Cork flooring

[Hodgewell1]

Can anyone share their experiences with cork flooring, particularly in a kitchen? We have a traditional cream shaker kitchen.

Our current flooring is a dark grey slate effect laminate that we would like to replace and are looking for something lighter yet practical.

I’m not so keen on lvt and the rest of the downstairs is a coffee coloured wooden floor so trying to avoid anything wood effect in the kitchen so it doesn’t clash.

My experience, from years ago when it was popular, is that it dents. Don’t wear heels! It’s relatively soft. It must also be sealed for floor use or cleaning is difficult. There’s a reason why it virtually disappeared as a flooring choice.

Plus is there anything wrong with having something like Amtico? Why don’t you like this type of flooring? They have so many great options for stone or natural-looking flooring, it makes much more sense than cork. However I do understand cork is more sustainable.

I can understand wanting a natural flooring. Cork is lovely underfoot but very soft and dents easily. If you go for something butted against wood, I imagine a tile effect would look more appropriate in a kitchen. I am thinking of getting Marmoleum in my new kitchen, it is made from sawdust and linseed oil so very environmentally friendly.

Cork is soft like lino. So you can’t drag tables or chairs and normal play like kids driving ride ons could ruin it.And considering it isn’t that much cheaper than hardwood I think it’s not really value for money

We had it once. It wasn’t a great choice.

It looked lovely when new but was hard to keep clean even though we sealed it and it looked worn and shabby quite quickly

Thanks for the quick feedback. Sustainability is important to me which is why I’m not so keen on lvt. I also wanted to avoid something that looks like wood as it will be in a room next to real wooden floors so might be jarring.

Tiles are another possibility it’s just that we hope to replace the kitchen in three to five years so tiles are probably the right choice when we have saved up for our next kitchen. The click style cork looked easy to lay and I had hoped would last for five years.

@TeaAndStrumpets I’ve never heard of marmoleum but I’m intrigued so will be taking a look.

Marmoleum is a brand name for linoleum, which is a natural and sustainable product but needs an expert to fit it - and by that I mean most flooring contractors can’t/won’t. It also needs sealing every few years
Cork is lovely but not hard wearing and again needs to be sealed

Marmoleum is modern Lino. I had it in a bathroom. Limited colours and not that cheap. What about bamboo? Also
lvt has much more variety than wood. Karndean doesn’t but others do. Just use a cheap floor covering.

By the way, it’s not very sustainable to have flooring for 5 years and throw it away. (Just saying!)

To be fair, Marmoleum do have more options now. Definitely not cheap
option though. Again, would you throw this away after 5 years?

Just answering questions on why we are only having the flooring for five years as this is a fair question. We are planning to move the kitchen to a different room for access reasons for a parent who will be moving in with us when we do these works and can’t easily get into the current kitchen. the new location for the kitchen will also connect well to the parent’s living areas.

The current laminate has holes and tears in it which we keep tripping over so we do need to do something to fix the flooring. Contractor’s we have had to look at it have all said it is beyond repair. I think the floor under the holes /rips needs filling or levelling too.

What I am hoping to find is flooring that doesn’t imitate wood, looks good with a (bit dated) cream country kitchen and ideally isn’t plastic based.

Argh sorry for the typos. “Contractors” not “contractor’s”.

You don’t have many options then and most are expensive. Swallow your eco credentials and get cheap vinyl sheeting!