Kitchen Flooring in Gresham, OR: LVP, Hardwood or Tile for a 1970s to 1990s Kitchen

Gresham’s kitchens are mostly the same age. The city’s housing stock is markedly newer than Portland’s, with a median construction year around 1981, and much of it went up across Powell Valley, Pleasant Valley, Rockwood and Kelly Creek between the 1970s and the 1990s. That means a lot of Gresham kitchens are on their second or third floor, and the original builder-grade layers are often still underneath.

It also means kitchen flooring in Gresham comes down to a short list of questions. What is under the floor you have now, which of the three common kitchen floors suits how you cook, and what order the work goes in if the cabinets or countertops are changing too.

This guide covers each one for Gresham homes.

What is usually under a Gresham kitchen floor

Before choosing a new floor, it helps to know what it is going on top of. In homes built from the 1970s through the early 1990s, we commonly find:

• Sheet vinyl or 12-inch vinyl tile, sometimes two layers of it
• Particleboard underlayment stapled over the plywood subfloor. Builders used it under vinyl for decades because it is smooth and cheap.
• Crawlspace framing underneath, with the subfloor sitting over a vented crawlspace, which is why so many Gresham kitchens feel cold underfoot in January

Particleboard is the one that matters most. It is fine under a floating floor if it is dry and flat. It is not an acceptable base for tile or for nail-down hardwood, and it swells permanently the first time a dishwasher leaks into it. If you are choosing tile or solid wood, plan for the particleboard to come out and be replaced with plywood. If you are choosing LVP, it may be able to stay.

Old vinyl and asbestos. Vinyl tile, sheet vinyl backing and the black mastic used to glue them down often contained asbestos into the 1980s. Intact and left alone, they are not a hazard. Scraping, sanding or breaking them is. For most residential renovation in homes built before January 1, 2004, Oregon DEQ requires an asbestos survey by an accredited inspector before materials such as flooring are removed. Owner-occupants doing their own work in their own home are the main exception.

That is one reason floating a new floor over a sound old one is so common in Gresham kitchens. Nothing is disturbed and there is no tear-out to pay for. When it has to come up, it should be tested first.

Moisture. Gresham averages close to 48 inches of rain a year, wetter than Portland. Most kitchens here sit over a crawlspace rather than a slab, so the things to check are the crawlspace vapor barrier, any old leak stains around the sink and dishwasher, and soft spots in front of the fridge. We look at all three during the estimate.

Luxury vinyl plank: the default for most Gresham kitchens

Rigid-core luxury vinyl plank is what we install in more Gresham kitchens than anything else, for good reasons:

• The core is waterproof. A dishwasher or fridge line that drips overnight will not swell the planks.
• It is easier on your feet than tile during an hour of standing at the counter.
• It floats. It can often go over sound old vinyl or tile, which saves tear-out cost and keeps old flooring undisturbed.
• It runs through. The same plank can continue into the dining room, hallway and family room with no transitions.

What to get right: choose a plank with a thicker wear layer for a busy family kitchen, insist on the floor stopping at the cabinet toe kick rather than running under the cabinets, and remember that “waterproof” describes the plank, not the subfloor. Water that gets past the perimeter can still reach the wood underneath, so a leak still needs to be found and fixed.

See current lines on our luxury vinyl plank page, and our LVP installation guide for the technical side.

Hardwood: the right call for open-plan kitchens

A lot of Gresham remodels open the kitchen to the family room by removing a wall or a peninsula. Once that happens, a transition strip in the middle of the new great room looks like a mistake. Running the same wood through both rooms solves it.

• Engineered hardwood is the version we recommend in kitchens. Its plywood core moves much less with seasonal humidity than solid wood, and it can be glued, nailed or floated depending on what is underneath.
• Matte or satin sheen hides the wear path between the sink, fridge and range far better than gloss. Our hardwood sheen guide explains the difference.
• Matching existing oak. Plenty of 1980s Gresham homes have red oak in the entry or dining room. Sometimes the best plan is to weave new oak into the kitchen and refinish everything together so it all matches.

The honest limit: wood of any kind does not survive a slow leak that runs for days. If the dishwasher or fridge is old, weigh that, or put a leak sensor under the sink. See our Gresham hardwood flooring page and the engineered vs. solid hardwood comparison.

