Revamping your kitchen’s floor is usually the last thing on your mind when renovating or upgrading your home, but do you know that beautiful and durable kitchen floors can dramatically increase your home’s resale value as well as do wonders for your home’s overall aesthetic?
If you’re on the fence on which flooring material might be best for your kitchen and lifestyle, we’ve done the hard work and researched on the weaknesses and strengths of five of the most common kitchen flooring materials. Read on and see which flooring materials is best suited for you.
Hardwood
Hardwood floors are a classic. Whether you go for rich oak, beautiful hickory, dark walnut, pretty mesquite, smooth maple, or warm cherry, the style never really fades. This is why hardwood is one of the most expensive flooring materials but in the long run, choosing this flooring material is truly a worthwhile investment.
If refinished and taken cared of properly, hardwood floors can last for centuries; however, hardwood floors are far from being low-maintenance. They are expensive to install, expensive to maintain, and take a lot of effort to take care of. If you want the beauty of hardwood flooring but don’t want your flooring to be a financial trap, going for engineered wood rather than solid hardwood might be the way to go for you.
Tile 
Tiles have come a long way. These days, you can even go for natural stone-like tiles thanks to modern printing technology. No doubt one of the most versatile flooring materials and most cost-effective in the long run, not to mention very low maintenance.
The downside of tiles is that it can crack. Replacing a cracked tile can make it stick out like a sore thumb because of non-colour matching. It can also be very slippery when wet and can be not user-friendly for people with knee and foot problems because of the hard surface.
Travertine
When properly cared for, travertine can last for up to centuries. It is available in many forms, is very durable, has a natural slip-resistant feature, and is nearly scratch resistant. The downside for travertine is that it can stain easily so the surface must be sealed every year or every other year. If you don’t watch your spending, a travertine floor can cost as much as a hardwood one.
Vinyl
Vinyl is available in sheet vinyl, vinyl tile, and vinyl plank. High-quality ones can look like wood or stone and are generally easy to install. Vinyl can handle moisture, won’t chip, won’t scratch easily, and is DIY-friendly. Even elderly people can install vinyl by themselves and vinyl is soft on the feet too, thereby might be great for people with knee or foot problems. Because of this, furniture can leave marks on its surface and foot-traffic patterns can be very visible after a certain period of time, which is one of the main reasons why this flooring is replaced after a while.
Laminate
Laminate flooring is popular because it is budget-friendly and can have the same impact as a hardwood floor aesthetics-wise, more so that laminate now comes in various styles and realistic wood finishes that can really look like hardwood floors.
The downside for laminate is that although it can save you money and can be installed quite fast, it can deteriorate pretty quickly when exposed to moisture. It simply cannot last as long as vinyl, tile, and hardwood floors so you will end up needing to replace it just after a few years.
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