Kitchen flooring
Kitchen floors chosen for the room they have to survive
A kitchen floor takes heavy traffic, dropped pans and spills. It also sets the tone for everything above it, so it gets picked against the cabinets and counters rather than on its own.
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The options
Five materials, and what each is really like
These are the floors we fit most often in Orange County kitchens, described by how they wear rather than how they look in a brochure.
Laminate
Long wearing and easy to maintain, with a convincing wood look.
The value option. Good pattern range, no refinishing, replace rather than repair.
Vinyl plank
Durable, forgiving underfoot and available in a wide range of looks.
Handles water better than wood, which matters next to a dishwasher.
Solid hardwood
Dozens of species and finishes, and it can be refinished.
The long game. Sand and recoat it in fifteen years and it looks new again.
Engineered hardwood
Real wood wear layer over a stable core.
More dimensionally stable than solid, so it can go in places solid should not.
Bamboo
As hard wearing as traditional hardwood, and a renewable material.
Cleans easily and can be refinished. A good answer if the sourcing matters to you.
Tile
Hundreds of styles and textures, from stone and porcelain to wood look.
The most water and wear resistant of the lot. Cold underfoot unless you heat it.
Worth knowing
Two things that decide the result
Large format or small?
Large format tiles mean fewer grout lines, which reads calmer and makes a small kitchen look larger. Squares are the most common shape, but rectangles, hexagons and octagons all work if you want the floor to be the statement.
What about the baseboards?
Flooring and baseboard get planned together. Fitting the floor first and the trim after is what keeps the edges clean, and it is where a rushed job shows.
See moldings and trims.
Virtual Studio
Try a floor against your cabinets
Flooring is the easiest thing to get wrong in isolation. Put it next to a cabinet door and a counter before you decide.
Design it first
Combine floor, cabinet and counter in the kitchen visualizer and keep a list of what worked.
Then hold the samples
Screens flatten texture and gloss. The samples are on the floor at our Laguna Hills showroom.
Get a real number for your kitchen floor
We measure, check the subfloor and price it properly, in writing, before anything is ordered.