A good poly and an appropriate hardwood selection can do a lot to protect the floor.
Would I ever do a natural wood floor in a kitchen or full bathroom? Absolutely not because I actually use a kitchen and have a dog that would maul hardwood with zoomies.
We put bamboo flooring in. It looks great! It's held up to cats running claws out and me dropping things.
Ditto on bamboo, it's nigh indestructible
Albeit in a well climate controlled area. High humidity isn't good for bamboo. I used to work with a manufacturer whose warranty for bamboo floors had high requirements for humidity, which basically eliminated my area if you like to keep your windows open. If you are in a well climate controlled area, it's awesome and renewable.
Oh yeah, now that you mention it, there were dire humidity warnings all over the flooring I got.
I imagine there might be similar disclaimers on carpets too
Carpet is much more resilient to moisture, as long as it gets dried back out - that's why it's so popular in basements. Tile and vinyl plank also hold up really well to lots of moisture. Wood Is ok with humidity, it will expand and contract, but immersion will destroy it.
IMO the best flooring for kitchens is cork or real linoleum (not vinyl).
I have stained concrete and i love it. Spill or pets = spray it and wipe it up. Scrapes= reminders of the people we've had over, the chairs we've dragged up to the kitchen table, and the dancing in the living room. I also have soapstone counters because i like to see the scraped circles and remember bottles of wine and whiskey that we've shared. I'll be sad when we sell it. If they want new counters, I'll buy the old ones from them.
Sealed concrete and terrazzo are good choices too, but IMO aren't the best because the slightly softer surfaces of linoleum and cork might save you from dropped dishes or cookware shattering or denting, if you're lucky.
We're about to move into a different house and will have to replace all flooring after foundation repairs. I would go with linoleum but i don't think i can convince my husband that it's not the same as vinyl. Also, i don't want any height changes so I'm not sure what floorings i can put in the kitchen and living that are level.
I would go with linoleum but i don’t think i can convince my husband that it’s not the same as vinyl.
"Vinyl is bad because it's made of petroleum, whereas real linoleum is made of plants and is therefore more eco-friendly" isn't sufficient?
(I have to admit, the other advantages of linoleum over vinyl are... not much.)
I don't think so. He'll say it still looks like old rolled out vinyl.
When I bought my house it had 2 layers of carpet in the kitchen. I replaced it with hardwood because I didn't want to stain the carpet.
Those sound like poor people problems
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