Brilliant... I'm looking for a solid material, and Forbo's Marmoleum click lock stuff is awesome. Turns out the Carpet One location down the street had their stuff on display. Beautiful. The guy at the store also recommended johnsonite.com, and while they look like they have a good variety of colors and such, they seem to just make sheet and tile products. Their parent company, Tarkett, makes some interesting stuff, but not what I'm looking for.

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.

I realize that. It's actually a bit more complicated. These flakes (def: A flat thin piece or layer; a chip.), not gouges (def: A groove or hole scooped with or as if with such a chisel.) actually showed up a year ago. Because of extended cancer treatment away from home, we are only now able to address them. So, although we bought the floor 5 years ago, the flakes appeared after 4 years. (and one year, no one was using the floor since we were away for treatment). "Wear through" was never defined to us (and is still not defined on the Cancork website) as "flaking." Again--a normal average person not trying to be deceptive by redefining words would never equate "wear through" with "flaking off." So we needed to refinish areas that are not high traffic after 4 years now? Because of water damage on another part of the floor due to a broken hose that had water on the floor for 10 minutes and buckled the flooring, we will be replacing the entire miserable thing. You just need to make sure that as you "counsel" these poor people on this site that you give them the entire story: Flaking = gouging= wear through to be expected Begin planning to refinish every 4 years even if your are extremely careful and the floor does not get a lot of wear The "super good" refinishing product is $180/gallon. You will need 3 coats the first time. Who knows how many the second? The warranty conflates the words "wear through" "flaking" and "gouging" so that Forba ensures nothing will be covered. Even with meticulous preparation and following of instructions the Loba might very well not adhere and will peel off requiring another $180/gallon reapplication, and Cancork and their former employees will blame the customer That's all. Just be honest.

Yep. I do. The first thing you need to do is damp clean the floor. First things first - purchase TWO micro-fibre mop heads. (to be used later as your 'dry' mop and your 'damp' mop). You will NOT have enough time because it needed to start at around 8pm last night. Step #1. Sweep/vacuum up the floor. Step #2. Using an approved cleaning product (Anne in Wa. State LOVES the Vermont Natural Coatings Floor cleaner) you will DAMP MOP the floor (very lightly damp) You will USE THE DAMP MOPPING as your FIRST practice run. You will START where you THINK you will start the poly. Go ahead and damp mop/clean as you would apply your poly application. That is: Standing a full 'roller length' from your start line, you will mop from right to left (if you are left handed then mop left to right...doesn't matter just find a RHYTHM). You will end the row and move BACK to your STARTING SIDE (do not 'S' mop...this is a roller application = NO 'S' application). You will do this for the ENTIRE floor. You will FIGURE OUT how to split the floor in TWO (where the wall is) without running out of 'time'. Loba has a 5-10 minute 'wet edge' rule. You cannot leave an edge for more than 10 minutes and then HOPE to come back and start there again. It won't work. Right. So that is practice run #1. Good. Now you will RINSE the floor with the OTHER mop using CLEAN hot water (very lightly damp). You will wipe off any cleaning residue left behind from the first mop. You will rinse until the cleaning head/water STOPS getting dirty. Again start at your 'start' line and do the SAME ACTIONS again. This is Practice run #2, and possibly #3 out of the way. Towel dry the floor. Step #3: You will then use a HIGH GRIT sanding block (I like to use the drywall sanding poles = perfect = same actions as the mop). You will lightly sand (almost a buffing...you just want to give the existing finish a bit of tooth) the entire floor. AGAIN, you start at your STARTING POINT (as if this were the poly on a roller) and end at your end point (this way you know how NOT to paint yourself into a corner). You will then water-tack cloth the little bit of dust off of the floor. Use your water-only mop head and damp mop the surface - starting AGAIN at your STARTING POINT and moving towards your END POINT. See how this works? You are PRACTICING your application motion as many as 6 times before you even crack open your Loba. Step #4: Allow the floor to dry OVERNIGHT. Yep. It needs to be allowed a full 6-8 HOURS worth of drying time (I prefer 12 - 24 hours...but that's me). Step #5: Calculate and then MIX enough Loba 2K Supra AT to cover the floor in ONE coat. Mix the product in a secondary container. Never reuse mixed product after 2 hours. Do not add a lid to previously mixed product after 2 hours. It must be allowed to air dry to a hardened product in the container. Step #6: Recoat floor between 6 - 20 hours LATER. This works very well overnight. So long as your second coat is added INSIDE of 20 hours, you do NOT need to sand between coats. Needless to say, I would clean this floor and do the light sanding TONIGHT and then start your FIRST COAT tomorrow morning. Your second coat is then applied tomorrow afternoon. You can have light traffic (clean cotton socks...stepping on the floor long enough to grab a coffee cup and then jump off the floor) after 24 hours of the second coat being applied.