Tell me about your cork floors

[MollyBdenum]

I really, really like the idea of cork flooring in the bedrooms. At the moment we have bare splintery floorboards, but I love the idea of something soft and warm but easy to keep clean.

However, I'm not sure what sort to get. Wicander looks fabulous, but is way above our budget. I'm not sure what other makes are affordable but are still attractive and hardwearing.

Also, how hard will it be to fit over wooden floorboards, and how long-lasting/hardwearing is it?

I got cork flooring in my study, bought it and got someone to fit it for me. My existing floor is ply and very level so makes it easier. The cork is a click system and didn't need anything going down before.
I will dig out the details of the supplier - they send out samples.

corkfloor.co.uk

We've got it in the bathroom and it's in its 12th year. Easy to lay, varnished, over the top. It's very hard wearing easy to clean and nice and warm on bare feet also insulates against sound. Thoroughly recommend it especially now that the design are so nice.

Ok, I am going against your idea here but have you thought about getting the floorboards refurbished and the gaps filled? You would get a very smooth warm floor, easy to clean and lovely to look at. This guy in London did ours, have a look at his website to see what can be done with floorboards..
www.sandedfloors.co.uk/gal.html
Also very cost effective to do because you're not actually buying new floors.

Hmmm. The floorboards are in really bad condition, with several having been sawn up, and I'm not convinced that it would be cost effective to restore them, but if it really would be cheaper, it's worth considering. I do like the warmth, softness and soundproofing of cork, though.

We also thought that our floorboards weren't salvageable as they were also sawn up by an overzealous heating engineer. The guy who did our floorboards was really good at restoring them though and he said he has refurbished much worse.
Not sure about cork. We had it in two rooms at my parents' old house twenty years ago but i never liked the look. I guess it's down to personal taste.

I'm torn. I think I'll put cork down in the newly built bedroom, and get some quotes in for rescuing the floorboards for the children's room.

Yes, definitely get some quotes and find a high quality tradesman. We paid between 700 and 900 pounds per room if I remember correctly. These were for two receptions rooms in a 1920s terrace in London, so decent sized but not massive rooms. We looked at parquet flooring and engineered wood as well and calculated that it would cost more to buy the new floor and get someone to fit it than to get the floorboards done.

imme after reading your post I got in touch with someone who does this. They come tonight to take a look. But I have a mid 60s house. It looks like pine floorboards, nice but not fantastic! It could come up great I guess, but the alternative was going to be strand woven bamboo which is quite affordable and durable. Possibly more expensive than renewing floorboards I do not know yet...I'm just wondering if the floorboards are much colder than laying a solid floor. There is a void under the house, we haven't spent a winter here yet (just moved in) if you have any thoughts I would appreciate it.

I've looked at the cork and I didn't realise how this has changed since my mum had this in the 70s. Wow! I may order some samples.

For us it's practicality and cost that are key. We have small kids and this house purchase has hit our finances hard. Unfortunately everything needs doing! OP which companies have you looked at, I would like to order samples and do not know where to start.

I think we are floor twins, as I will be having strand woven bamboo all through the ground floor rooms.

I have samples from Siesta tiles at the moment. Their coloured cork range is nice, but not as sturdy as the hard lawuered tiles. I will have to have a conversation with DP about flooring options in the next couple of days, and see what he thinks. Pretty cork appears to be around £40/m2 so I don't think that he will go for that. I suspect that we will end up with the old fashioned looking sort.

Lacquered.

Molly, where did you decide to get your bamboo please? And, will you have any carpet at all? I was thinking to carpet stairs and bedrooms for comfort and noise.

I had the floor restoration man here last night and he is very impressed with bamboo himself! In any case it will cost as much to restore the floor, maybe more.

We have cork through the whole of downstairs except a carpeted sitting room. I love it. Warm underfoot, forgiving if you drop anything breakable, lovely to sit and play on, easy to clean but doesn't show dirt. We have the pre lacquered ones from Siesta because although I prefer the quality of finish with the ones you lacquer yourself I just couldn't picture us getting round to it regularly to keep it looking nice.