Diary of a Fitted Kitchen installation: Part 6
Follow us as we take a journey following our own new kitchen installation from start to finish, giving you a bird’s eye view of the kitchen design and fitting process.
Fitted Kitchen Flooring
We had heard really good things about Karndean kitchen flooring from the guys at Flooring & Ceramics in Andover so we did a bit of research.
We thought, why choose Karndean over other flooring types and how does it compare with other types of flooring such as laminate, carpet, ceramic tiles, real wood and stone?
If you compare Karndean with hardwood flooring, the hardwood will naturally need a lot of maintenance including sanding, staining and painting, it does expand and warp and can shrink in reaction to temperature changes and moisture. Karndean gives you the grain and knot details but doesn’t change shape, is water resistant, does not need maintaining and is easy to keep clean.
Comparing it to Stone and Ceramic Tiles which can be cold and slippery when wet, Karndean is much warmer underfoot and slip proof, ideal for a kitchen floor.
When you compare it to Carpets, the obvious advantage is if you have an accident it is far easier to replace one tile or plank than a whole carpet, we know this is true having had a puppy that had an accident on our lovely white carpet!!! Carpets are a breeding ground for dust mites and bacteria. It isn’t possible to lay underfloor heating under a carpet.
Laminate is easy to get and a quick and fairly inexpensive solution, but I have known laminate to peel when water gets inside the laminated floor so I think it is less suitable for wet areas, where you are washing up etc.
Overall, I really like stone tiles and had these in my last kitchen, they were a grey, flecked colour and were extremely forgiving with 2 children and dogs. We had them through to the utility room and never had any problems at all. The one and only drawback if I had to find one would be they are cold underfoot as I mentioned above. Given that the Karndean tiles are available in a stone appearance and much warmer under foot I decided to go with them. The installation would be a lot quicker and cleaner.
I’ll let you know how it went with Steve and his crew when it’s all down!