Tile: the most durable, if the subfloor allows it

Porcelain tile is waterproof, heat-proof and effectively permanent. It is the natural choice with radiant floor heat, and large-format porcelain with tight grout joints looks clean in a modern kitchen.

Tile also asks the most of the subfloor. Over wood framing, the floor has to be stiff enough not to flex. The tile industry’s minimum is a deflection of L/360 for ceramic and porcelain and twice as stiff, L/720, for natural stone. Older Gresham framing over a crawlspace does not always meet that. The usual fix is to remove particleboard, add plywood where needed, and install cement backer board or an uncoupling membrane before any tile goes down. Skipping that step is why cracked tile and grout show up in kitchens a year or two after installation.

The other tradeoffs are comfort and breakage. Tile is hard on your back during long cooking sessions, and anything glass that hits it breaks. Our tile installation guide covers layout, membranes and grout in detail.

Side by side

	Luxury vinyl plank	Engineered hardwood	Porcelain tile
Dishwasher or fridge leak	Plank unaffected	Can cup or swell	Unaffected
Comfort standing	Good	Good	Hard
Dropped pans and glass	Good	Can dent	Chips tile; glass breaks
Over old vinyl	Often yes (floating)	Usually not	No
Over particleboard	Often yes, if dry and flat	Not for nail-down	No
Continues into living areas	Yes	Yes, best looking	Possible, but cold and hard
Typical install time, one kitchen	1 to 2 days	1 to 3 days	2 to 4 days

For a deeper look at how kitchen floors fail and why, see what actually holds up in a kitchen.

If the cabinets or countertops are changing too

Many Gresham kitchen floors are replaced as part of a bigger remodel. The order matters:

1. Decide the floor before the cabinets. Finished floor height affects dishwasher clearance under the counter, the range opening, and the transition to the next room.
2. Tile can go in first. Tiling wall to wall before cabinets go in means the floor is continuous if the layout ever changes. Tiling up to the new cabinets uses less tile. Either works if it is planned.
3. Floating floors go in after the cabinets. LVP and laminate stop at the toe kick so they can expand and contract. Running them under a cabinet run or a heavy island pins them in place and they buckle.
4. Countertops come after the cabinets and before the final floor protection comes off. If you are replacing countertops anyway, we install tile, porcelain slab, quartz and natural stone. See countertops in Gresham and our kitchen countertop guide.
5. Appliances come out and go back. Flooring only up to the front of the dishwasher leaves a lip that turns the next appliance replacement into a demolition job. We floor underneath the appliance spaces.

If an old peninsula or soffit cabinet is coming out, there is usually a gap in the old flooring where it stood. That is one more reason to settle the floor plan before demo starts.

What drives the installed price

Kitchens are small, usually 120 to 250 square feet, so even premium material is a manageable number. What moves the quote in a Gresham kitchen is mostly prep:

• Removing old vinyl and particleboard, plus asbestos testing if old flooring has to come up
• Subfloor repair around the sink and dishwasher where old leaks have softened it
• Leveling for floating floors and tile
• Backer board or membrane under tile
• Appliance pull and reset, and the transitions to adjoining rooms

Our flooring cost guide has current ranges by material, and financing is available for qualified buyers.

Kitchen flooring in Gresham from All About Floors NW

We have been installing floors around Portland and Clark County since 1999, and we sell and install luxury vinyl plank, laminate, hardwood, tile and countertops, so we can give you a straight comparison instead of steering you toward the one thing we sell.

• Showroom at 6700 NE 152nd Ave #140 in east Vancouver, Monday through Friday, 9 to 6, a short drive from Gresham over the I-205 bridge
• Samples brought to your kitchen so you see them against your cabinets and your light
• Brands including Mohawk, Shaw, Daltile, Marazzi and Quick Step
• A written workmanship warranty on every installation

See flooring in Gresham, OR for everything we do in the area, including laminate for the rooms beyond the kitchen.

Book a free in-home estimate, or text (360) 525-2962 with a photo of your kitchen floor and roughly when the house was built. We’ll check what is underneath, measure, and give you an installed price for each option.

Related reading

• Kitchen flooring: what actually holds up
• Waterproof flooring: what the label covers and what it does not
• LVP and laminate installation in Portland’s older homes
• Planning a flooring remodel in Clark County: order of work, budget and timeline
• What to expect during a professional flooring installation