We used a brand of cork called "Natural Cork". This is a floating flloor that is approved for below grade installation. We installed many sq ft of it 6 yrs ago, and it is fine. With that being said....I will not use cork again. It does not hold up well with kids. I have lots of gouges in mine, from what I would describe as normal wear and tear. My cork is very light. Perhaps, those gouges would not show up with a darker cork.

We installed our cork floor below grade. Our house is built into a hill and is what could be best described as a "berm home". Our main living space is a slab, and is underground in half the house, the rest is "walkout". We put durodesign cork in most of the areas on the main level with no problem. I went back and forth with tons of people on this, because some people consider us below grade, others don't. Ultimately we chose the glue down cork from duro and we've had no problems in the year it's been down (i don't think I'd do floating). We do have a vapor barrier under the slab so if you don't have that, I don't know what your experience will be. For us though, the cork is great. Warm on your feet (since we're on slab), quiet, insulating, easy to care for. It was a great choice for us.

Prior to our 07 remodel, we had cork floors in kitchen, DR, entry and adjoining powder room for 18 years. I loved this floor! We didn't treat it with much care and didn't receive care information when the cork floors were installed. So, they received a far amount of water when washed, no added finishes or refinishing. We also have a 22 pound dog who managed to scratch up a lot of woodwork around window areas. The floors held up well. If you'd look close (like eyes a foot away), you could see many scratches from a variety of sources. The excess water caused some seams to curve up a little (only noticeable with bare feet). I really wanted to put in new cork floors, but, got talked out of it by a KD who said colors/patterns weren't right for our new look. We put in porcelain tiles and standing on them hasn't yet been a problem. I probably don't stand on them for more than 90 minutes at a time. If I were to put in cork again, I'd use the floating kind and panels or planks. When replacing the old cork floor, everyone was predicting big problems if we had to deal with glued down panels. The old floor came up easy because no glue. Cork is much more forgiving on uneven subfloors than tile. It took about a days work to even out the subfloor for tile (involved replacing some plywood and a lot of sanding). One of my friends just put in a high end glued down cork tile and they now wish that they had gone with the floating option.

Local Cork Expert here. I'm going to save you a bunch of money and a HUGE amount of stress. Cork Wise has issues. Big issues. The biggest issue is it curls after it is installed. Remember: Cork Wise is NOT a cork floor. It is a vinyl-cork-vinyl sandwich. It is expensive and it has a 20%-50% chance of heartache (and everyone points fingers at each other with the homeowner crying over their ruined floor). You have a cork flooring store in your area: iCork Floor LLC in Kent WA. They carry traditional cork floating floors (which is your only option in a basement). You will need a vapour barrier. That is NORMAL for all floors in a basement (other than carpet). You will need the concrete levelled to 3mm over 3m (1/8" over 10 ft). Again this is normal for all floors (except carpet). You are in a cool damp environment (I'm in Vancouver BC, Canada = pretty much the identical weather/temperatures) and I would say you can go with a cork floating floor WITHOUT cork underlay. The floating floor will offer enough warmth/heat retention in your situation. The rest of Canada (and cold parts of USA) usually do well with 3mm or 6mm cork underlay for better heat retention and noise reduction. Go ahead and give Anne a phone call. She'll hook you up with samples: iCork Floor LLC. 1209 Central Ave South, Suite 137 Kent, WA 98032 U.S.A. Toll Free: 1-888-551-7678, 1-877-998-1198, www.iCorkFloor.com