How to clean kitchen floor?

[Wildsky]

I want Halo's kitchen!

 

[CMV]

I have both tile and linoleum in my house. I would have loved to put all tile in, but couldn't afford it at the time. I wish I'd been able to do tile throughout because 6 years later the linoleum is starting to age, but the tile looks as good as the day it was installed. The linoleum also needs more care to keep it looking good. The tile requires almost no care- just an occasional broom or mop run over it. I love Halo's kitchen tile work. I used a dark grout with my tile and I have found the dark grouts are much more forgiving than the lighter colored grout. They wear better on floors, especially floors that get wet and have heavy traffic.

Have fun with your next project EweSheep.

 

[halo]

Just a few tips. Use the largest tile you can. It makes the room look larger. Dont get too cute with how you want to lay the tile. If you just line them up the way I did, it makes it very easy to put furniture and rugs to where everything looks neat and tidy. Dark grout is a good idea, too. I used light grout, and it turned dark pretty quickly.

I went to a local tile store and got pretty expensive imported Italian tile, but it only added less than $1000 to the entire house than using the cheaper tiles, so get what you want. You hopefully wont be doing it again for a long time, and to just do the kitchen...especially if you use the larger tiles (18"), it wont take that much. I also got tiles with a natural shine on them, they seem much easier to keep clean.

Do it!!

 

[EweSheep]

At least Halo's kitchen got tile LOL! Believe it or not, that dining table looks just like mine LOL!

 

[feedstorechick]

May I make one more suggestion if you decide to go with tile? Seal the grout.

I saw a house with heavy traffic and the tile floors still looked brand new. I asked how they kept it so clean and they said that they had sealed the grout when the floor was new.
I went home and scrubbed my old stained grout with a toothbrush a section at a time. Then I set a fan on the floor and let each section dry overnight. The sealer applicator is a bottle that looks like a glue bottle, but has a brush on the tip. Buy the best quality sealer, it is supposed to last years longer than the cheaper stuff.

Sealing was the easy part! Scrubbing old dirt was hard work, but the floor looked like new!

 

[EweSheep]

Finally got my kitchen up! Here you go!

Cabinets:

 

[cafarmgirl]

Untill you get your new floor a good way to get vinyl really clean is to use a half and half mixture of ammonia and water. Spray it on the problem spots, let it sit just a minute and then scrub with a brush and go over with a damp mop. It gets off old floor cleaner build up and gets out all the dirt from all those tiny little nooks. Just make sure you have good ventilation when you do it! I cleaned up a vinyl floor in our old place this way before we sold it. Required a bit of hands and knee's scrubbing but it looked like new when I was done.

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

Nice kitchen! I think the tile would look nice in there, but a lighter color like Halo's. And without the pattern in the floor, I think it would really open it up!

 

[EweSheep]

So the dark grey or medium grey tiles would make the room look smaller???? How about smaller tiles?

I hate to SCRUB! I'd rather have stiff brushes on my feet and have fun sliding in the kitchen!

 

[pbjmaker]

Do NOT use white grout and definately seal the grout. You will have to reseal occasionally (some say once a year - others say every few years) If you seal it then use bleach - it will eat the sealant away. Trust me - I have beautiful tile in my bathroom that has ugly mildew stains in the white grout because I bleached the floor and then didn't know to reseal it. Other than that I think I would almost tile my entire house. I have a 16 week old puppy right now and the potty accidents clean right up with no smell or scribbing. It does get a little chilly on the tootsies in the winter though - but thats why slippers were invented.

We put tile in our new kitchen/dining room addition this summer too. Got it at a Habitat for Humanity restore store - New tile and was excellent quality for only $1.00 per tile. They are 12 X 12 and very thick.