Here's a helpful thread on the subject.
I was encouraged by Rhome's take.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg1015362526835.html

Senator

What are your cabinets and countertops and what color is the floor? I like the contrast between your cabinets and the floor. I am doing natural walnut cabinets and need a forgiving floor that provides some contrast on the lighter side.

My cabs are quartersawn white oak with a clear finish. My floors are Marmoluem in Caribbean. I love the color of our floor. It doesn't show every bit of dust so you feel like you constantly be wiping it do it looks clean.

My cabs are quartersawn white oak with a clear finish. My floors are Marmoluem in Caribbean. I love the color of our floor. It doesn't show every bit of dust so you feel like you constantly be wiping it do it looks clean.

{{!gwi}}

As a follow up to my comments in that older thread:

We found out that if a puddle of water is left for days, it will find its way into the seam. DD's puppy bit into some water stored under my builtin desk and we didn't realize it was leaking and trapped on the floor. So now it's bubbled a bit in that small area, and we hope it dried out and settles back down. But I consider this an extreme case. We were dumb to leave the bottled water there, but I didn't plan on anyone puncturing it!

It's also not advised that you put a dog's water bowl on the flooring, or anything that could splash water over an extended period of time.

Anyway, the floor will scratch and scuff over time, but it's not like dog toenails will rip into it, like I've always imagined they could on cork. Like I said on the other thread, it's good to have a mottled color to hide smears, minor scratches, and puppy pawprints. ;-)

I used Marmoleum click in my kitchen and LOVE IT. It's been installed about a year and I did it myself. I have a rather large kitchen which needed to be redone due to a burst water pipe (ugh) so tore everything out and ripped up the floor. My wife and I went through tons of flooring options and settled on Marmoleum click. We went kind of nutty on the color but to this day, we love it. We've got an Australian Cattle Dog with long claws (we do our best on trimming them occasionally), 3 cats (all with claws), a 5 year old kid and a 17 year old. This has held up quite well with the only scratch being caused by yours truly moving a rough bottomed piece of furniture. However, over time, the scratch has seemed to disappear. The Marmoleum layer is quite thick and so scratches do tend to fade after a while as long as they aren't gouges.

The seams are nearly invisible. The colors weused are the Henna, Pineapple, Barbados, and the blue (forgot what it was called). We get all kinds of great compliments (with the occasional "What were you guys thinking?" on the design aspect heh... to each their own.)

Mr Green- Love your bold color choices! My space is awkwardly shaped, front entry and kitchen and is almost T shaped. I am working on a random stripe pattern.

Love the picture of the caribbean. I just ordered that one in my second set of samples and can't wait for it to arrive!

I had Marmoleum Click in my old kitchen before I replaced it with hardwood. I loved the feel of it- very soft underfoot and not cold at all in the winter time (limited heating ducts in the old kitchen).

I once overfilled the pets watering dish and it sat there for a few days, soaking into the click edges, causing buckling at the seam. I thought it was ruined! However, I dried it off, left it open to air out and it eventually went back down with only a slight amount of ripple on the edge. You couldn't tell unless you were looking for it. I was very impressed by that. It did however, scratch when something was drug across it, so I decided it wasn't the floor for me, and eventually replaced it. I saved it, and will reuse it in the laundry room, which sees a bit less traffic.

Hags, we've had marmoleum (sheet though, not click) on our kitchen floor for 14 years and love it. It has raised two puppies (one now deceased and the other now 12 but who still races thru the kitchen to defend us from the mailman) and it has come through without a scratch. (I've never trimmed their nails either....) Their water bowl is on the floor and there's routinely a trail of water on the floor after a drink - no problems.

Bottom line, we would most definitely put it in another kitchen if the opportunity arose.

HTH,
Burntfingers

Hags00: I've got a great pic of a marmoleum floor using a random pattern. I'll post it later on tonight.
Not stripes so much as a random scrabble pattern using dark brown, grey blue and white (aka, barbados). Blue was picked up in cabinet door colour and brown was picked up in wall colour. I think the reason it all worked together is a. kitchen was small, and b. all the shared colours between floor/cabs/walls. Otherwise, the floor looks a bit separate and possibly overpowering (although maybe that's OK. dunno.)

V. cool :-) The floor was definitely the statement in this kitchen.

Love to see it, please post when you have a chance!

We put marmoleum in our laundry room/mudroom. I LOVE it! I did a checkerboard in beige and brown (I cannot remember the color names at the moment). It has been in for almost a year. I did not want grout or hardwood in that room bc I knew it would have lots of dirt, mud, snow and constant traffic. I like the two colors...the light shows dirt more than the brown but the two colors keep me from noticing it too bad. Great product! And soft on your feet.

here is the pic I was talking about yesterday:

Countrygirl--what colors did you use? They are pretty.

Got another 6 sample colors in the mail today, time to play with my Marmoluem!! Thanks for all the great pictures and ideas!

I have to chime in here that I'm really unhappy with my marmoleum click kitchen floor right now. As another poster has mentioned, a little water on 1 of the seams and it bubbles.

Additionally, my floor has melted in a splatter pattern from... something. Grease? It's not supposed to do this but it has. I also have some other odd splash, streaky marks in it and I don't know where they came from.

It's a great looking floor but i've only had it for 2 years and it's already showing quite a bit of wear. I don't expect it to last that much longer. I'm afraid the material is just to delicate to stand up to the wear and tear of a kitchen.

