Here is note from old post by Cancork These are "dimples" they "pop" back out! These are not permanent, they are NOT defects, they are not "damage". If this was oak, you would have added "character" to the floor = permanant damage. Try using a HOT WET CLOTH, and put it in the microwave for 15 seconds. Using an oven mit, place the super-heated cloth onto the dimples and let it rest until the cloth is cool to the touch. Remove and evaluate the floor. Congratulations...you have just discovered the "memory" that cork possesses. Cork is the "trampoline" of hard surfaces. It compresses and rebounds. The finish on WE cork = NORMAL for cork. The finish MUST BEND AND TWIST with cork. If you put a hard, brittle finish on cork (like Wicanders and Torlys) you end up with a cracked mess that hazes (turns milky) in a few years. A cork floor is the softest hardwood on the market. Like ALL HARDWOODS it requires occasional maintenance. This maintenance requires you to ADD FINISH every 7-10 years depending on the wear. A low impact home with a low quality "urethane finish" cork means the finish must be reapplied every 2-3 years. A high end polyurethane finish means the refinishing needs to be done every 7 years. That same finish in a low traffic home = 10 years. The N. American mind set = tough = hard. Cork is forgiving and durable...in a different way than hardwood. Remember: if you are left "unphased" by dents left in a carpet (a carpet leaves more dents than cork...something to think about) then dimples left in cork shouldn't upset you. If you have the personality that insists that everything needs to look perfect, for decades without any form of "living" showing on the floor, then ceramic tiles are the perfect option. I know many people who love cork for the quiet comfort of it...it is easy to keep clean and is lovely to walk on in bare feet. I also know several people who wanted all of those things but could not "handle" the small dimples things would leave behind.

I am not an expert, but just a DIY guy, who has layed some wood and tile flooring myself a few times. Here are some of my thoughts. In your first paragraph you said you wanted to get an idea of the cost to extend the wood...well regarding that thought, I would hestitate to replace the carpet with wood if you were trying to make it match the existing wood. I think making it match would be next to impossible, unless you sanded it all, and then restained/refinished it all or if you could find wood that was a good match as far as color and grain patterns. Even if you could find something that "matched" (color/grain), it might still look visually unmatched after it is layed. So if you don't put in wood that is attempting to match the existing, then I think it needs to be obviously different. Different in color and contrasting dark/light shades. I personally think that whether it is cork or wood, as long as it obvious that you are "not" trying to make it match, then I think it would be fine. Such as if you were trying to find something to go with a traditional golden colored, oak flooring, I think a blond wood like natural maple or natural hickory would look good, or something darker like a chocolate color. Cork might actually look better (in a contrasting color), since it would be obvious that you were not trying to match the existing wood, in the same way carpet is obviously not trying to match the wood. Might also consider tile, I've seen some nice tile/wood combo floors before. But I would need to reserve final judgement until I had some samples in my hands to hold next to the existing flooring, to see what it looks like. There are many online flooring stores that provide free or close to free samples. As far as your height differences, one thing I've read is that cork flooring needs a level subfloor just as much or more as regular wood flooring. Beyond that, I'm not the best guy to advise on this.

Porcelain is going through the most evolutionary stage in many, many years. Typically the printing on tile is done by a roller or silk screen printing. The new way is "ink jet technology" or HD. The printing is done with a ink jet printer that contains about 58 heads. The designer shoots images of real stone and then the images are printed on the tile in high detail. It looks perfectly like real stone because it IS a picture of real stone. In the past you may only have 9 images which repeats over and over. With ink jet I have heard of 96 images of that tile series. These tiles are coming out slowly. Panaria has two and StonePeak a couple and there are others. It blew me away when I saw two "ink jet" tiles series show up at my Lowe's this weekend. Tile will never, ever be the same. It looks like real stone because it is a HD picture of real stone. The only caution is get ONE or two cases to view. You can't tell by one tile. It is unbelievable. I will quickly put in a wood floor and wait until the right ink jet tile comes along in 2-3 years and replace it. Incidentally in small rooms try the 6" or 9" tile size. It looks very kool. Bob Here is a link that might be useful: see D'mansion and Vitalyty collection

Has anyone installed Natural Cork's Everglade Oak floating cork floor, from their Cork Canvas line? Or any of their other Cork Canvas designs? Natural Cork - Cork Canvas Plank I'm getting ready to rip up the old wall-to-wall carpet in my 1BR condo and put down a floating cork floor. The new floor will be for the the living room/dining room, bedroom and hallway -- everything except the kitchen and bathroom. There are several aspects of cork that I like, especially its sound-dampening qualities. The hard part has been finding a color and texture/pattern that I like -- not too dark or too light, not a busy pattern, no warm orange or red undertones. After many visits to the few local flooring stores that have good experience with cork, I've settled on Natural Cork's Everglade Oak. It's imprinted with an HD image of a wood grain in a gray-brown color. I didn't set out looking for a cork floor with a wood-grain image, but after considering the way the "real" cork color options look with my walls and furniture I think the Everglade Oak works best. My runner-up choices are Kilmartin Pine, also from the Cork Canvas collection, and Eco-Timber's Fumed Oak which is also a wood-image cork. The Fumed Oak is a good medium brown but I think Natural Cork's products look more authentic. The Kilmartin Pine looks good but is darker than I'd like. Before I pull the trigger, I'd love to hear about others' experiences with this product or even see photos of them installed, if you have any. Thanks!