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Marmoleum click in kitchen, or cork?

8 years ago
I just put in bamboo flooring in my living room and dining room and have old Pergo in the kitchen. I would like to put a new floor in the kitchen and do not want to do tile due to the hardness. ( I have issues with knee pain on occasion and want to avoid a hard floor.) I was all set to put in marmoleum click with a striped pattern but I am leery of the click product in the kitchen. The reason I didn't extend the bamboo into the kitchen was I had a dishwasher break and leak on the Pergo and that caused swelling and I didn't want to repeat that experience. Now I'm wondering if the same issue is true for the marmoleum click product or even cork planks. I need to keep the installation DIY so the sheet product is out of the question.
Anyone have experience with either of these products?

Comments (5)

  • 8 years ago

    I would not use cork in any room that gets sunlight. It fades something awful in a very short time. I'd look at the premium vinyl products. Some of these are 100% floodable. True linoleum isn't water proof.

  • 8 years ago

    Click linoleum has issues at the joints. They are sitting on a fibre board core. You can get around this by using a SEAM SEALER at the time of install. It is a silicone based sealant (do NOT use calking) that is applied directly to the tongue of every plank. It takes 24 hours to cure (pretty good). It will make the floor water RESISTANT but not FLOOD proof (there are very few floors that are flood proof - tile/stone and concrete are the only three).

    The cork floating floors have an added benefit - they can be site finished once they are installed. In a kitchen, they are clicked together (no seam sealer) and then two coats of polyurethane are applied over the floor. Wait 5-10 days for it to cure...and voila you have water resistant floor.

    Cork floors, when finished in a traditional water based polyurethane (not a cheap urethane or an Aluminum Oxide urethane) can be refreshed every 7-10 years or so....which means a bit of wear through to the cork can be remedied by reapplication of the top coat. Done like dinner for another 7 years.

    Remember: NOTHING is "flood proof" until you get into tile (porcelain/ceramic/stone) or concrete. Everything else has issues. Even the vinyl planks have issues (mold growth can be hard to get rid of if the water sits for 2-3 days....and the effort it takes to "SAVE" the vinyl is more than most people can handle...they just get the insurance company to pay/install a new floor).

  • 8 years ago
    Thank you for feedback. I don't want to do vinyl because the Pergo looks really cheap next to the bamboo. Plus if you drop something on it it will dent or "split" if anything like the current Pergo. The Cliq with the sealant sounds promising. I'm looking for anyone with experience with this product in the kitchen to provide feedback!
  • 8 years ago
    Oh, and cork is also in the running. Thanks for the info regarding polyurethane.
  • 7 years ago

    I put cork tiles (handpainted first with milk paint then sealed with a coat or two of polyurethane) in my small kitchen 20 years ago and just had a piece of my heart ripped out as I saw them torn up during demo for our current remodel. I really loved the way the cork felt under my bare feet each morning. I also loved that I could drop a glass or dish and never worry about breakage on either end. I'm far from a fanatic cleaner and just swept/vacuumed them and wiped them down with a damp rag once in awhile.


    I wouldn't say they were flawless but overall they were a wonderful thing for me. I would do the whole remodeled house in cork if my husband would let me! (He wasn't too hot on the milk paint finish, which did look pretty beat up after 20 years--especially the white, which wore away--but that wasn't the cork's fault).