Guide to Installing Flooring in Your Home

Few people think about floors when they hear the word cork, most people will think about corks and possibly even bulletin boards! However cork is a beautiful and versatile material which can be used for floors. It is available in a number of different colors and shades. There is a cork floor available to suit any room! It is also available in a number of different textures including marble.

Benefits of Cork Flooring

Cork is great for use on floors because it?s a fantastic and completely natural insulating material. This will help to keep your home warmer during the cold winter months. This should actually help to reduce the amount you have to pay on heating and cooling your home. Cork is also perfect insulating sound, this will help to reduce the noise from other rooms.

Cork is quite a soft material, and so it is quite nice to walk on. Cork is much softer than ceramic tiles or many other popular flooring materials. This makes it suitable for use in the kitchen where you spend a long time standing doing tasks. Also this material will be kinder to your dishes if you drop them! Cork is a naturally fire retardant material.

Cork is also an environmentally friendly material, it?s made from the bark of a tree. The trees which produce cork are normally found in Spain and Portugal. To harvest the cork bark the tree does not have to be cut down, the bark is simply cut off. As long as this is done carefully it does not kill the tree and will grow back. The bark can be harvested around every nine years. Deforestation is considered a major problem today, however cork forking does not have this sort of problem.

Installing Cork Flooring

The cork material can either be nailed or glued down to your floor. It is quite versatile and can be installed on concrete or wooden flooring. However you must make sure the subfloor is absolutly dry. If you want you can use a sealant before you start to lay the flooring, this will help it to last for longer. If you want an easier alternative then you could consider buying peel and stick cork tiles.

If using standard tiles then you need to evenly spread the adhesive over the floor using a paint roller. You need to lay the tiles tight next to one of another so that the joints aren?t very noticeable. Cutting around corners and pipes is extremely easy, you will need nothing more than a craft knife. Once the flooring is laid you will need to roll over the floor with a 100 pound floor roller, you will be able to rent these from tool hire shops. A coat of clear urethane can be put over the floor so that it is more durable.

Care and Maintenance of Cork Flooring

Cork is very easy to keep clean and maintain it. You can remove dirt by sweeping it with a brush. You can mop the floor when it gets dirty. The finish might start to wear off after a few years, however this isn?t a huge problem. You simply need to sand the top layer of the flooring and reapplying the urethane coating. You can apply several coats of urethane coating which will make your floor water resistant.

About the Author

Peter Mason writes at large for http://www.kitchen-cabinets-tips.com , an online site about kitchen remodelling . His articles on latest kitchen cabinets can be found on his website .