Kitchen Week: Dry Kitchen Flooring
We did not re-tile our dry kitchen floor but instead decided to stick with the developer-provided tiles which were from MML. After several months, we noticed that these tiles stained easily because it’s surface was not smooth and glazed. We tried various cleaners and powerful stain removers but could not completely remove all the stains. A lot of force was required to rid some of the stains off the tiles as well. Here’s a view of our dry kitchen with the original MML tiles.
We then decided that we’d have to replace the flooring to something a whole lot more maintenance free (yes, we’re lazy people). The obvious choice would be to retile. The downside to that would be hacking works were required, the job would require at least 2 man days and I would have to take leave to supervise.
The other alternative was to go with laminate flooring- to continue the flooring from where our dining stopped (see bottom section of the picture). The upside to this was that it’d take about 2.5 hrs of work to get the whole place sorted out with laminate flooring of the same grain and colour as our dining. It would also add sense of space and a feel of continuity with our entire dining, breakfast table and reading area distinguished from the living room with the same flooring. The downside was that if we had decided on this earlier when we were doing the flooring for the dining, we wouldn’t be slapped a small surcharge for workmanship- there’s a minimum square footage of flooring before the workmanship surcharge is waived.
Here’s a look at how the dry kitchen looks after we laid the laminate flooring on top of the old stained tiles.
Problem solved. No more stubborn stains. Laminate flooring is also extremely easy to clean. Even if water is spilled onto it, it will not succumb to internal rotting, unlike parquette. Of course, leaving a puddle of water on the floor overnight will have adverse effects but you wouldn’t leave your kitchen soaking wet anyway.
Interested in laminate flooring for your home? Contact me and I’ll hook you up with great prices.
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- Kitchen Week: Countertop Surface
- Kitchen Week: Extra Working Space
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- Solid Surface Bathroom Walls?
- Tiling Options
6 comments
i’m suffering the same problem with my kitchen flooring as well… biggest prob is the spitter splatter drops of oil from the frying pan. Will the laminate flooring be able to withstand hot oil stains and such? which brand of laminate flooring did you use?
Sorry for the bombardment of questions. my upper floor is all laminated, and i find it easier to clean tiles then to maintain laminated wood flooring – i currently use mop for tiles, and wet wipes static mop for wood flooring…
thanks for the sharing dude..
Jwan, i believe you’re referring to your ‘wet’ kitchen if your cooking involves spitter spatter of oil- that’s some serious cooking and is not done in the dry kitchen.
In any case, for that sort of cooking, laminate flooring is definitely not the solution. Tiles are still the way to go- though I’ve seen some western restaurants/pubs have a ‘paint-on’ surface which provides grip in the kitchen area, extremely durable, and easy to clean. I have yet to come across something similar here.
If you’re going to retile, I suggest going to Apex Tiles in jln ipoh (they have two shops there). They have a large array of tiles on offer in a showroom concept- especially good for ppl who have difficulty envisioning how a space would look once tiled up.
My laminate flooring brand- robina. Contrary to you, i actually find the laminate flooring a lot easier to clean than the tiles. Also, it doesnt get ’sticky’ so quickly. Let me know if you need any more info. Always glad to assist
[...] Kitchen Week: Extra Working Space 10 09 2008 Our dry kitchen isn’t humongous. It’s adequate for the average size Malaysian family. However, there’d be occasions where a group of friends would come over for a cookout and there’d be several hands in the kitchen preparing a meal. This is when we could do with a little extra working space. My father had this great idea to install a collapsible shelf on the opposite side of the kitchen. Here’s a look at what it looks like (you might’ve wondered about it in the previous post- Dry Kitchen Flooring) [...]
Do you think this would work for my lower ground family room? I am terrified of termites attacking my new love home, so I actually thot of even removing the parquets thee and tiling them .. albait the cold feeling of tiles. How ah?
You’re right and wrong there. Plain glazed tiles can be a tad cold but you’d be surprised by the myriad choices of tiles out there today. There are tiles that can give a woody look as well if you’re apprehensive about laminate flooring. Having said that, most laminate flooring these days are termite resistant. The brand i use, Robina, has some further info on their Malaysian distributor’s page:
http://www.lnt.com.my/robina.html
If you’re interested in laminate flooring, you can contact me and I’ll get my flooring guy to give you a quote to see if it’s within your budget.
If you’re keen to explore tiles- I’d suggest to go only to Apex tiles in Jalan Ipoh. In my opinion, they have the best variety and good sales assistants who are empowered to provide discounts.
Yeah, sorry i forgot to mention that i no longer have a wet and dry kitchen. as the wet kitchen was converted into laundry cum washing area due to space constraints. Guess for the time being i will have to live with the tiles.
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