Need advice on what type of flooring to put in my entryway and kitchen...?
Question:we currently have vinyl tiles in the entry way and kitchen. I would like to put something else down, but we are over a crawl space, the floor gives and it tends to get cold in the winter. Can we use ceramic or do we have to stick with vinyl ? any ideas would be helpful. TY
Answers:
Ceramic tile is nice, but if the floor moves, you need to either reinforce it with a stronger subfloor material or choose another flooring material, like wood. I put bamboo flooring down in my house, and it looks great. Its relatively cheap ($2/sf at costco), solid (harder than oak), and easy to install yourself (well, kinda). There are engineered wood products on the market too, like Pergo, that is also affordable and looks good.
In any case, getting your subfloor fixed is important. Look into adding a layer of plywood all around and fastening it down well.
Ceramic tiles are really easy to clean and maintain..nice colors and u can even have nice patterns on the floor as well....
I prefer hardwoods or ceramic tiles. Both are easy to maintain.
I would recommend tile or stone floors for these two areas in lieu of wood floors. Here's why.
These ares are both conducive to water. Tile and stone are better suited for wet locations. Entry floors are also subjected to sands and salt that are brought in from the exterior. Both of which are abrasive. Tile or stone would also be better to combat any abrasions.
Tile is also being used in areas above unconditioned space more today then ever before. This is because they make a heat matt that is installed below the tile. This heat matt can be controlled by a timer, thermostat or a simple switch.
Wood is offend used in kitchens and entries, but tile or stone is better suited for these rooms.
I have an extensive article on my web site about kitchen flooring. You may want to take a look at it at:
http://www.kitchenartworks.com/flooring.
I would treat the two areas differently. The foyer really needs a very durable floor that can stand up to grit on shoes unless you do yourselves a favor and remove your shoes when you come in and ask your guests to do the same.
It's a good place for tile or stone tile with narrow grout lines to minimize cleaning. If the area is larger than a few feet square then you may need to beef up the floor joists to carry the extra weight of the tile.
Be sure to select a tile that is easily cleaned and slip resistant as an entry often gets wet. Test these issues by bringing home a sample and cleaning it and stepping on it wet.
For color in an entry, I like to try to approximate the color of the adjacent flooring or carpet. It makes the spaces flow better. Grout should be a similar color to the tile or slightly lighter.
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