I was considering cork flooring in my next home. However, I have three cats and a dog. I am concerned about cat's using it as a scratching surface and a dog just wanting to chew it up. Do you have any animals? If so, how well are they handling the cork flooring? Even without animals, I could see how moving furniture or dropping a sharp knife on the floor may cause a part of the surface to be damaged (think of gouges in surface) Could you see that being a problem with your flooring in the future?

We installed the Wicanders 1000 cork flooring in our kitchen & sunroom this summer & absolutely love, love, love it. I fumbled a light bulb dropping it from about 4' and it didn't break! I can't imagine how dropping a knife would hurt the cork flooring any more than wood? Our cork has a very durable surface & is guaranteed for 25years.

Browse through Wicander's website...lots of good info.

/tricia

Here is a link that might be useful: Wicander's Cork Flooring

We have Wicanders that was installed in July and echo the love sentiment. We have cats and dogs and find it an ideal surface for them. We trim everyone's nails regularly.

Our great room had cork flooring that was original to our home which was built in 1959 - glued down bull nose tiles. We bought my parents home so I know the floor stood up to many years of cats and dogs. Other than a few cracks from house movement (not noticeable unless you knew where they were) - our house is built on a rock ledge and sun fading, the floor was in great condition. The only reason we replaced it was because we knocked down a wall between the kitchen and the great room and wanted matching flooring between the rooms.

A few years ago, a knife dropped on the old cork floor and landed straight up in the cork. I pulled it out and it left quite a gash. The next morning, I did some research on how to repair the damage. Only problem was we couldn't find the dent - it was gone, healed itself over night. I've since read that the flexibility of cork can do this.

We have a cat and so far no problems. At first, I freaked out because I was seeing scratches from us not the cat. I worried about the big mistake I just made. But soon I saw that scratches seem to blend away. We have continued remodeling and so we have lots of new construction mess and workers spreading it around but again, let me say, I just scrubbed the floor for the first time in about 10 weeks and the water was not that dirty. It is amazingly wonderful. I do doubt if I will try a great dane dog for a pet but I think a small dog would manage just fine in my kitchen

I'm about to install a cork kitchen floor and have a bunch of questions. Does your cork floor go under the cabinets or just to the cabinets? I'm glad to hear it is durable because I have pets too that are always spilling their water. How is it with water spills? What about fading from the sun? Is that an issue? Also did you use anything to seal or protect the cork after it was installed? What do you use to clean your floor with? Thanks for your help!

We have the floating cork flow now, it is installed to the cabinets. I'm not sure how the glue down sheets are installed. Our 1950's glue down tiles were to the cabinets.

Cork is a wood product and like all wood products, water can damage it. It can handle spills but you should wipe them up. I'd be concerned with pet water bowls if they are spilled frequently and depending on your water possibly mineral rings on the floor. Our pet water bowls are on a boot tray on a slate floor in our laundy/sunroom which is just off the kitchen. If we didn't have that, I think the boot tray with the water bowl in it would work fine on the cork floor.

Our house faces west and is the kitchen/great room is almost all windows on the west side. We get tons of sun. Our 1950's cork floor was sunfaded but it wasn't always noticeable and it didn't look bad, just lighter in some spots than others. We have new windows which filter out lots of sun rays our 1950's windows didn't and the new cork has a different finish so I'm not expecting a problem.

We have Wicanders cork flooring. It comes in two models. The 100 and the 1000. The 1000 has an industrial finish and is for high traffic uses. They have it in the Toledo, OH Art Museum and are very pleased with it. When we first looked at cork flooring our builder had the distributor come to meet with us. At that point, he recommended we use the 1000 series.

Our builder is very thorough, makes sure he understands your specific needs and does the research to get what is best for your home. We have used them for 3 projects now and are extremely pleased with their work so I fully trust their recommendations.

We ended up delaying our project for 2 years due to some other old house issues that surfaced and were a higher priority but still had our hearts set on cork for the main floor. During the 2 years, Wicanders changed the finish on the 100 series. It is now a ground tile composite of some sort and the distributor and builder felt that was better suited to the needs of our house. Lots of small -medium sized dogs and a couple of cats. We are the intake coordinators for our local sheltie rescue and many, many shelties pass throuh our house every year.

We did not seal or protect the floor with anything additional.

We clean our floor with Bona Hardwood Floor cleaner. Just spray and wipe or mop. You don't want to get a lot of water on the floor so the spray and mop cleaners work well. I've heard of others who use a vinegar/water solution.

I just installed globus cork glue down floors in a parquet pattern in my kitchen remodel. I love them. Globus provided excellent support and provided a sealant. The sealant had been applied to each tile, but then it was applied again with a roller to seal the abutted edges of the tiles. The edges were microbeveled to allow for expansion, but the beveling is not really apparent on the finished floor. Globus has some wonderful choices too. I think that cork may be the floor of the future--as well as the past. We installed it up to the cabinets but under the refrigerator. I have not seen any dents or scratches yet--we have two kitties. The floors are soft but tough. I have only had the floors for two months but they seem to be much "hardier" than I even imagined.

Here is a link that might be useful: new cork parquet floors

Hi , just stumbled onto this forum,looking at kitchen ideas and had to expound on the wonders of cork flooring!! We installed it ourselves 10 yrs ago in our old house ,we used an industrial sealer coat on it and were able to choose a satin or higher gloss finish(went with a satin)I can honestly say it was the best investment very hardwearing,have 2 boys and 2 dogs. It was very soft and warm on the feet and though we may have dropped a knife or 2 on it it was very hard to see the minute cuts, in the pattern of the cork and they never caused any problems.And yes it would have been easy to replace by cutting out a section and using leftover pieces. Dishes have not broken on this floor either! Cleanup was always a breeze as said before with a damp mop and vineger and water.Contemplating it for our (new little old house] which has white linoleum I curse every time I have to broom and wash it!Thankgod we have to redo our kitchen. ANYWAY, I 100% endorse corkflooring and you can even get in colors if you so choose , goodluck!