Stone versus ceramic tile versus hardwoods for Kitchen

[HardHarry]

Flooring n00b here. Please educate my usually opinionated ass. This is one I know absolutely zero about.

Neighbors across the street just got some kind of natural stone flooring - laid it down from their utility room through downstairs bathroom through kitchen, and then also did the family room and the foyer. Gotta admit it looks great and seems like it would be easy to clean and keep up. The guy wouldnt tell me how much he spent though.

[Trace]

The way I look at it and I have solid wood floors in the Kitchen is wood dents when things are dropped.

BTW find out who did it and ask them what they paid.

[WilliamJ]

Flooring n00b here. Please educate my usually opinionated ass. This is one I know absolutely zero about.

Neighbors across the street just got some kind of natural stone flooring - laid it down from their utility room through downstairs bathroom through kitchen, and then also did the family room and the foyer. Gotta admit it looks great and seems like it would be easy to clean and keep up. The guy wouldnt tell me how much he spent though.
i emailed this to my expert wife.

[vpkozel]

i emailed this to my expert wife.

She's gonna probably have to call my wife or sly's to get the answer......

[WilliamJ]

She's gonna probably have to call my wife or sly's to get the answer......


no she simply walked into her vast library and looked some shit up.

then again your wife could do that too.

[plutosgirl]

Was it limestone? I love that stuff. It isn't as cold, nor hard as tile, but I imagine it might be a little less durable.
That's what I want, with heating coils for those snowy, windy mountain mornings.

[Redsnapper]

Flooring n00b here. Please educate my usually opinionated ass. This is one I know absolutely zero about.

Neighbors across the street just got some kind of natural stone flooring - laid it down from their utility room through downstairs bathroom through kitchen, and then also did the family room and the foyer. Gotta admit it looks great and seems like it would be easy to clean and keep up. The guy wouldnt tell me how much he spent though.

I think you are referring to "travertine", I have seen this installation on T.V., but have not worked in this medium. I wouldn't imagine it be too terribly difficult to install from regular tile, it's natural stone, so there will be some imperfections, I'd go with a zero grout line. You can price this out yourself, factor in labor if not handy. And if my neighbor asked me how much something cost, I wouldn't tell them either, chalk it up to that Jones' thang'. I'm sure it looks good, and good luck if you decide to install.

[Redsnapper]

Was it limestone? I love that stuff. It isn't as cold, nor hard as tile, but I imagine it might be a little less durable.
That's what I want, with heating coils for those snowy, windy mountain mornings.

Radiant flooring, using long plastic tubing pumped full of warm water to heat underneath the floor, pretty much heats the whole f'ing room. Easily installed before new floor goes down, good luck.

[gridfaniker]

I think sly has crafted tile from dung. if you have access to a kiln, you could make your own. or, you could use a regular oven. the way sly described it on the homesteaders board, he basically just shit in nine-inch square cake pan, flattened it out with a spatula and baked at 250 degrees for 18 hours.

fwimfw, make sure you use the right color grout.

[HardHarry]

BTW find out who did it and ask them what they paid.

He won't tell me. Think he's afraid of copycats and wants to enjoy money spent for a while.

He's got a good reason to fear it too. I'd call his guy tomorrow if I knew who it was.

[WilliamJ]

He won't tell me. Think he's afraid of copycats and wants to enjoy money spent for a while.

He's got a good reason to fear it too. I'd call his guy tomorrow if I knew who it was.
pm me, seriously. i got your hook up.

[HardHarry]

fwimfw, make sure you use the right color grout.

Will cat feces work? To think that the furball might finally contribute to the household...!

[HardHarry]

Been looking at some pictures, and I'm tempted to think it's maybe limestone but more likely slate that he used. It kinda looks like this (color, texture):

http://www.purpletree.co.uk/flooring/silver.jpg

But with an irregular pattern like this:

http://www.purpletree.co.uk/flooring/slatemulti04.jpg

But he also has almost invisible grout lines. In fact, I thoguth it was huge pieces for a second until I studied it and saw the lines.

[Redsnapper]

Looks like slate, I'm installing that on my front porch right now, it tends to flake.

[THE GUTTER]

Stone is harder to install and you will need to seal the entire tile and grout asamfp.

You can get a good stone tile for probably 2-5 bucks a s/f or go with a bigger tile like an 18" piece. Ceramic doesn't have to be sealed and you can get a decent tile for 70 cents, but if you chip it the clay backing will show though and that is not a good thing.

Travertine is very rustic looking, but not as bad as slate. Slate is beautiful, but I don't think it works for a kitchen. I'd go with a porcelin if I were you. Cheaper and lots of colors and styles to choose from.

[HardHarry]

How does porcelain hold up in the kitchen? Pets? Kids? Heavy traffic area?

How about in a bathroom or utility room?

My house is like my neighbor's. I think I wanna do all of those rooms the same, since they have the same cheap flooring now.

[chipshot]

I paid like 2.20 per 13 inch for ceramic tile but saw some going for upwards of 15 per sq ft for other types of stone tile.

[flyfisher]

Was it limestone? I love that stuff. It isn't as cold, nor hard as tile, but I imagine it might be a little less durable.
That's what I want, with heating coils for those snowy, windy mountain mornings.


Thanks for that idea. I'm going to include that in our plans.

[Guest]

stone is more expensive some $3-$5 a sf. more. it must be conditioned regularly or it will dull. some people like the dull effect and leave it. it is not perfect in size or color and will vary, so don't expect it to look uniform.

i like it and use it in common areas and mudrooms.

radiant flooring comes in two forms. electric wires and water heated tubes. i would suggest electric, because it is much less expensive and I would limit it to one room zones. the electric and water heated tubes are poured in gypsum or light weight concrete, so if you have any problems, then you have to demo the floor or try and fix it from below, which is demoing the subfloor. i built a multi million dollar home with travertin(SP) in the master bath and the electric radiant heat line was broken and didn't work. my guys had to go under the house and remove the subfloor and chissel out the light weight concrete after locating the line break. it took thousands of dollars and 3 weeks.

[THE GUTTER]

How does porcelain hold up in the kitchen? Pets? Kids? Heavy traffic area?

How about in a bathroom or utility room?

My house is like my neighbor's. I think I wanna do all of those rooms the same, since they have the same cheap flooring now.


Like I would tell people when I worked for Lowe's, you can drop a piano on porcelin and it wouldn't scratch it. It's durable, will be no problem installing, and there are a million styles. If it is over a level III you can use it outside. Perfect for high moisture areas. Usually can get matching borders and decorative pieces too.

[Superfluous_Nut]

i'm a fan of wood flooring. we have it pretty much everywhere in my house (cept the bathrooms). it's a little on the cold and hard side which is really only a problem for our son, but it's not nearly as bad as a stone or tile surface in that regard.

i've got a few dings here and there in the floor and i figure i can go maybe 5 years between having them worked on. moisture in the kitchen can also be an issue. of course, with something like porcelin i'd worry about slipping -- i'd be dead if not for the bathmat in my master bathroom. and if you're gonna put rugs everywhere, why bother?

that slate is pretty nifty looking and if you've seen a proof of concept then you know what you're getting into. i've been thinking about redoing our bathrooms with a nice limestone, but i thnk it might not really fit with the rest of the house.