Great thread. Our sheet marmoleum is being installed on the 1st.

Wondering about seams and who has welded vs. glued. I think we were billed for a welding rod but were told we'd never see the seam. I've seen a pic in one of the thread links above where you DO see the seam. Should I insist on glued instead?

A follow up to my previous post on this thread:

Like Oldhousegal, we have decided Marmoleum Click isn't for us. A minor leak from the dishwasher (that we can't even locate yet, so it wasn't a huge flood) made a big, raised mess of the flooring. (Top was ok and cork was ok, but inner core wasn't) With the click-together seams, it would mean ripping out to one side of the room to replace, not just the damaged spot.

Our color is no longer available, but we might have some extra that would cover. However, since we already had the problem I talked about above from the puppy breaking a water bottle open onto it (it shrunk back but isn't perfect), as well as another spot where the seam separated a bit from another tiny water event, we feel we need to start over and get something a little more bullet-proof for a busy kitchen and sewing/utility room. We have 2 sinks, 2 dishwashers, and laundry equipment in the rooms with this flooring, plus a big, busy family and pets... so we're likely to have some kind of water issue again, and want a floor that can 'take it.'

I also want to make clear that I consider Marmoleum to be a material that develops a certain amount of 'patina.' If you don't baby it or protect it with some sort of finish that you'll have to maintain, there will be scratches and scuffs. For me that was part of the retro-look charm, and as I also said above, the impact was greatly minimized by the color and pattern of our flooring, but if you always expect it to look pristinely brand new, you might be disappointed.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blog Post: Having the Marmoleum Pulled Out from Under Me

I am the OP and moved into my house with Marmoleum Click about two weeks ago.

Color is their medium gray and goes quite blue in my kitchen which isn't my favorite. Shows the seams a bit more than I hoped but it is a plank product so that is to be expected. I don't love it for those two reasons but it is very neutral, very nice feeling under my feet.

I have two 60 lbs dogs who skid around corners and love to meet and greet at the door from the garage to the kitchen. They have scratched the floor already. Nothing awful and that also is my expectation with any floor that isn't ceramic tile. They did a number on my previous oak floors! I believe my house is meant to be lived in, not a showpiece so it really doesn't bother me.

If I had it do over again, I probably would have picked something different. But I am a avid DIYer so when I get tired of it, up it will come and I will put something else down in its place - that is what I love about floating floors which I put every where except for one room in this house.

I agree that floors are meant to be walked on and I'm ok with a liitle wear. We also DIY'd ours and it went in so nicely. Unlike your experience, most of our seams are hard to see. Maybe a pattern difference. There was lots to like about this floor. It's not going to be possible to replace with something that was as easy to DIY, I don't think, but I am hoping for better durability and something we won't want to replace in under 5 yrs like this one. It's not a cheap thing for us, as the floor continues down a hall and through our mud and sewing room, so 1200+ sq ft.

Mostly I added yesterday's post for anyone doing a search and wondering if Marmoleum Click is for them. I raved about it the first few years, as in the post shared by Pawa. Now 4 yrs and 7 months in, I'm more reserved about recommending it, or at least my recommendation would come with warnings/qualifications.

That is a lot of Click to replace, rhome410! I am fortunate that I only put down 250 sq ft. I put down 1200 + feet of other flooring in the rest of the house so I am glad I like that!

I think light plays a huge part in seeing my seams, big bay window in the dining area and double front glass door, the galley kitchen has no windows and the seams are much less noticeable back there. I intentionally laid it the wrong way with respect to the light and there is a reason they say to lay it parallel to the natural light!

I struggled with what do put in the kitchen. I wanted to float since I am on a slab and I didn't want wood or wood look since I have it throughout the rest of the house. I dislike the hardness, coldness and "permenantness" of tile in the kitchen. I seriously considered Alloc Commercial Flooring in something like Frosted Stone. But I couldn't find anyone by me that had sample boards (and I live in a big suburban area) and I contacted Alloc about getting some samples and got no response. I did find plenty of flooring places that would order it for me but I didn't want to get it sight unseen.

I think the Click will work well for me for quite a few years unless, I too experience a leak. And as I said, I do like the feel of it and sound of it under my feet, it does a nice job of getting me off the concrete as the weather starts to turn here.

In my new flooring hunt, I came across the instructions for one about laying it parallel to natural light and didn't really understand, but now that you say it and explain, I get it. We have a big window and a glass door, but there is a covered porch and an ENE exposure that means our floor doesn't get that much direct light, so I can see where you might see the planks better in the brighter light and at angles.

Tile seems the obvious answer to the wear and tear floors get here, but I agree about the hardness and coldness, and don't think I want that. I, too, considered commercial flooring, but they're hard to find and require some hefty care. I hope your Click grows on you, colorwise, and lasts for you in use!

rhome410: check out the recent thread about Globus cork tile. And then check out their products. Oh, the colors!

Here is a link that might be useful: cork

I read that the other day and checked out their website. Still scared of cork after reading past posts about fading, scratching, gouging, etc. Is there something about Globus that's supposedly be tougher? If it said it on the site, I missed it. The colors are a bit pricey, but what a wonderful selection.

The person that posted about her 10 y/o cork floor made me feel better about the durability. And the OP Williamsem showed how she tried to gouge the flooring with a bottle cap and couldn't.

Well, I've got 21 sample coming, lol. I'll beat the dickens out of one ....