people end up having to refinish or in worse cases replace their hardwood flooring! I would never recommend anyone to put hardwood in the kitchen nor a bathroom especially! Unless you’re extremely careful to keep your floors dry and a consistent temp no less then the upper 60’s to preferably not higher then the upper 70’s. Your just looking for headaches and extra cost down the line! But if for some reason your temperatures get way too low or high. Try to slowly change temp to a reasonable living condition to try to let the wood climatize as naturally as possible to hopefully avoid any more damage then necessary! I‘Be seen straight cabinet doors look like the curved back of a chair in just days from letting tampatures change too rapidly from the 40’s to 70’s in just a few hours or less! Sadly, many times with new cabinets when a home owner doesn’t watch their temp changes and their hardwood starts warping and twisting they want to blame the cabinetmakers for their problems and it’s nothing to do with the cabinetmakers at all! Except for maybe not warning their customers not to let tempatures lower and raise any more then absolutely necessary or it will damage their hardwood!

I’d stick to a flooring not so touchy with moisture and temps myself, you’ll be happier in the long run I promise

I find tile easier to clean, I'd go that route

Research Vinyl planking.It is the newest flooring and has gotten very good reviews.

I like the vinyl planking too. Looks like hardwood but wears much better.

Look at LVP (luxury vinyl planks, they are the new trend for flooring. They are affordable, look like wood, waterproof, easy care and scratch resistant.