Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Kitchen flooring material: ?anyone used ceramic tile?

[Eris Weaver (eris]

We'll be celebrating our 15th anniversary this summer. 

We started out with marmoleum throughout the kitchen & dining room. Had
it resurfaced once a year. 

As several others have noted, it needs to be cared for properly...our
kitchen floor was a mess after awhile due to too much water being
slopped on it from dishwashers, the cleaning lady, etc. After about 10
years we replaced the kitchen floor with ceramic tile. Some folks like
to stand on rubber mats when working in the kitchen. Haven't really
dropped or broken much (I lived 15 years in a house with tile
throughout, I'd find bits from broken glasses all the way at the other
end of the house!). It is holding up much better than the marmoleum. 

A couple years ago we replaced the marmoleum in the dining room with
cork tiles. They are good sound dampening. They are also fussy about how
they are cleaned and you must NOT drag the furniture! IT is pretty easy
to replace tiles that become damaged. It also LOOKS better than the
marmoleum - we had a fairly light color and it was gorgeous right after
polishing, and rapidly deteriorated. 

Eris 

FrogSong Cohousing iN Cotati, CA