I saw cork floors that had been down in the kitchen section of either an Expo or Great Indoors for years and they looked great. But I have 2 large dogs and haven't been sold on them for that kind of wear.

Hi Prill, my floor has been down since December '09. It's been through 1 horrific winter, and it is in the middle of another. It is holding up great. It does get muddy, but so would any other floor. Mine goes right up to the slider that leads right out to my deck--the main door used by my 2 cockapoos.

There was one incident that does have a happy outcome though. We noticed a little piece of the cork was gouged out, just a small piece. No healing going on there since the stained part was g-o-n-e, can't heal if the piece is MIA. But, since the floor is kind of "rough" looking, and there is a lot of uneveness in the finish, I could just take a stain pen and touch it up. It looks perfect now.

I will admit, since it is still "new" to me (relatively speaking) I do worry about it. It really is silly for me to worry.

Water, pet accidents, I don't have any problem with. My older dog (18 years old) might have a little mishap before I get home. I've seen no staining from it, doesn't change the finish.

As far as cleaning, I just sweep (or roomba), use a swifter, or sometimes run the dyson w/o the beaters, and then use a microfiber mop with a solution of Rigo/Water that is recommended by the manufacturer. That's it.

Good luck, let me know if you have any other questions. You can always email me....beekeeperswife at gmail dot com

Bee - do you have the click or the glue down?

prill, it's click.

see the link

Here is a link that might be useful: Here's what I have...mine are Corte.

I just typed in a whole message and it didn't post...!!!

That's the same company I looked at I think, although I don't see the darker color I liked. I'll have to go back to the flooring store and look again.

Did you do your own installation?? I think you did, right?

Mine look like new. They've been in since August or September of 2008. (Holy Cow, it's been a long time and still no finished pics - Bad GWer, Bad) They're glue down cork tiles and were tiled right up to the french doors that lead outside. We have 2 very active boys, 1 cat, several dogs that visit, and we entertain frequently. Smokers must smoke outside and use the patio outside the french doors. Lots of stuff gets tracked in. It mops up fine. We do keep a small mat by the door.

i was entertaining the thought of using it in my laundry room but was warned to steer clear by many. like anything else, there must be different grades of cork because i've heard from two camps: there's the cork-is-great-for-every-room-in-the-house-without-a-worry camp and then there's the even louder, don't-even-think-about-installing-cork-in-any-area-within-a-500-foot-radius-of-water camp.
in the end i decided to heed the warnings but i did install in our kids playroom. we were told to throw a coat of poly on top. i think we'll do this, but it's hard to say what the real story with cork is. i've heard so many different opinions it makes my head spin.
for this reason alone, i wouldn't put it in a kitchen. jmho.

Lux and Bee - do you have current pictures you can post.

Yes, we did do the installation ourselves.

I was just looking at that website, and they really do have more "maintenance" products on there. They didn't sell the cleaner before. So I had to find it somewhere. It seems expensive, but the bottle is concentrated and you use such a small amount mixed with water. I just mix it in a spray bottle, and spritz it on and then mop it up. I am interested in the "gloss" though. Might do that in between the kids spring breaks and when they return home for the summer.

Tell me what you want a photo of....a close up shot of the chunk that went missing? Or just a general close up shot? I have nothing recent, except this picture of the fridge/pantry wall, and you can see the floor in it....

{{!gwi}}

ohhh, and I forgot, I have some photos on my phone from when I was taking pictures for the tile contest, not the greatest but...
{{!gwi}}

and don't even ask about this crazy photo...my dh was setting up a bike trainer in the basement, so in order to try it out the pants were tucked into the socks....that's my younger puppy, she is so happy to see her dad.

{{!gwi}}

We installed cork click tiles in our basement about a year ago. We have a 90 lb puppy, and you can see some scratches in the floor here and there - she has a tendency to "tap dance" when she's excited - but, it's not really noticeable. I've noticed that other dents and scratches have just sort of disappeared.

We did two coats of poly on top. It's beautiful and we're really happy with it. We used the cork below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cork Floor

kateskouros, I think one of the big misconceptions is that cork and water don't mix. Cork tiles and water are fine. Cork doesn't have a problem with liquids(think: wine.) The issue is that a lot of cork floors are laminate floating floors. And laminate floors can't have water pooling on them for long periods of time. Dripping is fine, pooling for short periods can be fine, too(think: DW that you accidentally put in regular soap in and quickly clean up.) Pooling for long periods of time will destroy any laminate floor, cork, or otherwise(think: DW water line bursts over a weekend away.) But then wood doesn't do well with pooling water over a long period of time, either.

