« Checkerboard Flooring Kitchen | Main | Discount Kitchen Tile Flooring »
Cork Flooring in the Kitchen
Cork flooring in the kitchen is fantastic! Cork flooring is resilient to damage, cushiony, and easy to care for. Cork flooring in the kitchen will help muffle the noises of people hanging out having a good time. You may wonder "Is cork flooring in the kitchen a good idea?", and the answer is indeed. Kitchen cork flooring is beautiful and durable. Cork floors are the up and coming flooring product. Your kitchen is a great place for it.
Did you know that cork is not just for corkboards anymore? Cork flooring is a great environmentally friendly flooring that feels great under your feet and looks great too. Cork flooring in a kitchen will instantly update your kitchen and make it feel warm and inviting. Cork flooring has many other benefits also.
Why would you put cork flooring in the kitchen? If you are concerned about the environment, cork flooring is an excellent choice for you. Cork is a renewable resource, which means that the trees are not cut down to make the cork, as it comes from the bark of the tree and the bark is regrown within nine years. This is a great benefit over hardwood flooring since the trees are cut down to be used for flooring, and it typically takes 30 years--sometimes much longer--for a tree to be large enough to be used for flooring again.
Cork flooring is also wonderful for homes with family members with allergies. It is hypoallergenic and does not absorb dust or mites, letting you mop the floor clean to remove the allergens. This makes it an ideal flooring for people with allergies, as the dust will not cause them problems.
Is cork flooring in a kitchen a good idea? Yes! Cork flooring is resilient, which means that it has some cushion when you walk and stand on it. This is great for the kitchen where you stand for long periods of time preparing and cooking food. Cork flooring is also very durable, which is a big benefit in the kitchen as it is probably the most traveled room in the entire house. Being water resistant and easy to clean are also great benefits in the kitchen where spills and messes are very common. It also has the added benefits of being an insulator, which is great for noise and temperature control.
The beauty of cork flooring is unparalleled. Cork comes in many different colors from different shades of tan to red to black so you can mix and match colors to create a custom floor all your own. And because of it's patterning with light and dark swirls, it hides dirt and blemishes well. Of course that can be a bit of a problem if you drop something you want to retrieve or clean; but you'll get over that in no time. It is neutral enough to go with any design style, yet makes a statement of beauty and warmth that other floorings cannot even come close to matching.
Cork flooring comes in two basic styles; tiles and floating planks. Cork tiles are glued directly to the subfloor while floating cork flooring is clicked together and sit on top of the subfloor. Some cork comes prefinished with a UV-cured finish; be careful with this because it may not be as durable as a polyurethane (water-based being environmentally the best choice).
One of cork's unsung benefits is that it is "self healing". It's more resilient to compression from furniture than carpeting or vinyl and linoleum. When you drop a knife or other sharp object on it, the wound heals up so you don't see it. It's an incredible flooring material.!
Care for your kitchen cork flooring is simple and easy. Cork flooring just needs regular sweeping and damp mopping to get rid of dirt and debris. Once a year or when your floors start looking dull, you can refinish the cork flooring, according to your manufacturer's directions.
If you are looking for an environmentally friendly way to cover your floors, you want to consider cork flooring for your kitchen. Kitchen floors are very important as the kitchen is a very important room in your home. Cork flooring will help your room feel warm and inviting for you, your family, and your friends so that you will all want to gather and enjoy your kitchen even more.
Comments
Flooring Lady:
Floating cork tiles are in fact a very poor choice for a kitchen, particularily beneath sinks, areas around sinks, and around the fridge. The seams on click style cork flooring are not tight enough to exclude water: the cork layer on top is water resistant, but the submaterial, usually compressed board, is not. I have witnessed numerous occasions where cork flooring in a kitchen has buckled, swelled, sometimes dissolved into mush, and required costly replacement. Glue down cork, perhaps: click tiles? Poor advice. I am speaking from 40 years in the flooring/contracting trades, and have no incentive to misinform, not having a material interest in selling flooring. Do you?
Dave Hicks at July 8, 2007 12:19 PM
I agree that click tiles (cork, bamboo, or wood) are a bad idea in "water rooms", like kitchen, bath, or laundry (I'm not sure they are great at the front door either) -- unless they are sealed after installation.
I put a beautiful Pergo floor in my kitchen, bath and entry 14 years ago, and they are all doing very well even today (at least according to the people who live there now). I was advised against that too. Precautions are important -- like not stepping out of the shower dripping wet -- but may not cover all eventualities.
A good caulk line around the perimeter of the room is a good precaution to take. And putting a good polyurethane top coat on after installing a floating cork floor will not only help the floor repel water, rather than absorb it, but will also protect the thin decorative cork surface from scratches.
I'm not misinforming. You may disagree with my opinion and suggestion, but that doesn't make the opinion an across-the-board bad one. :~) Not all flooring suggestions are good for all uses. Each use and owner requires different types of flooring.
And hey! That's what we are here for -- to suggestion different options.
Thanks for writing. I'd love to hear your thoughts on other articles too.
-- The Flooring Lady
The Flooring Lady at July 8, 2007 12:37 PM
How about cork if you have dogs -- and doggie accidents? Does it clean up, or will it absorb the smell? I need something practical but cheap for living with my chihuahuas.
lsjohnson at June 3, 2008 09:04 PM
Hi there!
I don't think that cork will work for your needs if you plan to buy the pre-finished type. But if you use unfinished cork and put polyurethane down after installation (I highly recommend Diamond Coat Varathane Polyurethane) it should stand up against all kinds of wear and tear.
The Flooring Lady at June 4, 2008 11:21 PM
Is cork a good option on top of slabs. Do I need to do a moisture test and if I test a med to high moisture (which I think we will test), is there a barrier I can put down?
C stearns at August 4, 2008 12:49 PM
Hi C., Yes, there are moisture barriers you can put down on the concrete slab. You may want to read Sealing Basement Floors to give you a better idea of what can be used. And the entire section on Moisture Proofing should be read to give you other ideas too. You should also read up on different aspects of cork flooring -- use the search engine at the top right-hand corner of this page and type in "cork flooring" -- quotes included. There are pros and cons that you should be made aware of.
Are you planning on installing this yourself or are you hiring somebody to put it down?
The Flooring Lady at August 5, 2008 01:06 PM
I love the look of my cork floor, how comfortabel it is to stand on for hours, how easy it is to clean and keep clean. BUT we were told it was ideal for kitchens Not True! Almost from the day it was installed it has buckled and bulged in numerous locations and the degee of buldging depends on humidity in the house. If you don't mind the prominent seams from the constant swelling you too will love this floor. We had 2 different styles installed and only experienceing severe problems with one style. Wicander Metallic Sky. By the way manufacture does not stand behid its warranty so shopper beware if you purchase from Amorim
Susan Osborne at October 9, 2008 10:43 AM
Thanks for the heads-up on this Susan. Wouldn't it be great if it were easy to get a manufacturer to stand behind it's own warranty???
The Flooring Lady at October 9, 2008 02:39 PM
