More on cork floors
I have been barking about cork floors for years and all of the sudden the rest of the world seems to have caught up with me. Well, I wouldn't go that far, but I'm hearing a lot of noise out there that agrees with my opinion of the stuff.
Tim Carter writes a syndicated column referred to as Ask The Builder that runs with a few regularity in The St. Pete Times. Here turned into his column from the day before today's paper.
Q: I'm inquisitive about cork floors planks and wonder if it's actually as accurate as the salesmen tell me. Because cash is very tight, I'm seeking out a reduction cork floor. A neighborhood carpet save is having a cork floors sale quickly, so now is the time to come to a decision. Do you have got revel in with this fabric? If so, would you install it again in a home you'll construct? Is it as durable as they say? How do you guard it? Is it easy to easy?
A: I understand your doubts approximately whether or not cork floors is virtually a suitable fabric to walk on day in and day out. After all, while you preserve a cork from a wine bottle for your hand, you could see it is fairly friable. In contrast, a piece of o.K.Seems not possible to interrupt aside or chip.
I had my doubts, too, until I saw a cork ground. About 35 years in the past my father-in-law took me alongside for a trip to visit a enterprise accomplice. When we walked into the kitchen, I noticed the strangest floor.
It became cork kitchen flooring, akin to the deck of a ship, with planks that had been very lengthy and about 8 inches huge. When I requested what kept it from disintegrating, the person said, "Son, you do not have to ever worry approximately this ground carrying out."
I later discovered that cork flooring became used in many commercial and institutional homes that acquire heavy foot site visitors. You don't need to worry approximately sturdiness in case you purchase a remarkable cork floor.
To give you any other example of its sturdiness, I hooked up cork plank floors tiles on the steps that lead to my basement. Steps are a incredible place to check floors as your foot typically slides on the tread floor as you climb.
My basement steps were given heavy site visitors due to the fact our domestic workplace became downstairs. Countless journeys had been made up and down these steps, which have been no longer vacuumed that regularly, including grit to the equation.
Just the day past I cleaned these steps, getting them prepared for an open residence. They seemed similar to the day I hooked up them 10 years ago. I owe a whole lot of this to the sturdiness of the cork, however also to the truth that I coated it with 5 coats of top notch urethane.
Another component that helped the cork on my steps became the custom very wellnosing I hooked up. Because I knew shoes might be sliding onto each tread, I had the top piece of very wellmilled in order that it was 1/sixty fourth of an inch thicker than the thickness of the cork planks that had been glued to the stairs. This prevented the footwear from sporting away the the front fringe of the cork on every tread.
I used clear water-based urethane on the cork on the steps and on the floor in the entire basement. It was easy to apply and is easy to clean. I just use regular liquid dish soap and water to clean up spills. For regular mopping, I add 8 ounces of white vinegar to 2 gallons of warm water. You can read more from Tim Carter on his website Ask the Builder .
With that ringing endorsement in mind, I have two cork floors being installed in two projects in the next few weeks. Both jobs are getting a wide plank, engineered floor from US Floors in Georgia . Job one is getting a floor called Cleopatra.
Job is getting a floor known as Merida.
I cannot determine which one I like extra. US Floors has in reality broadened my horizons in relation to the flooring I specify and cork's rapidly replacing my former knee jerk use of travertine. US Floors also sells floors crafted from bamboo and oil-completed hardwood. Check out this ground pattern.
Now wager what it is made from.
Give up?
That's bamboo pretending to be tiger wood and I will not rest until that ends up in one of my projects. I have never seen anything like it. Well, I have. It's just that it was real tiger wood.
Anyhow, lower back to cork. What do you men think? Anybody accessible have already got it? Care to proportion a story?