Maroleum is a great product, tough and durable. Raising the floor an inch rings an alarm bell for me, especially if you have a built-in dishwasher, although if you’re not tiling underneath, it won’t matter. We have ceramic tile, and purchased two heavy six-foot commercial mats: one for in front of the stove and one for our prep area. They have over an inch of foam, making things easier on your feet.
If you put the tile on top of the hardwood, there is going to be a very annoying, and aesthetically unappealing, step between the two rooms. You can put a reducer on it to eliminate the abruptness of the step, but it’s going to look like a hack job, IMHO. If you’re going to sell the house in a few years, I’d strongly recommend just refinishing the floors and let the future owners do what they want with it.
I don’t know that I’m so terribly graceful, but I can’t remember the last time I dropped something breakable in the kitchen. As long as we keep breakable things out of reach of the cats, we seem to be OK. A utensil now and again, but never a dish or glass.
What **John Mace **said about the tile on top of hardwood, also it tends to look like an amateur DIY project no matter who actually did it. Plus you mentioned moving in a few years, and the raised floor and the modified doors you also mentioned will hurt you when you sell.
I would find another contractor. What he said about NOT removing the floors has flashy red lights and sirens going off in my head, don’t know why.
DSeid mentioned a decorative border separating the kitchen from the rest of the floor space. I’ve actually seen this done in one home with an open floor plan and continuous floors between the kitchen and the rest of the living space. Hickory floors, all the main areas (kitchen, living room area etc) were finished blond and a 6" border (I want to say it was 3 boards wide) was finished very dark (almost black) around and between the various living and hallway/walking spaces. looked very nice.
Same here. If there are problems with the subflooring (usually wet rot), you want to get them fixed, not pretend they don’t exist. Also, if the present flooring wasn’t properly installed, tiling over the top can result in grout joints failing and cracks in the tile (from personal experience).
Transition strips are commonly used between differing finishes, such as tile and carpet or tile and wood flooring. An inch difference could create a tripping hazard, even with a transition strip.
I would have called that a type of rug. I was thinking of the sort of rubber-backed rug/mat designed for kitchens, but that looks nice, to.
IANA expert, but I’ve had wood floors both refinished and replaced.
In the OP you said the wood floors are cheap materials. Some really cheap wood flooring can’t be refinished; the top layer of pretty veneer is paper-thin and any attempt to sand it exposes the particle board or plywood it’s really made of. Before starting down that road you (and your refinishing contractor) need to see a piece of your flooring material up off the floor. I’d hope the rehabber left you some extra sticks for spares.
Wood floors are made to be flexible. And are properly installed on top of a soft underfloor. Tile floors need a very stiff subfloor. A simple 1/4" layer of concrete backer board is nowhere near stiff enough. If you kluge that on top of the hardwood finish layer you’ll have a wobbly Dagwood sandwich for a floor:
You’ll have the actual structure (in whatever unknown condition), the actual subfloor (in whatever unknown condition), the soft hardwood backer (in whatever unknown condition), the hardwood planks (each of which is free to move a bit plus expand and contract), the new backer board, the tile cement, then the tile. Cracking is almost guaranteed.
IMO, and I’m not an expert, any contractor who would suggest this option is a clod who’s happy to leave you with a disaster. He’s either incompetent or unscrupulous. I’m not sure which is more dangerous to your pocketbook and your sanity.
IMO: Refinish the hardwood if that’s possible. Rip it out of the kitchen area if not.
Then we probably agree. The safety advantage is no edge to trip on, non-slip, and stays in place. Easy to clean and durable, along with easily custom-made to whatever design and size you want are nice above and beyond.
I don’t actually know, but judging by the materials and workmanship throughout the unit, and judging by the fact that they are totally trashed in high-traffic areas, I’d be shocked if the floor materials were decent quality. The rehab wasn’t something we did (the building was gutted in 2003 and converted to condos; we are, I think, the 3rd owners since then). So I have no leftover materials, and no way to get in touch with the original rehabbers.
He is the husband of one of my co-workers who I am friendly with, and a super-decent and honest guy (and he’s done painting in our place before and did a nice job of it for a very reasonable price). He may be out of his depth, though - I think he’s generally the subcontractor who just lays new flooring, not someone who handles a rehab job from soup to nuts.