Thanks for the laugh this morning bee! Not how I pictured your husband at all!

Thanks for the info everyone - As Kate says, you get input from the love it and hate it camps. I think I'll have to do some more research and see if I can get a sample board to beat up.

kate, be careful of putting a poly on top. It depends on what cork you use, but it can void the warranty. Also, the floor does need to be able to expand and contract. I can see ours does indeed do that! If it expands when you have poly on it, it might crack! The floor I have is sealed at the factory, completely. They seal the top, bottom, the tongues the grooves.

I would suggest as Prill is going to do, if anybody is considering it, call the manufacturer, and ask for a sample or two and just go to town on it. I know someone took a piece of the kind I have and submerged it in a bucket of water, it was fine.

Good luck with such a tough decision.

PS, Prill, I know, I know, you thought he wore the beekeeper outfit all the time!

Carrie eileen- I am so glad to read your post as we are getting ready to have cork installed throughout our basement and we have an almost 90 lb. dog that loves to play down there with the kids. I went back and forth so many times on whether or not cork was a good choice and love to hear positive experiences like yours!

I have one friend that has glue down tiles, and another that has the click variety. Both have had their floors for more than 7 years with kids and dogs in a kitchen setting. We do live in the South, so not much in the way of snow, but we do get lots of rain and mud.

The one with the click floor did have a leak from their fridge requiring a repair, (I think it would have been a problem for any floor) but in spite of that, they have no reservations recommending cork again. Both are really happy with their floors.

I am planning cork floors in my kitchen and den. I have big dogs, kids and a main entrance/traffic pattern in this area. While I love the darker floors I personally am going with a natural finish, because I think they will show less wear than darker floors. Although

You really need to do your homework, because finishes and expected maintenance vary. Get samples, talk to the companies that actually make the product, look at the maintenance information on the company websites, etc. I think cork is a great product, that will hold up over time, but you have to know how to take care of the specific product you buy.

missstella - thanks - that's great information.

No cork and water?

I stayed at an old hotel in London that had cork floors in all the bathrooms.

They had obviously been coated with something, they were glossy, and I have no idea what it was, but the floor had obviously been there for a long time. They were obviously there for practicality -- it was a nice hotel, but not a fussy hotel that would have replaced a high maintenance floor every couple of years if a vinyl or other one would have served.

I have actually read that a good quality cork floor, well maintained, has a longer life expectancy than many kinds of flooring. I have no personal experience other than that one hotel stay. Felt great underfoot though!

We've had our glue down cork tiles for about 10 years now. We've refinished them once when we had the whole kitchen redone. They need to be refinished again. Ours have 2 coats of white stain on them so they show the wear more than a natural finish would. What I like is that even when they wear, they look patina' d, not wrecked like tile or vinyl would. We live in a 100 year old house and they go with the other finishes.

I love cork floors. We had 1 for 18 years that covered entry way, powder room, kitchen and dining area. It wore well, scratches from our dog were barely noticeable. Ours was a lighter color and hid the dirt well. We live in WI with lots of snow, slush, and mud on shoes which didn't hurt the floors. Most times when something glass was dropped on the floor, it didn't break. The floor was warm to bare feet. I didn't get any care instructions and basically used a lot of water to clean it which caused some slight curling (not noticeable, could feel with bare feet if you were focusing on that) at the seams. Can you tell that I loved that floor?

This cork floor was high quality,floating (non-glue) type that was more expensive than wood or tile at the time. One of my friends lives in a high end, penthouse condo with cement floors and she put in glue down cork. The glue down cork became uneven in places which they attributed to temperature changes in the concrete. She wishes she had gotten the floating cork.

We drastically changed our layout and color scheme when remodeling and the floor needed to be changed. It was easy to remove the floor. I would have gotten another cork floor but the interior decorator said none of the color options were right for the cabinet color. In hindsight, I should have fired the decorator and gotten cork. I also like the new tile floor.

1k, do you remember the brand it was?