Flooring Choices for a Scottsdale Kitchen Remodel

The slab does one job under a kitchen floor: it is a flat, hard, cold surface that every other layer has to be tied to. Every teardown kitchen remodel scottsdale az primal health with jean has logged shows the same thing, which is that the slab decides the floor more than the product on top of it. Homes in Scottsdale, AZ are almost all built slab on grade, with no crawl space, so the flooring options start from concrete and the plumbing sits inside it.

Pulling up the old floor

Older kitchens in Maricopa County usually have ceramic tile set in a thick bed of mortar. Removing it is loud, dusty work and takes longer than anyone expects. The slab underneath often carries leftover thinset, which has to be ground flat. Skipping that step shows later as a plank floor that rocks or a tile that rings hollow.

Checking the slab

A long straightedge laid on the concrete shows the dips. Plank flooring wants a floor flat to within about an eighth of an inch over six feet, and tile wants it flatter. Hairline cracks are common in concrete in the Sonoran Desert, because the soil underneath moves with the dry and wet cycle. Cracks that are still and narrow can be treated with a membrane. A crack with one side higher than the other needs a closer look.

Tile layout

Large format porcelain tile is popular and it magnifies every flaw in the slab. The layout starts from the center of the main sightline, usually the sink wall or the island, so that cuts land in the corners where cabinets hide them. A grout joint that lines up with the island edge looks deliberate. One that misses by half an inch looks like a mistake.

Plank flooring over concrete

Luxury vinyl plank and engineered wood both work over a slab if moisture is tested first. The Phoenix metropolitan area is dry, but irrigation and a leaking line can still send moisture up through concrete. A simple calcium chloride test settles the question. Floating planks need expansion gaps at every wall, and those gaps are covered by the base trim or the toe kick.

Transitions and heights

A new floor changes the height of the kitchen by a fraction of an inch against the next room, and the dishwasher, the range and the refrigerator all care about it. Planning the finished floor height before the appliances are ordered avoids a dishwasher that cannot slide back into its opening.