Ceramic or vinyl or laminate?

[suzy999]

I've been doing alot of research and I'm drawn to ceramic tile for my kitchen. I can buy some gorgeous tile for alot less money than I would pay for vinyl or laminate tile. It seems to me that ceramic would hold up longer and better than the alternatives.
What are the pros and cons of a ceramic tiled kitchen besides the hardness and coldess on my feet?

TIA
Suzy

 

[Square Eye]

If your floor is concrete, you will be happier with the tile.

My experience is that tile does not work as long over wood floors.
The wood is going to move sooner or later and the tile may crack at the joints.

It also costs more to tile over a wood floor. You have to consider the cost of the concrete board and the installation is more labor intensive.

Tile over concrete is a long term investment, make sure you really like the color!

 

[asbestos]

I agree. in general I like tile better. it's lifespan can be longer then the house. Vinyl composition tile is easy to install and can last a long time also. I used to work in asbestos abatement and we would take up the old vinyl asbestos tile and some of it would look great after 30+ years. with ceramic tile you do need to worry about the grout lines getting dirty with grease etc. you may want to look into epoxy grout. (lowes carries latticrete epoxy grout)
with either one-
the three p's planning preperation and preperation.

 

[inspectorD]

Tile over concrete is great. If you want you can also put a throw rug over the tile at a later date. Easier to remove and clean a throw rug.

Another thing about tile and concrete is the cracking.
To control the cracks on tile floors over concrete floors you should install some control joints. Cut these into the floor about 2 inches and align your grout lines with the cuts.
If the concrete below the tile decides to move it will be at this joint and all you need is more grout....no replacing cracked tiles.

 

[Kerrylib]

My house has ceramic tile in the kitchen. This is NOT on a concrete floor. It is on a creaky plywood subfloor. Many of the tiles are cracked, many grout lines crumbling.

In my personal opinion I do not like the tile floor in the kitchen. Too much stuff gets slopped on it and makes its way into the grout lines. Even when you seal the grout, sweeping and mopping the floor doesn't seem to get down in deep and clean everything out.

BTW, I've got same opinion of tile countertops. Of course all three bathrooms in my house have tile countertops.

For a kitchen floor I liked the hardood we had in previous house. I would look into laminates as well. I would also look into HIGH quality sheet vinyl (nowhere for a spill to go).

Cost issues are always there, however I have discovered that every time I've sucked it up and spent the extra money on higher quality items, I have been happy with the decision in the long run.

 

[CraigFL]

I like ceramic tile everywhere. I can tell you as people get older, they drop more things and the ceramic tile pulverizes them. Sometimes it chips the tile too. If you can use top quality tile or a porcelain color thru tile it won't look so bad. If you have wood, you need to use a good thick concrete backer board for the substrate. If you can't stand the extra thickness, have the contractor tear off all the floor and put the first layer of plywood flush with the joists(in between them). If you like warm feet, you can always use one of those heating wire units beneath the tile...

 

[glennjanie]

Hey Suzy and Welcome to the Forum:
Just a coulple of comments here. If you don't want the grout to look dirty or greasy (even when it is not) you could use color grout. I find that vacuming a ceramic tile floor is the most effective; Janie has a Bissell "Flip-It" for our kitchen floor. This machine vacums loose dirt, scrubs and vacums the water up; you just flip it from side to side for the different operations.
A ceramic tile floor done right is a lifetime floor, whereas a vinyl floor gets changed about every 10-15 years. Ours had a vinyl asbestos tile floor that was 45 years old and still looked pretty good, except where our refrigeratio leaked on it and loosened the tiles. Let us know how it goes and post pictures before and after if its not too much trouble.
Glenn