Here's a video of an area of water damaged bamboo being removed and replaced Joyzzz. Maybe you'll consider replacing the area in front of your fridge. Like you I also have bamboo in the kitchen (and pot plants throughout the house), but haven't had any issues with spills marking the floor. It's a shame there's so much variation in the manufacturing process resulting in some floors tolerating spills and others not at all. I do have a damaged board though thanks to a guest leaving a tap running causing an overflow...that I wasn't told about until days later, grrr. Fortunately the damage is in a shadowed corner and the sealer is still intact, so it isn't noticeable, just a wrinkled surface to the touch. Which is lucky, because our home is earth-covered and there is nowhere for water to drain out of the sub-floor as we "tanked" it with a sealer to ensure no moisture can make its way in. That board sat there in a puddle for days! I still wonder why only one board suffered damage, very strange...

Hi Georgie Laminates are pretty ordinary... Essentially they are an mdf (medium density fibre board) with a print over the top and a wear coating over that. The focus of the advertising for these products is that the wear layer has so many years etc etc.... What they don't say is that MDF does not like water so every time you mop it the water gets into the joins and it swells right at the edges of each and every board..... just like the joins on those old orange/green benchtops from years ago... that is why 'hybrids' have been developed which instead of mdf use a blend of limestone and vinyl... to get a water proof finish... we don't have feedback on these yet to comment. personally, of the 3 you are looking at I would choose a good quality vinyl plank eg Karndean.. it's tough and will take a beating... I would recommend you do your research by going to a couple of different flooring outlets, hearing all the opinions/stories and then go with what you feel comfy long term and not what is on 'special'... Cheers

Thank you cazzie8 .... that's good to know how the vinyl planks go in a family environment. We currently have Fraser Island hardwood floors throughout the upstairs level of our 2 storey house that we're renovating. And while they are beautiful.... they weren't in great condition when we bought the house. We didn't bother sanding and polishing prior to moving in as we have two young kids and at the time, our german shepherd pup so didn't want them brought back to new - just in case they got wrecked. Thank god we didn't as with the kids toys, wheelie walkers (when we first got here) and how rough they can be at times when wanting to drag our timber dining chairs all over the floor to make a train (GAH!!!!), they are scratched and scuffed ... given our personal circumstances, it isn't easy for us to remove all our furniture for a few days to have them sanded and polished again. I think once the kids grow up and aren't so accidentally destructive, polished timber floors would be beautiful - but it's just not a good idea at this point in our lives. I love love love timber and my great grandfather and his brothers were well known timberfellers back in their day.... might have to get my timber fix in the new build through some shelving, a large dining table and other key pieces ;)

Hi Leah, I had a pressed metal splash back in my kitchen. It was powder coated and never scratched. I lived with it for 6 years before moving and it was fine. Its a bit tricky cleaning (all the little nooks and crannies) but not overly hard,, not harder than dealing with grout. I didn't have a very big kitchen though and didn't require any joins. There would be metal trims that are used in floor applications (for example where carpet meets vinyl or timber) that might work on the join, you might just need to do the investigating on behalf of your cabinet maker. They are often referred to as C-channels and you could get them powder coated in the same colour so they don't stand out. If you contact Schotts they can put you onto a specialist pressed metal installer who might recommend a solution. Don't give up on the pressed metal yet, its just so beautiful!