| Pavers as kitchen flooring give you a durable floor that’s easy to care for. Kitchen brick floors can be as formal or informal as you want, determined by the pattern you choose and throw rugs you scatter on them. Brick flooring is absorbent so does need to be sealed to protect it from water, grease and dirt stains so common in kitchens. If you have an environmental focus in your home, consider reclaimed brick that is used as flooring. In fact, this concept has been gaining a lot of ground lately, and people are specifically asking for reclaimed brick to be used for flooring at home. however, you may have to ensure that such reclaimed brick meets the required standards and is devoid of any physical deformity. |
The choice that you make for your kitchen flooring dictates the entire feeling of your kitchen. In most homes, the kitchen is the central hub of activity of the entire family. That’s why most people want flooring that makes the kitchen feel warm and inviting. Installing pavers as kitchen flooring has multiple advantages. Nobody wants their home to look like just anyone else’s. There has to be a certain identity to your kitchen, just like you strive to be different from all the people out there. Pavers are an excellent way of doing this. It can also go on to become a style statement, something that you will be appreciated for.
Brick pavers as kitchen flooring can help create a warm feeling in your kitchen so that it feels more welcoming. Although this is an unusual choice for kitchen flooring, it is a choice that can make your kitchen into that one of a kind showplace that you want it to be.
When most people think of brick pavers, they think of outside spaces. Brick pavers are used outside for patios, porches, steps, and sidewalks, but they are also a great choice for indoors. Brick is extremely durable and easy to take care of, which is why it is an ideal choice for a high traffic area like the kitchen. The kitchen is one of the most traveled rooms in the home and it needs flooring that is durable, easy to clean, and that is beautiful. Just because people in the past did not prefer to brick because of whatever reason they had, doesn’t mean we have to say no to it. Brick flooring pavers in a kitchen can be the ideal thing that goes with your house giving it a unique feel and look.
Brick pavers as kitchen flooring add texture, color, design, and beauty to your kitchen no matter what your tastes are. Brick flooring is one of the most neutral flooring choices that you can make as it goes with almost any color, any wood, and any decorating style. The beautiful, natural pattern of brick adds interest and appeal to the rooms as well.
Many companies offer reclaimed brick to use as flooring. Reclaimed brick is brick that was taken from a building that was scheduled to be demolished. This brick is then cleaned and repurposed for use in other homes, business, and buildings. This is a great way to recycle brick and the natural aged look of the brick can create a floor that others will be envious of!
There are many different ways that brick can be laid in your kitchen. The most common designs that are laid are the running bond, herringbone, and basket weave designs. Running bond is when the brick pavers are laid end to end in staggered rows. Herringbone is when bricks are laid in a diagonal direction and basket weave is when the bricks are laid at cross angles to each other as if woven. These different designs help create an unusual look and texture in the kitchen. Some of these designs can be done without any external help while others might need some expert hands to be completed. You may take the final call on that.
Brick flooring must be sealed so that it does not stain. If sealed, brick flooring is easy to take care of with simple sweeping, vacuuming, and cleaning with a mild detergent. This makes them ideal for rooms where messes reign supreme such as in the kitchen, family room, or other rooms that see a lot of messes.
Kitchen brick floors will instantly update your kitchen from cold and uninviting to warm and welcoming. If you are looking for a kitchen floor that is easy to clean, durable, and beautiful, then brick pavers as kitchen flooring are a choice that you will definitely want to consider.
Does anyone have any experience with brick kitchen floors? I am seriously considering one.
I have some experience with them. My folk’s house has pavers from the front door through the kitchen into the sun room. We all like them tremendously.
You need to clean up spills immediately. You are better off getting food crumbs up quickly too — a hand-vac is helpful for that.
They chose the basket weave pattern because it fit their style. I think it gives their house a more classic and timeless look.
What other questions do you have?
We have a kitchen floor paved with brick pavers. they were never sealed, but waxed a lot over the years. Now there is an ugly wax build-up in the corners that cannot be removed with Brillo pads or bleach. How can I clean those corners so I can get the floor sealed?
The recipe I hear for cleaning this kind of gunky build-up is a mixture of 1/4c all-purpose cleaner (make sure it doesn’t have chlorine), 1c ammonia, and 1/2gal cool water. Be sure to change the water frequently so you really get a clean floor.
A good all-purpose cleaner to have around is StainSolver — it’s a great oxygen bleach cleaner that’s perfect for most of your cleaning needs around the house — from floors to laundry.
Once you get the wax cleaned from corners and other areas it will be ready for sealing. Then you can stick with cleaners that won’t create a wax build-up.
We just moved into a house with brick pavers that run along the periphery of the living room, into the kitchen. My question in, how do I know if the pavers are sealed? The are beautiful and shiny. But are they sealed?
And, HOW does one seal them if they are not?
Being shiny is one great way of telling they are sealed. But to be certain, dribble some water onto them and see if it beads up or soaks in.
If it beads up, the floor is sealed. If it soaks in, the floor needs to be sealed.
How do I find someone to put brick down on the kitchen floor? I plan to use the pavers from Lowes that have the “antique” look and it will be going on a slab. I want to make sure the brick layer really knows what they are doing. I live in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia.
Thanks!
Hi Liz!
