bumping

Thanks for bumping Curt! Cork floors can be as different as night and day (manufacturers, finishes, applications, product used, you name it they can be different).

The polyurethane finished floors have tremendous benefits - they can be site finished (sealed), made water proof (glue down tile) or water resistant (floating floor with HDF core). The draw back (in the N. American psychie) is the product is soft (which it is supposed to be) and can become gouged (dragging furniture is not an option with this floor). The Europeans understand these "deficits" which means they WANT the soft finish. N. Americans want "hard, harder, hardest". These two points of view can clash.

A glue down cork tile floor is the type of floor that can (and has) gone for 100+ years. The Library of Congress is the building (in the USA) with the most well known cork floor. In Europe (Spain and Portugal), they use cork in Cathedrals, churches, schools, parliment buildings, etc.

A glue down cork floor is also the most expensive (labour cost) to install. For this reason, cork floating floors were invented. The click-together floors were first brought to the market around 1995 in Europe. The installation costs (labour) dropped dramatically. The floors installed in Europe in 1995 (floating floors) will turn 20 years old and most are still going strong.

A floating floor will utilize an HDF core (Europe grade) or an MDF (American grade) core. This core is susceptible to moisture...which is why it is important to seal the floor in kitchens and entranceways.

The "American" market wants a "hard surface" which means many "top end" cork suppliers have produced these "hard wearing" finishes that are Aluminum Oxide or Ceramic/nanobead finishes. These finishes are hard on the feet, loud (create more echo), they can NEVER be refinished, they MUST BE polished 2-5 times per year (need a polishing machine for best results) and every 10 applications of polish the floors must be chemically/mechanically stripped and the process starts again.

Both Aluminum Oxide and ceramic bead finishes will haze inside of 8 years....causing many people to curse their expensive cork floors. This is the compromise the flooring industry has gone with to "satisfy" the "hard, harder, hardest" American taste. The compromise compromises the quality of a cork floor.

Off-the shelf low end cork floating flooring with urethane finish (poor finish choice for cork) = $2.99 - $3.99/sf. High end cork with the "hard" finishes: $4.99 - $18 per square foot.

Glue down cork tiles can range from $1.30 - $8.50 per square foot depending on manufacturer, thickness and finish.

We ordered Cancork floors and had a professional install it December 2014. We got the floating laminate, and love the material. It's warm comfortable in the kitchen. BUT--it has a hollow sound when you walk on it. Cancork did not recommend an underlayment until AFTER we commented on the hollow sound! We would have done it if we had known, but now it's too late. Now, the very expensive imported polyurethane Cancork recommended is peeling off the floor, and, of course, they offer online advice, but it's really our problem now. I would highly recommend using a local, established, flooring company to do your cork floors so that you will have recourse if there is a failure. I would never trust online again.

A perfectly flat floor is a baseline requirement for any floating floor, as is an underlayment. Your issues are all due to improper installation, not the material itself.

@Cancork Floor Inc.

Does the floor NEED to be refinished every few years. The thought of having to move my furniture out and clear the house for 1-2 days seems like a pain.