I like wood floors in the kitchen, and painted cabinets. In fact, I wouldn't buy a house with tile floor and stained cabs unless I had the funds to re-do those aspects of the kitchen. Nothing against tile and stained cabs, many are beautiful, but not what I like for my kitchen.

Just did a remodel with tile in kitchen, foyer, half bath and stained cherry cabinets. Wood would not work with DH's job. He frequently works outdoors and walks in from the garage with his work boots full of dirt. And with two boys, wood is not practical for us in the kitchen. If our kitchen was not adjacent to the garage, basement, and back door, we might have put in wood.

Are you building with the idea of selling soon? Both wood and tile have their advantages and disadvantages.
I put in wood in my kitchen to match my other floors when I renovated. Why I love it: It is a smooth transition from one room to the next and looks great. It is soft on my feet and if I drop a glass (which I do on occasion) it doesn't shatter. One disadvantage would be if your kitchen flooded.
Tile as mentioned above is great for high traffic. I have a tile floor that mimics wood planks in our TV room off the garage. It is the best solution there as my kids growing up used the auto garage door to come and go.
For resale though, I feel wood would be the way to go.

We don't plan on moving anytime soon and this is planned to be a forever home assuming we stay here so I was leaning toward wood and will just have to pickup any ice I drop on the floor and keep the dogs water bowls in the laundry room b/c my Akita gets more on the floor than in his mouth. I don't like the idea of having a transition in the kitchen which is made difficult b/c there will be an island to an open living room so as of now I am thinking wood in all but bathrooms and laundry. I can handle t-molding under a door. Good points made

Stone in kitchen and bathrooms. Wood everywhere else.

We don't plan on moving anytime soon and this is planned to be a forever home assuming we stay here so I was leaning toward wood and will just have to pickup any ice I drop on the floor and keep the dogs water bowls in the laundry room b/c my Akita gets more on the floor than in his mouth. I don't like the idea of having a transition in the kitchen which is made difficult b/c there will be an island to an open living room so as of now I am thinking wood in all but bathrooms and laundry. I can handle t-molding under a door. Good points made

I'd want wood, but we have wood in every room but the bathroom, and I'd put wood in there if I thought the kids wouldn't flood the floor while playing in the bath.

We used suspended wood floors in the kitchen and in many other rooms, and I wish that I had used them everywhere except the laundry and bathrooms. So much nicer for legs and low back!

It depends on where/how you live. We are in So. Florida and tile was by far the best option for us. We have it everywhere.

Wood is just fine....IF you never have a leak or burst pipe, IF you don't have kids & dogs tracking stuff in, IF you aren't in a flood area. Anytime wood gets wet, it swells and CAN "delaminate."

I ;ove wood floors as it gives me lots of business.

Like the look of wood? There are ceramics that look so much like wood that it's incredible....and they LAST.

Choose wisely, Grasshopper.....

Love the look and feel of wood and had it in our last two kitchens, but with this house we changed to porcelain tile for the first time in our lives and are loving it. We have porcelain in the kitchen and baths, wood everywhere else.

For us it was just a lifestyle decision: big dogs, snowy winters, and kitchen doors to back yard do not make for good bedfellows. :)

Floods have been mentioned a couple of times. If you have a flood in your house, all kinds of things will be ruined, not just the floor. That's what insurance is for. My in-laws had a washer line break in the night and it flooded the entire 1300 sq. ft. house before they woke up in the morning. The cat was totally freaked. The vinyl in the kitchen was as much in need of tearing out and replacing as the wood in the rest of the house. The furniture miraculously survived, but the new Persian rug couldn't be saved. So sad. Lesson to be learned: turn off the valve to an in-house washer when not in use!

And then there's the problem of wood at entry doors. We put LL Bean Water Hog mats at our entries and they do a great job. In another house, I might go with tile at some or all entries. In another house, I'd like a mudroom. We're not going anywhere, so we have mats.

Where would I rather have tile? In the bathroom because that's a place that just will get wet for perfectly ordinary reasons. The in-laws do have wood in their one and only bathroom and it's doing well after 15 or 20 years, but it wouldn't be my choice. If I lived in S. FL like remodelfla or in HI, I would definitely rather have a tile of some sort throughout the house. It's a climate thing.

thanks for replies. I am in nashville tn area so tile due to climate is not an issue. I like the simplicity of cleaning up messes on tile but not the grout that gets chewed out by dog claws. Continuous wood seems like the better way to go. I install both tile and wood and wood install is much easier (except gluedown). Planning on a more rustic wood that will look aged so scratches from dogs will not stand out as much.

My life sounds like taggie's. I've love wood floors in my kitchen and barring all other considerations that's what I would have. But our back door (and the only entrance we really use) goes straight into the kitchen, no mud room or even an entry really. We have two Newfoundlands who are almost always covered in snow, sand, grime, water or drool and who seem to think they need to go outside a minimum of 20 times per day when we're home. So wood just wouldn't work for us. In fact we chose our porcelain tile floor mostly for its dirt-hiding capabilities, but if I were putting one in today I would seriously consider that tile that looks like wood.

This post was edited by wi-sailorgirl on Fri, Feb 8, 13 at 18:27