Solid Hardwood, Engineered and Laminate Flooring - Kitchen hardwood floor

I would like to install wide plank flooring in my kitchen. 3/4 inch thick and 6-10 inches width (rustic/country feel). Which type would be best for my kitchen, white oak or eastern white pine? Im on a crawl space in Long Island.

Thank You

what are your cabinets made of?

not really sure. The stain is a golden oak color, and they look like they may be light oak, not too many grains. When I was moving a cabinet, written on the back of one was Fruitwood. Im not sure if it was the stain or the wood it was talking about.

I will be leaving the cabinets for now, but may be replacing them in the future. Im also debating if I should wait to put in the wood floor until I replace the cabinets. I probably would replace the cabinets with maple ones.


I was told not to put pine in the kitchen, wondering if its true...

Pine is soft. If you install the floor up to the cabinets and you want to replace later, you will need to find cabinets the same size or bigger.
White oak would probably look the nicest.

Fruitwood is probably the stain color. It's a Minwax product.

Thanks for all of your input. I decided if I do put the wide plank flooring in the kitchen now, Ill probably do oak or hickory, not pine.

I may be cheap right now and just put linoleum until I redo the whole kitchen. Im still not 100% sure what to do, and I dont want to spend a lot of money and not be totally happy.

Another thing to consider when doing kitchen floors (either hardwood or tile) is the clearance you'll have at the dishwasher. I've seen a few situations where the additional floor height caused real problems when removing a dishwasher.

In one case, I had to cut the old dishwasher out with a Sawzall, then remove the leveling feet from the new one to get it into the opening. I had to use wood spacers and shims to raise it to the correct position.

Overall, what is your opinions of 3/4 inch hardwood eastern white pine in the kitchen?

Pine is not a hardwood. Hardwoods come from deciduous trees. And yes, balsa is a hardwood.