bump, hopefully you'll get your ? answered.

Thanks -- I know she's busy selling one house and planning another. I got comfortable with the color,but what I am not comfortable with is the cleaning.

We put some down by the wood to check the color. That means walking across it and the dust from the exposed slab leaves footprints. We have been cleaning a LOT, and the wood cleans easily, but the cork does not. I know the dust should not be a permanent issue, but this was meant to be in my kitchen -- where I cook and bake -- work with flour, sugar, powdered sugar. I haven't found anything other than hand wiping the floors to get the footprints off -- not even the BONA microfiber. I love the texture and interest of this cork, but I'm afraid the pits in it will be white instead of black unless I get down with a toothbrush to clean it -- and that AIN'T happening.

Tomorrow is going to be interesting.

Lasctax, wish I had an answer for you. I'm curious about the answers you get as I am considering cork flooring in my kitchen. I love the idea of softness underfoot and the durability. My place gets dusty easily - wood stove, clay dirt outside. I thought if I went with a medium brown color the dust wouldn't be very visible. The thought of having to clean up footprints on a daily basis is not something I want to deal with.

I don't know if I am loving this decision or not -- not that I feel like I had a real decision, but today the cork went back and they brought out wood to match the other rooms for the kitchen and family room. I really wanted to be standing on cork in my kitchen, but I could not live with that.

You still have your cork? I blew mine a long time ago...

Here I am! Sitting at my kitchen table, feet up, with a dish of Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey. I'm moving on to some sort of alcoholic drink next. I will base my decision strictly on science--whichever has the highest alcohol content.

That should give you an idea of life around here lately. Needless to say, the Relo Counselor that we have fired (yes, you can) is lucky to be living many states away from me. But let's not get into that.

Anyhoo.....I wonder if that sample in the showroom was an older sample. Between when we ordered our cork and received it, it was redder. I even had a sample from USFloors sent to me. I have not seen any fading in it. However, I did have a tinted film on my slider (up until the house went on the market). I do love the comfort of it. What I always think is funny is how people who come into the kitchen the first time even notice that it is comfortable. I love that I can simply use a stain stick for wood to stain any gouges that expose a lighter color below the surface.

With all that being said, we are going with hardwood in the next kitchen, because I want the same floor all throughout the downstairs area.

I see you took back your cork anyhow, but I thought I should answer. Sorry for the delay.

Bee

Thanks for the reply and sorry things are not going better in your relo. We've hit a few bumps here, but smaller one (like discovering a slab fill that came out with the tile -- a repair or patch we didn't know about, a $358 bill for 2 sq ft or less of concrete patch (got them down to $150), the cork color, and then the fact that we couldn't get it clean with this concrete dust.

This is the wood flooring we went with and the floors were darker and much redder.

I posted over on the decorating forum when we were deciding on them and had a photo of the wood and cork sample together where they all looked about the same color. We had a new sample pulled right before we ordered and what was delivered was different than that. Your kitchen is what I was expecting -- this was a red mahogany. I was willing to still go with the color, but not a floor we couldn't clean in the kitchen and with the dogs coming off the back yard and patio. Just got to be too much, so instead I am compromising on having the softer maple in the kitchen when I had agreed to that when we decided on cork for the kitchen. I like how it looks -- may just have to get a gel mat or two.

We are still talking about cork as a possibility for the upstairs when we do that. Wish I could share a glass of wine and side of commiserating with you. Hope it all gets better soon.

I was under the impression that cork in a kitchen would be sealed with a coat of poly after installation. I'd imagine that may fill in some of the crevices....

dianalo, my cork was sealed at the factory. Since it is a floating floor, if you seal it when it's down the top coat will crack when the floor expands and contracts.

The entire piece, including the tongues and grooves are all completely sealed.

FWIW, DuroDesign's floating planks are sealed on prem with poly (4 coats). We have had "whiskey brown" (really dark) stain in place for 10 months with south & east exposure in SoCal with no fading (YET! I'm sure it will eventually!). The poly did fill in the smaller "divets".
We just had the adjacent oak floors refinished. Dust went everywhere & fortunately I had no problem cleaning up the textured cork. The routing on the cabninet doors, however, is another ugly story...

My cork is in the boxes under the dining room table. I immediately pulled a box open and thank GOD I don't have any cracks and crevices. It's also finished.

I haven't installed my cork floors (kitchen) yet because the drywall needs to be sanded, primed & painted, plus I'm building things in there. I also can't move my refrigerator! [lol]

You panicked me. But thank goodness my cork sounds less of a problem. Altho I wish it were a darker color. I thought I'd ordered that.

Christine

Sorry about the panic. Mine is finished -- it just had pits and knarls that were part of the beauty, but harder to clean. The finish on the smooth part of the boards was also hard to clean, and that worried me the most. The color really wasn't right either, but the wood looks really good, so maybe it is for the best. I can get a gel mat for my work area -- or maybe even cork. ;-)

We're putting in our cork floor Saturday and have left out the planks (strewn across the living room) the past few days to acclimate. The cats have been walking on it-no problems so far! We were worried they might try clawing it to sharpen their claws. I did notice that there are more small gnarls on the planks then I saw in the sample. The cork-US Floor-was on sale on efloors for 2.99 a square foot-E floors told us the planks are not "seconds" but I wondered about that when I noticed the small gnarls. Now we feel its the variety in the cork. Looking forward to putting it in.