Usually the best way to go about this is to ask around (friends, family, co-workers, etc.) to see if anybody you know can recommend some good brick layers or home remodelers. Another good route is to look in your phone book and start calling…. ask if they can do the project and ask for references. After that you can start getting quotes to make your decision of who to have do the work.
You wrote that the pavers would be installed on a slab…..I presume you mean a concrete slab? If so, no problem, just need to consider whether you’re going to have a moisture barrier of some sort applied first before starting the brickwork. If you were to have a floor supported by joists, you’d have to make sure that they will bear the weight of the pavers, strenghtening them would be in order.
Best of luck with your project – you’ll have to let me know how it turns out!
We are getting ready to install brick pavers for our kitchen floor. We are attempting to do this ourselves. Is there instructions for this and how do we seal the floor and with what.
Hi Tracey!
This has been addressed several times. The biggest thing is to make sure your floor is STRONG enough to handle the extra weight. Use the search function in the upper right-hand corner and search for brick or paver along with strong or strength. Same goes with sealing & polishing. It depends on largely upon whether you want a high gloss or lower gloss polish.
I have bricks on my floors and have sealed them with Thompson’s waterseal. What can I put on them to make them shine? Thank you.
Hi Phyllis,
I’ve never used Thompson water seal myself, so I don’t know what other products would be compatible with it. There should be a phone number on the container that you can call and ask them.
We want to use brick pavers in on kitchen. We have found them at Lowes, can you recommend any other stores that carry them? What kind of moisture barrier were you talking about with Liz? Also, can you ever use pavers on walls or as trim decorative work, or does it look tacky?
Thanks,
Linde
Hi Linde!
There are many companies that make brick pavers – I’d suggest using a search engine like Google and type in brick pavers manufacturer and see what kind of hits you get – or even just type in brick pavers. Most of the manufacturer’s websites will have a link somewhere showing where you can buy them. Lots of stores have pavers, Home Depot, True Value, etc.
There’s different kinds of moisture barriers you can use, it just depends on your situation. You didn’t mention if your kitchen sits on a concrete base, if you have a crawl space or what. I really think you should read up on the Moisture Proofing and Sealing Basement Floors sections of the site.
Yes, you can use pavers as trim – it can be a little tricky since you’re putting them on vertical surface though. I couldn’t tell you if it’d look tacky or give you a case of ‘over-kill’ though since I don’t know how your kitchen is set up. It would probably be best to lay the floor first and then decide. You could always take a photo of your kitchen with the new flooring down and draw in where you’d want the paver accents to be (or do it in a computer photo editor program!) – it should give you a better idea of how it’d look and you could then decide from there.
Hi Liz,
Our house sits 32″ off the ground and I wanted to put brick pavers in our laundry room/rear entrance, what do I need to know about this?
Hi Christina,
Well, first of all I would think that you need to make sure your floor joists are strong enough to support the additional weight. If not, they’ll need to be beefed up.
Moisture is always a problem for brick – you’ll need to make sure you seal it really, really well and it doesn’t hurt to put a coat on before the floor is laid – it’ll make it easier to remove the grout haze after it’s been laid, before you put the final sealer on it. Do you have a moisture barrier of some kind on top of the dirt in the crawlspace and running up part of the ‘wall’ of the crawl space? It’s always a good idea to do so – that way water vapor can’t degrade the joists.
Search around on this site and using a search engine to find out about problems that others have had and what solutions were used. In short, I guess my best answer would be to educate yourself as much as possible before you start the project.
Hi,
My husband and I gathered thousands of brick pavers from a road demo, can we use these in our kitchen. They have been stacked up outside for a couple of years, and I we need a new kitchen floor. Our foundation is concrete slab. Any suggestions on sites on how to install? Thanks
sharon
Hi Sharon,
Visit Lowe’s or Home Depot websites, they probably have some DIY instructions there. You can always Google too of course……..
Hi Flooring Lady, I have brick pavers in my kitchen, laundry room and pantry-the grout and pavers were very stained and dirty when I bought the house-I have tried everything I can think of to clean the grout and pavers-do you have any suggestions? thanks Nancy
Hi Nancy,
You might want to try a product like StainSolver – it works better than OxyClean because it’s got more bleaching action – though it won’t bleach out your concrete – just the dirt. It may not work on everything, but it’s a good product to start with and doesn’t cost very much. I have an old ‘family van’ that has really been abused over the years, my first mistake was not setting any rules about eating or drinking in the van, didn’t worry about since it wasn’t new and I figured the kids would naturally be careful. Hah! The rug had literally gotten disgusting, so over the weekend I got out my StainSolver and mixed it up with hot water and it worked wonders! Dummy me should have used a wet-vac, but towel-blotting it worked well. Anyhoo, the point I’m trying to make is that I’ll bet it works well on your floor.
After you get it cleaned as best as you can, you’ll definitely want to seal it. Brick is so porous and dirt literally gets into the brick. You can check for yourself to see if it’s still sealed by putting drops of water on the brick – if it beads up – it’s sealed, if it soaks in, then obviously it’s not. If it turns out that it is still sealed, the StainSolver will still help clean it. Hopefully, you wouldn’t have to resort to stripping the brick and resealing. Another thing to note is that if it’s sealed (or still sealed here & there), you’ll still probably need to strip it because you wouldn’t know what kind of a sealer was put on it before and you can’t mix different types of sealers. Yeah, I know…….. oh joy! Look forward to the fact that once you get it all squared away, maintaining your floor will be much easier.