Kitchen flooring costs – which material is best for my budget?

Being aware of kitchen flooring costs at the start of the design of a new scheme is key to preventing overspend, as flooring can take a significant slice of the budget available for a kitchen.

Kitchen flooring makes a notable aesthetic contribution to a new scheme, as well as having to deliver sufficient durability, and suit your lifestyle and the composition of your household when it comes to ease of cleaning and maintenance.    

Kitchen flooring costs

To assist you in bringing in your kitchen ideas at the right price, we’ve researched the cost of the top kitchen flooring choices to answer the question, which material is best for my budget? 

Discovering different kitchen flooring costs can help you attain interior design success at any budget.

How much does it cost to replace a kitchen floor?

The NKBA estimates that the average kitchen is between 103 square feet and 238 square feet, so we are estimating kitchen flooring costs for 200 square foot spaces for ease.

Other costs to consider include:

• Shipping – is this included in the estimate you have been given?
• Furniture removal – don't expect floor installers to do this without charging.
• Floor removal and disposal – ripping up the old floor is unlikely to be covered in the cost of installation, so always check.
• Preparation of the sub floor – if the removal of the old floor has exposed uneveness or faults, expect to pay more for them to be corrected.
• Awkward shaped rooms, including working around fitted furniture – these will both drive up the kitchen flooring costs.
• Sealing or finishing the new kitchen floor – check with your supplier if the material you have chosen needs more work once installed.

Kitchen flooring costs for ceramic, porcelain and natural stone tile

Tile is both a practical and stylish flooring choice for a kitchen. Select from ceramic, porcelain or a range of natural stone kitchen floor tile ideas for your room, according to your budget, with our guide to tiled kitchen flooring costs:

• Ceramic tile costs from around $1 per square foot (or around £6 per square meter). A mid-priced option might be around $15 per square foot (£13 per square meter). 
• Porcelain tile starts from around $2 per square foot (£5 per square meter) at its lowest price point. For tile with attractive decorative detail, expect to pay $25 to $30 per square foot (£25 per square meter). 
• Slate kitchen tile will cost from around $3 per square foot (£50 per square meter).
• Travertine tile suitable as flooring might cost from around $5 per square foot (£50 per square meter).
• Granite tile for the floor costs from around $7 per square foot (£80 per square meter).
• Marble kitchen flooring costs start from around $7 per square foot (£80 per square meter).
• Limestone tile will likely cost from around $20 per square foot (£60 per square meter).

Kitchen flooring costs for solid, engineered and reclaimed wood

Wood kitchen flooring is a favorite for many of us, and has a look that won‘t date. Pick from solid hardwood, engineered wood or reclaimed wood flooring. This is how much each might take from your budget:

• Solid hardwood flooring can cost from around $4 per square foot (£40 per square meter) for the most economical versions. A mid-priced solid hardwood flooring might cost around $8 per square foot (£80 per square meter). The type of hardwood will influence the cost, of course, and a prized timber might cost around $20 per square foot (£210 per square meter). 
• Engineered wood flooring, which has a layered structure for stability and strength, might start from around $2.50 per square foot (£25 per square meter) with prices going up to around $16 per square foot (£120 per square meter) for premium versions.
• Reclaimed wood flooring costs from around $8 per square foot (£55 per square meter) and ranges up to above $20 per square foot (£125 per square meter) depending on the timber.

Kitchen flooring costs for sheet vinyl and luxury vinyl tile costs

Vinyl kitchen flooring ideas are popular as they can create the illusion that a kitchen floor is made from wood or natural stone without having the care needs of either surface. 

Pick from ultra low cost sheet vinyl, or opt for luxury vinyl tile (LVT) – sometimes called luxury vinyl plank (LVP) when it’s sold in a plank format – which is multilayered, more comfortable, has a longer life, and can replicate other flooring types more convincingly. 

Discover which best fits your budget:

• Sheet vinyl kitchen flooring costs from around $0.50 to $3 per square foot (£7 to £10 per square meter). 
• Luxury vinyl tile might cost in the range of around $2.50 to $5 per square foot (around £15 to £40 per square meter).

Kitchen flooring costs for linoleum and cork

Both linoleum and cork are made from natural materials and can prove a more eco-friendly kitchen flooring option. 

Here’s how they will impact your budget:

• For linoleum flooring, expect to pay between around $3.50 and $5 per square foot (£25 to £45 per square meter).
• Cork could cost from around $3 to over $12 per square foot (£25 to £50 per square meter) with vivid colors and textured versions generally the more expensive. 

Kitchen flooring costs for laminate flooring

Laminate flooring creates the look of wood and is a top choice for DIY installation. 

This is how it will impact your budget:

• Laminate flooring costs from around $1.50 to around $3 per square foot (£7 to £40 per square meter).

Kitchen flooring costs for polished concrete

Polished concrete has a sleek contemporary look and is growing in its appeal to homeowners, but how much of your spending money would it take?

• Polished concrete kitchen flooring costs from around $3 to more than $15 per square foot (£80 to £150 per square meter).

What is the best inexpensive flooring?

The best kitchen flooring choice if you're on a budget is often vinyl, specifically luxury vinyl tile (LVT). That’s because modern technology allows intricate detail – and sometimes texture, too – that makes it look like other more costly flooring materials, like wood and natural stone, without their price tags.

While it does have many plus points, vinyl flooring won’t suit every homeowner, however. It can be damaged by a dropped knife, for example. It's also made from PVC, so it’s not an eco-conscious choice.

Another inexpensive alternative you might like to consider is ceramic tile. A wide choice of color and pattern, and a hard-wearing and easy-to-clean finish make it the best inexpensive flooring for many homeowners.

The cheapest flooring for a kitchen is likely to be laminate, or ceramic tile. Either option can prove very budget friendly, and they both offer the possibility of creating the look of natural stone or wood if that’s your preference but you need to cut your kitchen flooring costs down.

If you’re thinking about the long run, ceramic tile is hard wearing and could therefore cost less per day of its life on your floor.

The best flooring for the money for lots of kitchens is porcelain tile. The reason is that a kitchen is a busy area, spills and splashes are inevitable, and many of us are short on time to care for a floor, and porcelain tile has the necessary qualities to withstand these conditions.

Porcelain tile is highly wear resistant, so it’ll cope with foot traffic over the years, plus it doesn’t need sealing to keep water out, and cleaning is easy so it won’t take up much time in maintenance. It can reproduce the look of natural stone or wood, too.

Needless to say porcelain tile won’t suit every scheme, nor every budget. It’s a great value buy rather than the cheapest, and while it mimics other materials, it won’t feel like them nor have the individuality of real timber or real stone.

Bear in mind that we’re talking about the cost of the materials here, so factor installation into your kitchen flooring costs calculation. Both laminate and ceramic tile can be DIY installed in order to spend less overall, although you’ll find laminate the easier of the two options to lay yourself - especially if you're working with an awkward kitchen layout. Paying a contractor? Installation of ceramic tile will cost more than laminate.