We put cork floors in our basement and love them. They're warm, good on the feet and look great. Don't believe what everyone tells you about them "springing back", though, nor do I believe they would handle concentrated pressure well (think office chairs). We have these IKea folding chairs with little plastic nubs on the bottom. In September people of regular weight sat on them for relatively short (2 hrs or so) stretches when we were doing some computer stuff and the marks from the nubs are still there and quite noticeable.

Would still do it again, though.

- R.

One question I have regarding cork ... does it discolor from the oils in our skin or food etc?

No. It is the same as a hardwood floor, it has a finish on it. Okay, so I guess it could discolor if you wore down the finish and exposed the cork.

I've seen cork samples scratched badly enough to show the 'natural' cork beneath the darker finish.

Though I'd love a dark, reddish flooring in my upstairs, if I go with cork it will be in the 'natural' family.

thinking of building a one-story home. How do you think it would look to go from hardwood in the main areas to cork in the kitchen and bathrooms? Do you think it would transition well? (I am thinking of putting carpet in bedrooms for warmth and sound... not sold on the idea though)

truzella,

We have a cork floor in our kitchen and I love it. We have had it for about 6 years and should have refinished it by now, but haven't. It still looks great. We purchased the 1' x 3' t&g boards from Jelinek and installed it ourselves.One of the best features of the "floating floor" system is that we were able to install it over existing flooring that would have been a real pain to remove (and certainly contained asbestos). The unevenness of the underlying floor would have presented a problem for other flooring materials, but not the floating floor with its three layers (cork, mdf, cork).

When we considered different flooring types for the kitchen, we had to take into account the floor material in the surrounding rooms. One of the kitchen doors leads to the dining room, which has an oak floor. The other door leads to a hall with a fir floor. Cork seemed ideal for both since there is no linear grain to compete/clash with the wood floors. We carefully selected a color to match, although that ended up being not very important after all.

The color of the floor has gotten considerably lighter over time from light and sun (even though our kitchen is on the north side of the house). It still looks great and my husband actually likes it better this way. Still, it was a surprise to us.

If I can figure out how to post pictures, I will do it.

Christine

P.S.
I should mention that we sealed our floor with polyurethane. Although it came pre-sealed, we applied several more coats on the floor once it was installed to seal the seams. I think that's probably a good thing to do, because although the cork doesn't have a bad reaction to water, the mdf will expand when wet.

Thanks for all of your input. Our cork flooring arrives today. It is going in a large kitchen/ familyroom. Our room isn't completed so it will be awhile before the floor goes down. I will post my thoughts after the room is complete. We bought from SimpleFloors.com and have been very pleased with the service. The shipping was reasonable concidering it is coming from Cal. and we are in Wisconsin. It took about 7 business days.

We lost our house in Katrina, and are just now building a new home (away from the water this time.) Our first floor is pretty "open" - kitchen, great room, dining room all visible in one glance, with the exception of brick arches dividing the spaces. We are going with engineered handscraped hardwood floor for the entire area. We are undecided about the kitchen - should we go with cork or just continue the hardwood. A friend of mine recently renovated her kitchen with the cork, and it was beautiful. What is the "life expectancy" of cork - I thought I read somewhere it was only 5 - 10 years? Any advice is welcome. Thanks.

wodka - I prefer the same flooring throughout if there is not a natural way to make the transition from one to another. That said, I love the feel of cook in the kitchen. It really reduces the strain of standing for long periods. As to life expectancy, there are cork floors (glue-down) in several cathedrals in Europe that are over 100 years old.

Our carpet has been in 2 years and started wrinkling soon after it was put in and continues to do so. The installer says it is because of the humidity. We live it Wisconsin, the two previous carpets did not wrinkle. He has said we will need to get it restretched. He has not taken any responsibility for it. Can humidity cause it to stretch, could it be the pad or was it just installed incorrectly? Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. I am ready to wring the guy's neck!