I've had oak flooring in my kitchen for 7 years and I LOVE it. Fortunately I've had no water mishaps.

I've had wood flooring in the kitchen for 14 years at this house and had it in the kitchen in my previous house. I absolutely love having it. That being said...we did have a leak from the water line of our fridge about 5 or 6 years ago which slightly warped the floor under the fridge. No one could really see it but insurance paid to have our entire first floor of wood refinished and the warped section repaired. I still love it and would do it again in a heartbeat. I think it adds a warmth that can not be achieved with tile.

I've had Oak in my kitchen for 27 years, refinished once. Had an ice maker issue once that caused some swelling/cupping just in front of the refer, but it flattened out fine after a couple weeks of drying out.

We had wood floors in our kitchen and a leak did cause damage. That didn't stop me from installing bamboo floors when we redid the kitchen and family room (I figure you can't prevent all mishaps), which we loved as long as we lived in that house (about 7 years post-remodel). They looked good and felt great on bare feet. We once again have wood, although this time its solid oak, which we refinished.

We have solid oak. Considering that the rest of our house has wood floors over 100 years old and my childhood home has wood floors what are 120+ years, I'm not too concerned.

I have had a Pergo vinyl tile floating floor in my kitchen for 12 years - warm, soft, no worries about flooding, water spills etc.
Everyone who comes into our kitchen loves it.
Personally I would never put real wood floors in my kitchen, especially since I have honey coloured maple cabinets. See photo attached, you can see my floor.

Same here The wood floor in my kitchen has been there for at least 125 years.

My wood is 3 inch wide T&G, fir strip flooring set over the original wide board pine. It's worn down a bit in the most common doorway from being the main entrance to the house, and very dark-coloured now from oxidized shellac, but could be refinished or resanded if I wanted. Every now and then and I get down on hands and knees and scrub it with hot water flax-oil soap and stiff bristle brush, but most of the time I just sweep or vacuum it.

What I would never choose for a kitchen are those modern engineered, "pre-finished" wood floors that are just a thin layer of wood glued over a substrate. Better to have sheet vinyl than those since they can't be refinished..

L.

Have always had wood in the kitchen, white oak and it is NOT a problem at all. Many old bars have hardwood floors, think of all the drunken beer spilling night after night and yet it still lives on. I even have it in my laundry room. Do it! You won't be sorry.

I put cork down in my previous two kitchens and loved it. This house was built in 1926 and came with wood floor in the kitchen (same as throughout the house, as far as I know all original to the house). All of it was refinished before we bought the place, but I see no signs of water damage and it's been fine for the year we have lived here. I do not plan to change it when we finally remodel the kitchen.

Thank you so much for all of your responses. I have oak cabinets that I stained a walnut color in the kitchen, but I'm sure I can find something to complement it. I will NEVER buy engineered Pergo floors again. We got them to replace some hideous berber carpet in one area of our house and they are awful. Easy to clean, but they are cracking. pulling away from the baseboards and just look cheap. I'm trying to do some window shopping so I can save since this is a "When the dogs die" project. Sounds cruel, but when you have a 14 and 15 year old dog, you gotta think about replacing carpet and flooring soon;-)