Suppose you’re carrying a pot of soup or stock and trip over one of the cats? The soup goes EVERYWHERE. Most especially the floor. Think about how easy that would be to clean up.
The first thing you need to know is whether refinishing the wood is even an option. Like someone mentioned upthread, a lot of hardwood is plywood with a thin veneer of pretty wood on top of it, and can’t be refinished. This is typically cheaper than real hardwood, and there is a good chance it was used in a multi-unit reno like you describe. You could either pull up a piece of trim in a closet and try to pry up an edge board to examine it, or use a hole saw to get yourself a plug of it out of a closet. If it turns out you can refinish the wood, I’d absolutely go with that.
I personally would not install tile over hardwood, for the reasons others mentioned. If you don’t mind the look of marmoleum, I think you could install that over wood without issue, and it wouldn’t create much of a lip. A lot of people like it, and it apparently does hold up well and retains the softness of wood.
You could also look at something like a Pergo laminate tile look, or a floating cork floor. It’s going to be thinner than tile+underlayment, and easier to install. You’d still have a lip, but only maybe 1/3." This should be cheaper to install than tile.
I’d go ceramic. Whatever you do, don’t go for laminates. They positively suck for any floor that might ever see water, which basically is any floor.
QFT! I’ve lived in many, many houses in my life. My favorite kitchen floor was old weathered wide wood floorboards. They never look “pristine” but also never look “dirty,” if that makes any sense, and also didn’t shatter dropped things automatically. Plus a bit of bounce for your feet. Conversely, you can get a buildup of crumbs or gook between the boards, depending on the setup, but nobody will notice but you. 
Smooth tile looks pretty when it’s pristine, but is a nightmare for people who actually cook. Slippery and usually looks disgusting after just a meal or two. Rougher tile/stone is better, but traps more gook. Both are hard on the feet, and if you’re going to cover half the floor with a rubber mat, might as well just get some linoleum. Some of it looks pretty good nowadays.
Laminate is also hard on the feet, and doesn’t take well to moisture or spills or anything. Forget it. The only place I might use laminate is maybe in a bedroom where there’s not much traffic or spillage, just dust bunnies.
I am re-doing a kitchen next year and have decided upon porcelain tile strips.
The floor doesn’t need to eat, you know.
and with such a huge difference between the floors (and an inch is incredibly large) it looks crappy no matter what you do. I’d seen this sort of thing a few times while working disaster clean up. the worst floor I ever had to demolish was actually 4 different floors just layered on over the years. It was an actual small step between the kitchen and living room.
The hickory floors I was talking about was actually one continuous floor through out the entire house with darker stained borders to divide the various spaces.
:: bump ::
We are now switching gears and rethinking the whole tile idea, and probably opting just to refinish the existing hardwood. Cheaper, easier, less disruptive. Tile will wait for when we have a whole kitchen to redo.
So far I have 2 estimates:
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from a place on Yelp with fabulous reviews, who says the floor needs stripping and complete refinishing but no boards replaced, estimate based solely on photos that I emailed; and
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from someone recommended by our real estate agent, a personal friend of 17 years, who says some boards by the sink and fridge need replacing AND the whole floor needs to be stripped and refinished. Estimate based on actually coming to look and measure, etc.
#2 is more than double the cost of #1, though it’s not quite the same scope of work. I am inclined to go with #2 because of the personal recommendation and because he was more thorough. (And because a bunch of the Yelp reviews for #1 were along the lines of “he was fast and half the price of anyone else! And they worked 14-hour days to get it done!” which concerns me because it makes me think that perhaps the employees are being taken advantage of…)
How the heck am I supposed to evaluate such wildly different estimates? FWIW #2 is along the lines in cost of what Google is telling me is the normal price range for this kind of work.
What’s the barrier to getting #1 over to your house so he can base his estimate on the same information #2 did?
Just inertia, really. And I don’t see how it would double, in any case - I just don’t know that price alone should be the main factor.
Eva Luna, please excuse the hijack, but can I follow up on this? Right now our first floor has hardwood in the living room and dining room, carpet in the den, and tile in the kitchen, mudroom/hallway, and half bath/laundry room. It’s not an open floor plan but I like the idea of all one surface. If I did actual hardwood throughout, is that OK for the watery areas and if so, do they ned extra finishing? I’m heard of having to have them shellacked like a boat deck. Is that necessary? /hijack