I'm not sure how big your floor is but my entire kitchen renovations will cost me $18,000! My kitchen is 11x12. I'm getting maple cabinets painted white with soft shut drawers, lazy susans, plywood interiors, granite counter tops, porcelain tile floor, subway tile back splash, blanco sink, faucet and soap dispenser AND a microwave. My contractor is charging me $7,500 to $8,000 to do ALL the work.

my porcelain floor tiles are $5.40 a sq ft. So unless your kitchen is HUGE I'd say you might be paying too much.

Something very stylish, very easy to live with, and "green", is Marmoleum. It's old fashioned linseed oil, sawdust and cork linoleum that comes in amazing modern colors. Easy to care for, warm to the foot, not hard to install. It comes in sheets and tiles, and also in "click" form. And runs about $6-7 per square foot, plus installation. Probably orders of magnitude less than your tile quote.

We I have had red oak hardwood in all my kitchens - 2, going on a 3rd (under construction.) I find them very easy to keep clean, they actually hide sins. I never stained mine dark though, only poly. I'd imagine if they were dark they'd be hard to keep clean.

That tile price sounds CRAZY expensive. My mom had her entire living area (foyer, family, kitchen, laundry, and 1 bathroom) tiled and I KNOW she didn't pay that much, she wouldn't have been able to afford that. I'd definitely get another quote. I had my entire house done with quarter sawn oak and it wasn't that much.

Hold on, did you say $30 per sqf FOR THE INSTALLATION alone??? Do you have a very complicated pattern, difficult materials? I paid and extra $2/sqf to have my tile laid in a brick pattern - and that was a bit high as it was thru my builder (and included waste).

Don't really have a good understanding of what the going rates are, but do know that I paid, recently, $1.50/sqf for the installation of my gorgeous hardwood floors....

We paid $3.50 per sf for refinishing of our 13 yr old red oak floors.

I do love my floors now. Hated them before. Don't know anything about tile prices. I would think there has to be a much less expensive option. Good luck!

are you sure it wasn't $30/hr??

My contractor quoted $17 sq ft to install 12 x 12 tile is running bond pattern which I thought was quite high. $30 sq ft is ridiculous.

espresso,

I haven't had any tile installation quotes, but I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say forget the guy who quoted you $30 sq ft. Get at least two other quotes.

As far as cleaning Hardwood goes, I can't imagine anything that's much easier to clean. I have Tigerwood throughout most of my upstairs, and it only requires wiping/dusting with a microfibre mop. Occasionally I'll wet that same mop and wash the floors. Mine have a factory applied aluminum oxide finish that is so EASY to wipe clean. My old vinyl floors were a pain...do the new ones still have all those friggen cracks that dirt settles into? And, I get more compliments on the flooring that on all the renos/new furniture we have added over the past two years- it's my pride and joy and I don't regret for one second having put in in.

Thanks for all the replies!! Does anyone here have Marmoleum floors? I went to their web site, and the possilities seem endless. I'm just wondering if, in the end, it would give a high-end modern kiitchen a "cheap" (i.e. vinyl) touch? I have not seen real swatches of the material. Is linoleum an up and coming material, being green and all?

As for the tile, yes, it is indeed for just labor, plain basic tile pattern. I have always heard it being expensive, but was surprised to see the actual numbers. My kitchen is ~ 500 sq.ft. Meanwhile, I received another quote with ~ $10/sq.ft. for labor.

espresso
I'll echo the sentiments on the outrageous price quote you receieved. You could do a "calling Bill V ? on install pricing" and you'll get a professional answer.

I find tile both cold & hard to stand on for prolonged periods and then there is the grout cleaning issue.

I put in new white oak HW flooring in our kitchen - couldn't be happier & a breeze to keep clean. HW in kitchen should have a new coat of poly every 1-2 yrs which will keep them looking great for a long time. I had mine done last Spring (kitchen was 2 yrs new) it was $123 to do about 350 sq ft - Beats having the mess of refinishing

Good luck

We have friends who have marmoleum in their laundry room. I love it and there is variety of colors. However, if you are looking at high end resale, I would look towards something else.

I always wanted tile, but after having our wood refinished, I vote wood. What about bamboo or cork? There are tons of options out there. I think it just boils down to what is comfortable for you and what look you're trying to achieve. What look are you trying to achieve? :)

Boy, this list is active! It took me a while to find my post again.

HW flooring is really beginning to grow on me. My only concern is that I wanted to have it put in throughout the entire first floor, and assume that the color of the kitchen floor should be the same as elsewhere on that floor. I would prefer a medium dark, reddish floor, but our kitchen cabinets will be maple in this orangy-brown stain. For that, a light floor would look better, but it's not my color of choice for the entire first floor. Argh.... :(

espresso,

I had exactly the same problem. It took me quite a while to find the perfect hardwood for us. We have maple cabinets in a cinnamon/toffee stain and furniture in various woods throughout the rest of the house- mahogany, maple, teak, walnut, cherry, etc. (we love wood) So, I choose Tigerwood, because it had so many different colours in it, it blended well with everything. I had been leaning towards Pecan, and even a maple with lots of variation in it. The good news is that there is lots of choice in hardwood out there- the bad news is that there is so much to choose from in hardwood out there!

BTW, if I think about it, I bookmark the threads I'm interested in under my GardenWEb file- cuz otherwise it could get lost!!!

I would have loved wood floors in my kitchen but the entire house is going to be laminate and I thought it would just be too much.
Also considered tile, but worried it would be too cold and I tend to drop things...
Finally decided to go with linoleum and it was installed yesterday.

A pic:

{{!gwi}}

Oops - my bad,
My floor is actually sheet vinyl.
Sorry 'bout that...

Dawn