Your taste, price will dictate kitchen, bath floor surfaces

June 22, 2007

By ROSEMARY SADEZ FRIEDMANN
Scripps Howard News Service
Monday, June 11, 2007

What floor covering to use in a kitchen or bath is always debatable. With all the options available, the choice is a matter of durability, practicality, price and aesthetics. The real questions are, which of those options is most important and if possible, is there a flooring choice that satisfies more than one of those needs?

Since the kitchen and bath floors take the most abuse in the house, durability is always top on the list. Now durability can also be attractive. Vinyl floors, anciently called linoleum, offer many styles and performance options and also offer low prices.

The most expensive of these vinyls is the one that is topped with urethane wear layer which has the most shine retention, stain resistance and longest life. The prices for vinyl range from as low as $4.50 a square yard to as much as $50 a square yard or even a little more. But that's not bad, since we are talking in square yards and not square feet.

Then there is tile. A glazed ceramic tile is quite durable, easy to clean and always looks like an upgrade. There are also the unglazed tiles and stones that are more rustic looking. If you choose an unglazed tile or stone, it is imperative that it be properly sealed otherwise the maintenance will be unbearable. Every spill will sink into the pores of the stone and stay. Sealing of unglazed tiles and stones, even if done properly, will need to be repeated regularly.

Slate, travertine, marble and granite all fall under this tile/stone category. They are great and beautiful choices, offering the most aesthetic version of the floor covering realm.

Prices here are counted in square feet., not square yards and the range is anywhere from a bargain basement price of $3, up to as much as $45 a square foot, and even more if you are looking at rare tiles and stones. The natural stones and marbles will be on the expensive side.

Laminated wood floors are quite attractive and with the lamination, the floors are quite durable and have a moisture-resistant quality -- very important in kitchen and bath areas. These floors offer the look of hardwood with the durability of lamination. Since this flooring is installed as a floating floor -- plans glued to each other instead of nailing directly to the floor, it can be installed right over any existing floor covering.

This saves on installation costs. Laminated wood floors range in price from approximately $8 a square foot up to $20 a square foot.

There are other choices for floor coverings for kitchens and baths such as cork and in large bathrooms even carpet, but they aren't as popular as the options we've discussed.

(Rosemary Sadez Friedmann, an interior designer in Naples, Fla., is author of "Mystery of Color," available at Barnes & Noble Booksellers and Amazon.com.)

Coffee's perk -- it's healthy in some ways

By ERIN ALLDAY
San Francisco Chronicle
Monday, June 11, 2007

Apparently it's harder to shake a bad reputation than a caffeine habit.

Even after decades of study suggesting coffee is not harmful, one of the world's favorite beverages remains much maligned, with people afraid that it may cause everything from cancer to heart disease and high blood pressure.

But according to research, coffee might actually have some health benefits, and it's one of the few drinks available these days that doesn't come loaded with sugar and calories. It might guard against gout, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease, and other health problems.

Just make sure you stay away from the Frappuccinos.

Of course, the scientists performing these studies might be a bit biased.

"I should probably mention that I start off every day with a double cappuccino," said Dr. Robert Rushakoff, an endocrinologist with the University of California-San Francisco.

Full disclosure aside, he said, coffee has shown promising results in recent studies that compare consumption with diabetes rates, including reports that suggest people who drink six or seven cups a day were 50 percent less likely to develop Type 2 diabetes.

No one understands quite why, although caffeinated coffee seems to have more of an impact than decaf. A lot more study needs to be done, Rushakoff said, especially since the results are based on historical observations and not clinical trials -- the gold standard for medical research.

American coffee consumption per capita has decreased since peaking in the 1940s, from 46.4 gallons a year per person in 1946 to 24.2 gallons per person in 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The best explanation for the drop is the increasing popularity of alternative sources of caffeine -- primarily soda.

Even so, coffee consumption has picked up in the past 10 years with the explosion of Starbucks and other coffee chains, and today, more than half of Americans drink coffee regularly.

So we're drinking a lot of coffee, even if we don't think we should be.

In fact, two cups a day is probably just fine, most doctors say. The trouble comes when people start adding sugar and cream to their coffee, or even worse, buying thick, blended drinks -- with whipped cream on top, of course -- that have hundreds of calories.

A 12-ounce cup of coffee with no extra ingredients has only about 10 calories. But the same size Frappuccino from Starbucks -- a coffee drink enhanced with flavored syrups like chocolate, vanilla or caramel -- can be up to 370 calories. Twelve ounces is considered a small.

Once upon a time, doctors worried that coffee was causing a wide variety of common ailments, including heart disease, ulcers and indigestion. Almost all of those concerns have been disproved, but there's still some argument over coffee's effect on high blood pressure.

A Canadian study published this month showed that coffee may prevent gout. Diabetes has been the latest focus of research, and studies also have suggested coffee could lower the risk of developing Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. Coffee may also lessen the risk of depression and suicide.

Doctors are a long way from prescribing coffee, but they're generally not telling people to give it up, as long as they're drinking in moderation -- two or three cups a day.

"On balance, coffee is a wash," said Dr. Arthur Klatsky, a cardiology consultant with Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, Calif., who drinks one or two cups a day.

Nutritionist Jo Ann Hattner, who teaches at the Stanford University School of Medicine, said she's suggested patients drink coffee if they have trouble getting started in the morning, or if they're having problems with constipation.

"It's a stimulant. It helps everything get going, including the GI tract," Hattner said. "If people are tired, I tell them to get more sleep. Lack of sleep is not healthy and they could develop other symptoms from that. But if you need a jump-start sometimes, yes, drink the coffee."

So if the experts have known for decades that coffee is no big deal, why is it still considered such a guilty pleasure?

Partly because it feels like an addiction, Klatsky said. Most regular drinkers crave it every morning, and suffer headaches or other withdrawal symptoms if they try to cut it out. And partly because caffeine is a drug and an obvious stimulant.

"We have an emotional tie to coffee," Klatsky said. "We're a puritanical culture, and we still have a big holdover from the days when anything that felt good was a problem. There's this assumption that anything that feels good, there's got to be a payback down the line."

(E-mail Erin Allday at eallday(at)sfchronicle.com.)