Floor Plan Optimization | Semi-Detached House on a Slope with 192m² Living Area

Our general contractor recommended vinyl. It is currently being installed a lot and combines both properties. On the one hand, it is very durable and water-resistant, on the other hand, there are many designs and nowadays also very high-quality vinyl.

In this matter, I agree with him, although in terms of taste, the two different materials weigh heavier for me than the fear of the seam.

What are you planning around the stove, assuming it’s still current? I could imagine leading a tile from there in a nice curve to the kitchen and then equipping the dining and living room with parquet. This can be designed well, also with a nice transition without the often really unattractive metal strips between parquet and tile.

The stove is still current, but we haven’t received a price yet.
It is supposed to be a masonry fireplace as a partial room divider. In front of the fireplace, I have currently planned a glass pane as protection.

If I spill something, I wipe it up. I did that when I still had a kitchen with tiles. I always wonder who expects that everything in the kitchen is allowed to drip down and you don’t wipe it up?

Of course, you would wipe it up immediately. I rather see the risk that you don’t notice it right away. Or that the children spill something and don’t wipe it up immediately. That can of course happen anywhere, but the kitchen is more or less the hotspot for this – with the fridge, sink, etc. And naturally also the hotspot for dropping things.

How does it behave with the oiled surface? There are heavily used areas in the kitchen like in front of the stove. Does that lead to stronger wear and discolorations? The general contractor said he wouldn’t recommend dark oiled stairs either, because over time they become lighter in the middle (walking surface) and you can never oil them identically again.

On that matter, I agree with him, although taste-wise the two different materials weigh more heavily for me than the fear of the joint.

What do you mean by two different materials?
We had now considered either vinyl everywhere or parquet everywhere (in the living-dining-kitchen area).

In general, we are currently considering the following:
Entrance area basement, bathroom basement, pantry, toilet ground floor and bathroom upper floor: tiles (possibly even wood-look in the bathroom)
Basement and technical room: only basic protection painted
Living-dining-kitchen: open
All other rooms (children’s rooms, bedroom, office, granny flat, hallway ground floor and upper floor): vinyl

What do you mean by two different materials?

Well, the tiles in the kitchen and the parquet in the living room. At least the color, if not the laying direction, or most clearly the material itself, I would change at the transition. In my opinion, there should be a break there even without a partition wall.

For us, it would have been a challenge to find the right dividing line: along the kitchen furniture or the door line? It doesn’t match with us and would have looked kind of patchy anyway.

To be honest, I didn’t give much thought to color and color changes. Our wood has been naturally oiled and will certainly darken over time. Walnut gets lighter in the sun (we know someone whose walnut parquet in the area where sunlight falls has become very light - that’s just how it is!). If you can’t live with that, you should really go for plastic floors or tiles. Wood is and remains a natural product. I don’t see any significant wear with us yet – but we’ve only been living in the house for a year. And if it ever gets so worn that it really bothers us (but that will probably take a long time), then we chose parquet with a very thick wear layer. Then we’ll bring in the guy with the sanding machine and run it through our ground floor. Then it will be freshly oiled again and good to go. We will probably have to re-oil it anyway in a year or two. But otherwise, it’s just a wooden floor and we live in and on it. And I don’t want anything else.

My parquet in the condominium is lacquered (I had no idea at the time, otherwise I would have insisted on oiled, I had the choice from the developer) and also in the cooking area. After 4 years, I still see no difference between the boards in front of the stove (grease splashes) and elsewhere. Yes, if things fall on it, there are immediately dents. But that can happen anywhere. Interestingly, most of the dents are not even in the cooking area but in the living area or hallway. In some spots you can feel moisture that has penetrated, the seams are then palpable, but I don’t see anything. The parquet also withstands cat vomit that had several hours to act. I see no stains there.

As a slight contradiction to my comparatively positive experience, I am now planning in the construction project rather to use vinyl design flooring on the ground floor and cork on the upper floor. The reasons are durability and ease of maintenance as well as the very easy self-installation, and with cork also additionally the absence of plasticizers.

I would nevereverever put any kind of plastic flooring in my house. Cork is okay, it's alright, doesn't really wow me visually, but if you like it - at least it's a natural product. But vinyl or laminate? Neverever!

If I were a landlord, then that would be an option, but definitely not for myself.

And don't let anyone tell you that vinyl is so durable and resistant. You can see scratches just the same, and liquids that get in also cause the subfloor of a vinyl floor to swell. I even think I read a devastating report about vinyl flooring here in the forum (so look it up!). If I get a scratch in my parquet, underneath is wood. If the scratches bother me too much, I have it sanded and re-oiled and everything is fine again. With vinyl, if I get a scratch, the carrier material underneath shows through and sanding is not an option. What exactly is durable and low-maintenance about that???