Kitchen Refresh - cheap flooring suggestions please

valve90210 · 30 Oct 2017 at 12:53

Hi All

I'm looking to refresh my rather tired and grubby looking kitchen. Now, I don't have a great deal of money to spend on it and even if I did I wouldn't want to put too much into it as at some point in the future I'd like to rip it all out and start again.

My plan is to strip and paint the numerous doors and drawer fronts and give the walls a fresh coat of paint. To go with this I'd like to also do something to tidy up the floor which is frankly grim. Currently it's old floor tiles which are so very worn in places that the pattern is worn away, and there is dirt on them which will not shift no matter how much they're scrubbed.

I think the best option is probably a wood effect vinyl flooring to give me protection against spillages (and flooding from my slightly temperamental washing machine. But has anyone else got any suggestions or any recommendations for what vinyl to go for?

pepp77 · 30 Oct 2017 at 13:05

I have used these guys - http://www.flooringsuperstore.com/vinyl-flooring - a few times for carpets and have been generally impressed with their service.

They seem to have a decent selection of Vinyl as well.

valve90210 · 30 Oct 2017 at 13:23

Thanks, it does look like quite a good range they do.

I'm quite liking the rhinofloor supergrip they do, it sounds like it might be worth a try, anyone used such stuff?

Somnambulist · 30 Oct 2017 at 13:48

My parents have Amtico in the bathroom (think that's vinyl?) and were going to get it put in the kitchen next, seems pretty nice.

RabbiJacob · 30 Oct 2017 at 18:29

We went for Amtico click vinyl in our kitchen and I've just got some more to finish the bathroom refurb. We picked it as it's easy to clean and hard wearing stuff as we have a dog. Ring around a few local flooring stores and you can get it for a good price. I paid £ 27 per m2 for the bathroom, the official Amtico retailer wanted £ 40 per m2. The official underlay is expensive (Amtico International Underlay 19) so perhaps consider a cheaper alternative if you choose Amtico.

valve90210 · 31 Oct 2017 at 10:25

I'd not heard of that, it does sound quite good, a little more expensive than I was thinking but if it's good quality it might be worth the additional outlay. How does it cope with being laid on a less that perfectly flat floor?

RabbiJacob · 1 Nov 2017 at 08:42

It depends how bad the floor is, the vinyl is 5mm thick but flexible, so any imperfections in the floor can show through or you will feel them when walking on it. I used a few tubs of self levelling compound on our kitchen floor to level out the worst parts and it's been fine.

Abyss · 1 Nov 2017 at 14:28

Traditional amtico vinyl floor needs a decent surface so you will need to level/the latex the floor first. It's a good product but definitely doesn't sit in the "cheap" category once you factor in the latex, adhesive and cost of the amtico.

What do the current tiles look like and have you considered stripping them / acid cleaning?

valve90210 · 1 Nov 2017 at 16:23

That's what I was thinking, it could end up being a lot more expensive than I want to spend really.

I'll take a pic of the tiles this evening if I get a chance, they're really awful and worn beyond retrieval sadly.

RabbiJacob · 1 Nov 2017 at 18:15

Just to note that the click doesn't need adhesive, so your main cost will be the flooring, underlay and any leveling component.

TallPaul1878 · 1 Nov 2017 at 18:28

I'd say it depends on the floor area. If you have a small narrow galley kitchen then you won't have a great deal of floor area to cover and I'd say just put a nice vinyl down because you just aren't going to get the benefit of buying anything particularly expensive.

If you've got a bit more open space then you're going to see a lot more of the floor covering, it's going to get a lot of light on it and it'll be quite obvious it's a vinyl floor. In that situation get something a bit better.

Amtico can run up quite the bill if you have a lot to put down and you need to self level it all.

valve90210 · 2 Nov 2017 at 13:34

It is quite a big floor area, the room is something like 2.8m x 6.1m. I can see what you're saying about the vinyl in a larger area but To be honest I'm not bothered about it being obvious that it's a vinyl floor, anything would be better than the terrible tiles I currently have which are frankly atrocious.