Kitchen Flooring

The floor is the largest continuous surface in a kitchen and the one that gets abused hardest. It also sits at the bottom of a stack of decisions: what goes down determines the finished floor height, which determines whether the dishwasher fits under the counter, which determines whether anyone can service it in five years.

The subfloor comes first

In houses of the age we mostly work on in Essex and Union County, the subfloor is rarely flat and often not stiff enough for a rigid finish. That is not a defect, it is what wood does over eighty or ninety years.

Two separate properties matter. Flatness is whether the surface is level across its area; a hump or a dip telegraphs through thin materials and causes lippage in tile. Deflection is how much the floor flexes underfoot when you walk on it, which is a function of joist size, span and spacing. Tile tolerates almost no deflection, which is why a tile floor over springy joists cracks along a line no matter how well the tile itself was set.

Fixes are ordinary construction. Self-leveling compound handles dips. An added layer of plywood stiffens the assembly and flattens it. An uncoupling membrane lets a tile floor move independently of minor subfloor movement, which is genuinely useful over an older wood floor. Where deflection is severe, sistering the joists from below is the real answer, and if the basement is open that is straightforward work.

None of this is visible in the finished kitchen, which is exactly why it is the first thing to get cut from a cheap quote.

Material options

Porcelain and ceramic tile

The most durable option for a kitchen. Water does nothing to it, a dropped pan will not dent it, and it lasts decades. Porcelain is denser and less absorbent than ceramic and is the better choice for a floor.

The trade-offs are real: it is hard and cold underfoot, it is unforgiving of dropped glassware, and it demands the subfloor preparation described above. Large-format tiles mean fewer grout lines but require a flatter substrate, since any unevenness shows as lippage at the edges of a big tile.

Luxury vinyl plank

Now the most common choice we install in kitchens, and for sensible reasons. It is waterproof, warmer and quieter than tile, tolerant of a subfloor that is close-but-not-perfect, and it costs considerably less. Click-lock floating installations go down quickly and can be taken up.

Quality varies enormously. The specification that matters is the wear layer, the clear top film measured in mils. A thin wear layer will show traffic patterns within a few years. A rigid core product handles a slightly imperfect subfloor better than a flexible one.

Hardwood and engineered wood

The right answer when the kitchen opens to a dining or living room with existing hardwood and a threshold strip in the doorway would look wrong. Continuing the same floor makes both rooms read as one space, which is often the whole point of an open-concept project.

Engineered flooring, with a real wood veneer over a plywood core, is more stable in a humid room than solid wood. Solid wood can be refinished more times. Both are vulnerable to a slow appliance leak, which is the genuine risk in a kitchen.

Sheet vinyl and linoleum

Sheet vinyl has almost no seams, which makes it about as watertight as a kitchen floor gets, and it is inexpensive. Linoleum is a natural product, durable and repairable, with a look that suits certain older houses. Neither is fashionable and both are practical.

Height, transitions and appliances

Every layer added to a floor raises the finished height, and in a kitchen that has consequences.

A dishwasher fits in a fixed opening under the counter. Raise the floor an inch and it may no longer slide in, or worse, it goes in and cannot come back out for service without damaging the new floor. Standard practice is to keep the finished floor under the dishwasher at the same level as the rest, and to make sure the opening height still accommodates the appliance.

Doorways matter too. A floor that is now three-quarters of an inch higher than the hall means the door may drag, and the transition strip has to manage a step rather than a joint. A basement door that swings inward and now catches on new tile is a problem discovered at the worst possible moment.

Between rooms, the cleanest result is a flush transition with no strip at all, which requires the two floors to finish at the same height. That is worth planning for rather than discovering.

Heated floors

Electric radiant mats under tile are a genuine luxury in a kitchen, particularly over an unheated basement or a slab. They go in during installation and never afterward, so it is a decision to make now or not at all. They need their own thermostat and generally their own circuit, which is easy while the electrical is open.

Practical note: radiant mats work under tile and under some LVP products but not all of them. Check the specific flooring's rating rather than assuming.

Sequence

If the floor runs wall to wall, it goes down after rough plumbing and electrical are inspected and before cabinets. If it stops at the cabinet line, cabinets go in first and the floor is fitted to them. Either way it is decided early, because it sets the height the cabinets sit at, which sets the counter height.

For a floor-only replacement in an existing kitchen, the appliances come out, the old floor comes up, the subfloor is assessed and corrected, and the new floor goes down. That is normally a two to four day job depending on what the subfloor turns out to need.

What drives kitchen flooring cost

• Square footage, and whether it runs under the cabinets.
• Material. The spread from sheet vinyl to large-format porcelain is wide.
• Subfloor work, leveling compound, added plywood, uncoupling membrane, or joist repair.
• Demolition, especially where several layers have accumulated over the years.
• Pattern and layout. A diagonal or herringbone set has far more cuts and waste.
• Transitions and thresholds to adjoining rooms.
• Radiant heat, if you want it.

Kitchen flooring across our service area

Subfloor conditions vary a lot by town and by era of construction. We install kitchen floors in Hillside, Union, Bloomfield, West Orange and across our full service area. Back to kitchen remodeling.

Every town has its own kitchen remodeling page covering the housing there and what it means for a project. See the full service area.