I’ve been asked a few times over the years about having wood floors in the kitchen, so I thought I would share my experience as well as how I care for them. We inherited wood floors in the kitchen of our previous home in Minnesota, but I selected wood floors for our current home when we renovated. We also installed hardwood floors in the kitchen of the first townhouse we owned. We’ve had linoleum and tile in other kitchens, but wood is my favorite. My Opa, who was a builder, selected hardwood flooring for his kitchen when he designed and built his own home, so it was never an odd choice for me. Of course, there are downsides to wood floors and I’ll get to those, but there are downsides to any floor you select, so you might as well pick what you love if you have the choice.
As I’m sure most of you are aware, not all hardwood floors have the same finish, and that can make a difference in the durability and how you care for it. It’s also nice to know if your floors are engineered hardwood floors or solid wood. In our townhouse, we installed prefinished solid hardwood floors, and in our most recent two kitchens, the wood was finished on-site. In our PA house, we installed engineered hardwood floors in the family room and eating area connected to the kitchen so I do have some experience with those as well. I pretty much took the same approach in caring for all of them, though, with just some slight differences.
The best choice for hardwood floors in the kitchen is to have them finished on-site because the floor is completely sealed. When you install prefinished planks, whether they are hardwood or engineered wood floors, water and moisture can more easily seep into the seams where the planks meet. This means you have to be even more mindful of spills and wouldn’t want to use wet cleaning methods.
When we first moved into our current house, we had hardwood floors installed in three rooms to replace old carpeting and opted to have them finished onsite so they would more closely match the original hardwood floors in the rest of the house. The flooring company who installed them said they rarely installed unfinished hardwood floors these days. Prefinished wood floors and more popular by far since they can be walked on right away and don’t involve the mess of sanding or the odor of having stains and finishes applied. Since we had wood floors finished on-site in the rest of the house, we selected the same for the kitchen.
Caring for them is pretty straightforward. Most of the time, I just keep it clean by vacuuming once or twice a week, wiping up spills, and spot-cleaning spots or marks. When I want to give the kitchen a thorough cleaning, I will use a steam mop. When I use the steam on hardwood, I will put the mop on the lowest setting and I never let the mop sit on the wood floor when it’s warming up or cooling down. I’ll set it on a nearby tile floor or I’ll set it up on the counter or a table with the mop head hanging off the edge. is the steam mop I use for my floors (I also use it on the tile in our foyer and bathrooms.)
The one thing we’ve added in this house is water detector alarms (that tie into our alarm system) under the dishwasher, sink, and fridge to catch water leaks before they can ruin the floors. If water is detected, we receive notices on our phones as well as a call. It’s just a little added peace of mind in the event of a leak, which is what is often the greatest concern for people and the primary downside to having wood floors in the kitchen.
The other downside is wood floors will show scratches, but that is true no matter which room they’re in. It’s just the nature of wood and something I don’t mind at all. If you look at my kitchen island top, it’s clear that I don’t mind wood with imperfections! With two cats, a dog and teenagers, our floors (which were just installed a few months ago) are already showing scratches and that’s totally fine. It’s just a part of life.
As for the pros…well, wood floors are classic and beautiful in my mind. I don’t think they will ever be out of style. They also offer a lot of visual warmth in a room that has a lot of hard (and cold_ surfaces. In addition, wood floors feel softer underfoot than tile and tend to be a little gentler on dishware that’s dropped.
To protect our floors from the bulk of water drips and spills, I have always had a rug under our kitchen sink and that helps a lot with maintaining the floors. I also put a mat under the pets’ water to catch as many drips as possible.
Another plus side to having hardwood floors in your kitchen is you can have them refinished. Needing to refinish the floors might seem like a downside, but it’s a huge benefit in my mind. Every 15-20 years (or as needed), you can have the floors refinished and they will look like new. You can even change the stain or sheen if you want to change the look. I like building materials with that kind of longevity and flexibility.
The floors in our MN home (pictured above) were Northern Birch with a clear finish. The hardwoods in our current home are Red Oak with a Golden Oak stain by Minwax. Both have a satin finish.
If you’re interested in reading more about hardwood floors, here are a few posts I’ve written over the years…
You lived with raw wood floors in one of our previous houses. What made you decide to go for a finish after that?
I felt like continuity was important in this house since it’s all on one floor. I decided to keep the flooring as consistent as possible with the same material, color, and finish throughout.
I have Bruce engineered floors in my home everywhere except the bathrooms. I use their cleaning products as suggestions but I never feel like the floors are clean.
I love wood floors. I wanted wood with low maintenance & no scratches when we built our house.
You’ll have to try a product I found – Woca wood care.
The floors in the Stockholm airport are wood stained & maintained with Woca products. We did solid oak floors with the matte oil finish & mop them with their various oil soaps & water. Never scratches. Amazing & beautiful. I even use it on my outdoor wood furniture.
Does the Shark steam cleaner do a good job on the grout on your bathroom & foyer floor? I’m having the hardest time finding a steam cleaner that cleans the grout well.
Any advice?
I have a Neat steam cleaner which I use for grout and areas that require more intense steam and specialty attachments. I have found the Shark to be best for an overall cleaning instead of a mop. Here is a review on the Neat steam cleaner – https://missmustardseed.com/neat-steam-cleaner-review/
Who knew having a god was rough on wood floors.
That stopped me in my tracks, too! Ha! Took a second to figure it out.
Ya, having a god is rough in many ways . . .
Oh my gosh, that is so funny. I am still so foggy from being sick and I knew I would have some typos. This one is classic.
Your floors are beautiful! Just to confirm, you use a stain finish without oil or wax or polyurethane on top? Thanks!
That is another typo on my part. They both have a satin, waterbased poly finish. Same letters in the wrong order!
I love the look of wood but here on the west coast a lot of the very old houses like ours have SOFT red cedar flooring. I wish someone would talk about them, products to use etc. Anyone out there have some info.
I haven’t had soft cedar floors before, but our PA house had soft pine floors from the 1940s in the upstairs. those floors were full of deep dents and scratches. We never refinished them, but they had a thick polyurethane coating that was probably original. I don’t know if there is much to do but embrace the imperfections of that kind of floor.
I could feel your pain but, laughed at the whole scenario. God in His wisdom allowed you to put the first scratch in the floor. 👍😉
Oops that was a comment for the first scratch in blog post
You wrote “with two cats and a god” I laughed out loud 🙂
That is so funny! I am foggy from being sick so I knew it wouldn’t be my sharpest writing! 😂
We had prefinished 5/8″ thick maple floors installed in our kitchen when our house was built. When they needed “refinishing” after 20 years, I discovered they could not easily be refinished. Prefinished wood has beveled edges and you need to sand down to the bottom of the bevel in order to refinish them. We remodeled our kitchen and I had unfinished red oak installed and finished on site. We did move out of the house for two days to avoid breathing the fumes of the stain and polyurethane. Yes, they do scratch and dent. I figure that adds to the antique look of my kitchen.
Yes, that is definitely a downside to prefinished hardwood floors. They can be refinished, but it’s not quite as simple as ones that were finished onsite initially.
Hi, Marian! This is helpful–thank you. Could you include a link to the jute (?) runner in front of your sink? How does it feel underfoot?