By Clyde Noel

Town Crier Correspondent

After 32 years as a training consultant to floor retailers and manufacturers, Buzz Thayer opened Flooring Options of Los Altos. A third- generation home furnishings retailer, he is especially well acquainted with new trends in kitchen flooring.

The kitchen is the room that lends itself to the most options in floor coverings, including linoleum, hardwood, bamboo, tile, carpet, cork and stone.

“When it comes to comfort underfoot in the kitchen, carpet and cork are runaway winners,” Thayer said. “When it comes to easy cleanup and stain resistance, the nod goes to laminates.”

Wood is currently very popular. It adds to the property value. But for decades homeowners quickly covered the bare wood. Thayer projects that floor covering will soon repeat the cycle of the ’40s and ’50s.

“However, wood is not a water-friendly product,” Thayer said. “If you anticipate cleaning the floor with a bucket of water and a sponge mop, wood is a questionable choice.”

Thayer said that for many years the dominant kitchen flooring choice was no-wax vinyl. It lost favor in recent years because it has been around for decades and the younger generation is always looking for something new and exciting. The biggest complaint about vinyl flooring is the difficulty of removing the gray out of its “orange peel” texture.

“I’ve had ladies tell me about scrubbing their vinyl floor with a toothbrush, a scouring pad or even steel wool trying to remove the dirt buildup,” Thayer said. “The culprit is not the flooring, it’s the sponge mop. By its very nature, it expels some of the dirty scrub water as it passes over an uneven surface.”

Thayer suggested using a good old-fashioned rag mop or sponge mop and quickly following up with an absorbent towel to remove the tiny bit of remaining moisture.

Carpeted kitchens became briefly popular in the ’60s. The kitchen carpet of that era was a very tight, low-profile commercial type construction. For decades architects and building maintenance professionals have known that maintenance of carpeted areas is substantially less costly than any hard surface flooring. Kitchen carpets are no longer popular because of the limited selection of carpet styles for kitchens.

Laminate flooring is a practical option for kitchens or any room in the home. It gives the appearance of wood without some of the disadvantages. Laminate is less expensive than wood or stone and installs easily over concrete slab, radiant heat, plywood, hardwood, stone or concrete.

“Wood composite tiles, I predict, will become the ‘hot ticket’ in the months ahead. Compared to ceramic or stone flooring, it is warmer,” Thayer said. “It offers durability and is more forgiving underfoot. It’s a low-maintenance floor with aesthetic appeal.

Thayer said that when selecting flooring, considerations should include comfort underfoot, ease of care and maintenance, durability, longevity, aesthetics and suitability for installation on the existing flooring. As an aid to decision-making, he suggested placing a numerical priority on each of the considerations along with a comparative price.

Flooring Options of Los Altos is located at 334 State St. For more information, call 948-7262.