Cork Flooring

Q: 1) I wish to use the Westhollow “click together” cork flooring of two complementing colors in a border pattern. Can this be done and what kinds of patterns can be accomplished by a creative installer using the “click together” flooring?
2) Can installers onsite cut the click together panels and router the edges into a click together groove to facilitate connection of different lengths or width panels?
3) We plan to use 1600 sq ft of floating cork flooring in all areas except the bathrooms. This includes the kitchen. Please advise the water base finish recommend by Westhollow as a post installation surface treatment in the kitchen and laundry areas for protection? (Note- I read about “wet areas” /ie-laundry but the cork is not laid below sink cabinets or washer appliances and they have overflow pans/drains for protection..and this is an adult household)
4) If rubber/latex mats are “verbotten” on cork, what is used to secure area rugs from sliding?
5) Please send me the cork surface repair & maintenance guide from Westhollow.
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6) We have thick concrete floors with a cold garage space below the floors. . I wish to achieve the best thermal characteristics of the flooring and plan to use a vapor barrier , then 6mm cork under-layment below the floating Westhollow flooring. Would a reflective radiant layer below the 6mm under-layment help keep the cork floor warm feeling?
Thank You,
Steve Jahn
A: With cork, you can alternate patterns to make your own custom look inside a home, but there are a few things I will warn you about. The milling which makes the locking mechanisms for flooring is very specific as this routers used are specially licensed for each locking mechanism. This means that it will be impossible to cut out a locking mechanism on site that will properly engage with the factory milled lock.
The key here is to keep the cork all within the same collection (for Westhollow, Provincial, Urban, State, Builder would be the collections.) All items in the same collection will have the exact same lock and will lock up together properly. Although the lock is similar, the dimensions on the lock itself will differ, which makes it impossible to lock up properly.
On your third question, it is an old methodology to site finish cork flooring. Back in the old days, cork was always unfinished (and some today is sold that way for commercial jobs), but nowadays with the innovations in finish techniques and engineering of the milling you no longer need to site finish a cork floor. Some companies will suggest sealing the ends, but Westhollow does not for their floating products. It can be done, but is not necessary and let me explain why. With the floating products, the design of the planks and the locking mechanism anchors the flooring together as close to water tight as possible.
Also, with a floating product, if you were to add a layer of two of finish to the floor it would crack and eventually peel because of the movement you get with a floating floor. Although the movement is slight it is just enough to cause this to occur and on top of the slight movement cork will do naturally from how soft it is you can run into all sorts of problems. Now with a glue down floor, two or three coats of finish will work great because the floor itself is solidly anchored to the subfloor and has minimal movement.
Assuming you clean up spills and do not leave standing water on the floor and should have no worries about water problems. With any wood floor, if an appliance breaks and floods an area, it will cause problems, even tile and linoleum or vinyl will have these problems, but past a flood of some form and some quick clean up, you should not have any worries here.
I spoke with Ryan W., iFLOOR’s VP of Products, just to follow up to see if he had some info from Westhollow and he mentioned that with a floating floor nearly all manufacturers do not suggest adding any finish to their floors. Ryan has a saying which I’ve heard him mention a few times and I think its valid here. “If you were to buy a new corvette straight from the factory, would you then take it to Maaco and get a new layer of paint added to it?” Ryan mentioned that with new cork floors, the engineering is so precise and the surface will lock together so well that you can live on them with proper care for 10 to 15 years without having to worry about refinishing.
For area rugs, certain types of rubber/latex mats will stain or eat into the finish because of the chemicals used to make them. However there are ones specifically designed to be safe for wood floors, so this is solely a matter of carefully shopping for one designed to work with a wood floor’s finish.
Westhollow does not have a specific cork care and maintenance guide, but you can use the basic wood floor care guide we have featured at http://www.ifloor.com/guide/floorcare_guide.html
As far as repairs are concerned, Cork is much like lino/linoleum where if it is gouged, it can not be repaired directly. Natural colored corks tend to hide dents a bit better. You can look into acrylic color fill products, but keep in mind that cork’s natural appearance will make this stand out some. Now the good new is that dents will naturally push themselves back out.
As far as keeping the floor warm, with cork and using a 6mm cork underlayment, the surface of the floor should be room temperature. Cork’s natural insulating properties will help a ton here. If you have central air or forced air heating of some form, you really should not need to worry about installing a radiant heat system of any form, but if you want to ensure the floor remains warm, then a electric heat system would do fine in this application.
One tip I have here is to ensure that you use plenty of seam tape when installing the vapor barrier (including up along the walls) to ensure you seal everything up well so you have no worries about having moisture issues from the concrete.