Marmoleum Click Planks or Tile. Laying it right now in my kitchen so I can't comment on how I like it.

Laminate tiles or planks that are not wood look. Mannington and Mohawk and most other manufacturers make them. I seriously considered the Alloc Stone line.

Cork comes in strips and lays just like laminate or engineered hardwood. It can be easily laid by a DIYer. It has a fairly low durability rating so although I love the way it looks my dogs would have torn it up.

hags00 - How is Marmoleum with dogs?

With floating floors you will need a pretty flat base.. Many of the engineered wood floors these days can be floated and the wear layer of the wood is pretty good. As we are on slab, we are doing engineered wood floors and the range out there is astounding.. but all require a very level base.. so you may need to go out and see the options and see if you need to fix your sub floor issues afterall..

I asked around on this board and got a fairly positive response. Some people with big dogs responded that they had no issues. My dogs go everywhere fast and are pretty hard on floors so ask me that in 2 months and I will let you know!

I have oak hardwood floors in the house I am moving from and they do put some scratches in that especially in the areas were they skid around corners to meet and greet at the doors. I am not expecting the Marmoleum to look perfect after them, I think I would need ceramic for that to happen!

@hags00 - we do have a 55 lbs dog and, probably more of a mess, 2 kids. I've been so programmed against vinyl, I'm not sure I can warm up to Marmoleum, even though I realize it's totally different. I'll have to do more research and see in person.

@lalitha - I hate hearing the truth. But thanks.

In the meantime....I'm surprised I haven't heard more responses about the virtues of cork. I thought it would be unique, green, cool...a popular choice for this board.

I've posted this in other threads. My neighbors have cork. It was gorgeous when it went in, all warm gold and rust fall colors. It has buckled in several places and faded a lot where sun has hit it. Maybe not all corks are equal, but theirs has not fared well.

I'm very interested in this thread, as we're considering cork for our family room remodel. I am not a fan of carpeting or tile. We have laminate in our kitchen & entry and do love it. If the same laminate was still available, I would put it in our family room and add a large area room. Alas, it is discontinued, so I have been hunting the past 2 wks for other options.

I've looked at the corks from USFloors. They are a good company; their products are "green" which appeals to the earth mother in me. :) We put USFloors bamboo in an upstairs office last month; love it. Wicanders is another good brand.

While my family is fine with carpeting in our family room, I'm not. I want something cozy, warm, green, easy to clean & unique. Enter cork! However, I want an area rug as well, so I don't want to break the bank with the cork since a fair amount of the flooring will be covered. This week I went to Lowes & Home Depot; they have a similar selection. We really like the Sage Cork at Lowe's (similar one at Home Depot). It's more of a beige, not as "amoeba like" as a lot of other corks, and doesn't look like a bulletin board. If we get it, we'll try to install it ourselves & save $600. It's $3.99/sq ft. The least expensive one I found from USFloors is also $3.99; colors don't work as well though.

Laminate is another cost effective option we're considering. So many laminates these days...patterns in wood, tile, slate, bamboo, marble, etc. I brought home samples today. Nice, but I love the comfy, softer feel of cork. I do worry about scratching it (moving furniture around, dog, etc.) but we would use pads or cups under items.

Honestly, I am so overwhelmed today with all the choices that I'm thinking about just picking the wall color (another overwhelming task!) and taking my time.

I will try & post a photo of the Lowe's cork a little later.

Wags

We put Apollo brown floating cork in our last kitchen. Like linelle's neighbor it did not wear well. It was professionally installed. The seams all peaked a tad which wasn't horribly bothersome but then the peaks started to show wear along with the area where chairs were pulled in and out (smooth plastic feet on them). Overall, not impressed. We replaced it with Allure in a similar color when we listed it for sale.

I've been looking at Globus cork. They recommend using their all cork tiles in kitchens as the floating boards will swell when the particle board layer gets wet. That would apply to most of the floating cork Ive looked at (including that pretty Sage board mentioned above, I wish I could find it in a cork tile). But their tiles look like a good option, and they say they are no harder to do than vinyl tiles and can be DIY for most people. No special cutting tools needed.

My neighbor's cork floor went in 12 years ago, so maybe the technology has improved. They did buy a high-end product and had it professionally installed. It started looking bad within a year. It's too bad, because it has a great look.

Why not just get samples of flooring types you're considering and then see what you can beat up and what stands the test of the torture you throw at it. People do this with countertop samples all of the time before making a decision. I bought my flooring from Build Direct - they sent free samples overnight with free shipping. I'm sure there are other flooring stores that will do the same.

I can't respond directly to your question (we have original ca. 1978 pavers in our kitchen) but will comment on cork in general. We installed glue-down cork throughout our house in the summer of 2009. It went wherever carpet wa previously: LR, DR, two short halls and all 4 bedrooms/closets. It is the inexpensive (like $2 a square foot?), standard-looking, prefinished cork from Lumber Liquidators that came in 1'ish x 2'ish tiles. We sealed it with a standard poly finish (no UV protection).

1) It has held up very well to foot traffic and active dogs. No chunks have come out.

2) It has not held up well to heavy furniture -- even when tips were placed under sofa, chairs, large desk, there are what I can only consider to be permanent indentions.

3) Sneaky puppy pee on rugs when not found immediately can seep in and discolor.

4) Lots, LOTS, of fading in direct sunlight. Now, our DR is comprised of a 20' wall of floor-to-ceiling glass, so the poor cork was set up to fail. But it did fade/fail.

5) It remains super comfortable and warm underfoot.

6) Stylistically, it was and is perfect for our space. It's an MCM home. The carpet was scungy and grotty. Hardwood would have been, I think, too "loud" in the very large greatroom, and would have required a more pronounced level change to the existing pavers/tiles (and been a LOT more expensive).

That's great info, jakabedy, thanks! I know Globus is in the $7/sf area, so maybe it will hold up better? Some of their sample pics are from the NYC area in public places, I might have to take a field trip to see how it's doing if I can find the time.

The big question I have is given all you mentioned, would you do it again if you had the choice?

We have installed floating cork floors in two houses. In the first, we had two border collies. We did not experience scratch marks on the floors. We also did not have indentations from furniture and that included the 10 foot long 7 foot tall Belgian oak wall unit. When we moved, you could not tell where it had been. I can't comment on the floating cork floors in this house because we have only been in the house for 5 months and do not currently have a dog.

It sounds to me like those who have experienced peaking did not have a good installation. Like all floating floors you need to leave the proper expansion joints as listed in the manufacturer's instructions. You also need to have acclimated the flooring before installation.