Goomba wrote:

> I'd love to hear input from folks who have tile as to how they love or
> hate it? I currently have vinyl, but have had heated tile in the past. I
> was younger then so might have been less aware of problems, but am
> concerned with the "hardness" of the floor for comfort? I am getting older
> now (sob!) and don't want to find tile floors are ergodynamically poor
> choices down the road after standing in the kitchen for extended periods.
> I recall my mother explaining how good dance floors are wood and impact
> absorbing properties over hard cement floors that are more jarring to your
> body. Yet wood floors aren't too practical in kitchens, are they?? I'm
> also interested in linoleum as I keep reading that it might be fairly
> "green" as well as good cost.
>
> The floor choice would need to be practical for the kitchen, breakfast
> room, mud room, laundry room and guest bathroom. The rest of the
> downstairs is hardwood.
>
> Thanks for any input


I recently wrote here that I'm looking into getting eucalyptus or cork
flooring for my kitchen. Both are quite comfortable for long stretches of
standing, and don't need a huge amount of maintenance. However, tile or
linoleum would be much better for a mud room. Maybe you could have a hard
floor in your kitchen and put down rubber mats to stand on when you're
cooking; that's what many professional kitchens do.

As I see it, the problem is that a breakfast room and guest bathroom are
more "presentation" spaces, where the kitchen, mud room, and laundry room
are more "industrial" spaces. If it were *me*, I'd have the same hardwood in
the breakfast room as in the rest of the house, I'd have soft wood in the
kitchen, I'd have tile in the guest bedroom, and I'd have painted concrete
in the mud room and laundry room.

Bob