I have sold and installed 1000's of sq ft of cork flooring and never had anyone completely regret their decision.
You have to be realistic about your lifestyle and cleaning habits though.
Just like a standard hardwood floor, cork flooring needs to be kept clean. Sand, grit and moisture are the the worst enemies. If you sweep or vacuum on a regular basis, use rugs at the entry areas and keep pads on chair legs, you will love your cork flooring for many years.
Also, just like standard hardwood floors, cork can be sanded and refinished down the road someday.
I have had good luck with Qu-Cork. Not a big line of colors, but a quality product. www.qucork.com
I've also sold Natural Cork. www.naturalcork.com
I always recommend looking for a "natural" color rather than a "stained" color when selecting any wood or cork product. Simply because scratches and wear will be more obvious in stained colors. If you deeply scratch a natural color, you will only see the same color underneath.
Cork installation is reletively easy if you have a good saw and other basic tools. May have to pick up an "undercut" or "jamb" saw to float the floor through doorways. Never cut around doorjambs and casings! very sloppy.
I just finished a project for a retired farm couple where we put cork in the kitchen, dining room and down the hallway to the bedrooms and office. She loves it for the comfort, quietness and easy maintenance. She only regrets that we put carpet in the family room and office instead of continuing with the cork.
Again, be realistic about your home. Cork will handle alot of abuse, but should be treated somewhat carefully, like a solid wood floor.
good luck
kurt

I have Marmoleum click in my kitchen. it's a three layer made of foam, then cork, topped with linoleum. It was installed July 2006.It's a "floating floor", installed over a sub-floor, layer of plain lineolum and a floor of place-and- press-tiles we DIY'ed in 1981. It was expensive, but I think worth it. the floor is beautiful, sturdy, good underfoot (it has some "give" so it's comfortable to walk on, and easy to keep clean (ten minutws a day to sweep then mop with a Swiffer wetJet) I love it!

We have had our glue down tile cork floor in our kitchen for a year now. Still looks great, no regrets. We chose cork because our pool is just outside our kitchen and wanted something that wouldn't be too slippery and thought it would hold up better than hardwood with any drips from chlorine pool water. Added bonus: good for knees and back and is absolutley georgous! We went with the flooring company our builder recommended and they carried Solida Cork.

We are now considering cork for our family room to replace the carpet there. Am considering planks for this area.

I'm still vacillating: my upper floor has a loft space that's a library/office, and my bedroom. I'd like cork, but I have radiant floor, so I'm told I ought to avoid glue down, and I worry that floating will be noisy, despite the cork.

It also bugs me that most of the cork I've been looking at has a paper thin wear layer over a cork composite cushion layer. If the roller of an office chair [or my bull terrier] digs in even a little, seems like it would cut the 'good' stuff and expose the crumbly layer.

I was a little concerned with the thinness of the cork but no problems in my 1 year old kitchen. I cat with claws, 2 children 9 and 10. The pattern is so busy and has texture, it would be hard to see dings or digs. After the install they did leave some cork filler and glue to use if needed.

We put down 1' X 2' glue down tiles in our bathrooms and laundry room about four years ago. We wound up having to replace both bathrooms due to moisture issues with the concrete slab (too much moisture coming up through the slab). The tiles began ballooning up in the center. Proper installation procedure was followed, a quality glue was used, a quality tile was used, and we still had problems. Our engineered wood floor had no moisture issues.

Overall, we liked the cork. It was soft, warm, quiet, and durable, but we had problems with it, but we would have had problems with sheet flooring as well.

Make sure you check the moisture content in more than one season if you have a slab!

I have just had cork flooring tiles installed by a contractor in my bathroom. I am very disappointed because the seams have buckled . From my reasearch I now see that a coat of waterbased urathane is reccommended to aovid moisture proglems. There is no moisture underneathe I think it is because of water on the floor in the bathroom. does anyone have any idieas as to how to repair these raised seam lines? should I roll them and then try a coat of urathane or contact my contractor ank ask him why he did not do this or tell me that this still needed to be done?
with thanks
Susan

Can cork go in laundry room if I coat with urethane? floor companies say no, but I prefer it over vinyl (not natural) or tile (too cold).

My friends bought a 10year old home with cork in the kitchen and love it.

Personally I found their floors both visually ugly, and hard to stand on (my feet hurt after standing for a short bit, and it was a LONG visit).

FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS INSTALL FLOATING CORK FLOORS!!!!! Mysteriously, was suggested to me by wonderful designer/consultant who should have known better. For one thing, the floor damages soooo easily! My one very sedentary cat somehow managed to scratch it up to a remarkable extent! Someone suggested that I could have it sanded but the whole floor would have to be done and, after all the dust settled, I'd still totally hate and distrust this floor!!! And the sections separate from each other when the building's central heating comes on in the colder weather..when I say "separate", I mean that there are 1/2"+ gaps between sections. Reminds me of ice floes drifting apart on the northernmost seas..... looks horrible and collects dirt and gunk in the cracks. This was the worst decision I made when I moved into my apartment five years ago. Now I just have to accept my expensive mistake and start over. My question is, what kind of good looking, durable, reasonably priced flooring can be properly installed over the base that had to be installed for this awful mess??? I'm so desperate I'm thinking of covering my floor with topsoil, planting grains and grasses and getting a goat or two to graze and keep the crops under control.

I had floating cork floors professionally installed in every room of my house, upstairs and down, not including the laundry and bathroom, about 7 years ago. In most rooms with lower traffic...and certainly under the area rugs...they still look amazing, just like the day they were installed. But I had a very large 120# dog at the time...he has since passed away...and even with his nails kept trimmed to prevent marking up my floors, he still managed to dig into the cork at the bottom of the staircase, the entryway, and in areas along the 'dog run'...from the front door to the kitchen. It's definitely a bit worn looking in those areas. In hindsight, had I realized, I probably would have installed something more pet/gravel friendly. But whose to say they wouldn't need repair/refreshing by this time, too? I don't know. Personally, I never had a problem with buckling, and I do absolutely love, love, love the feel of it under my feet...mine had a very thick underlayment attached...but I hate all the gouges and I have no idea how to fix them. FYI - Cork does fade! My guest room faces the south and gets a ton of bright light, and I just noticed an area in front of the window is now starting to lighten up a bit, though not shockingly noticeable or anything...not yet, anyway. So would I install it again? Probably not with over-sized pets, not with children, and not without putting sunblock film on my south facing windows. However, if all of the above were not a factor, yes, I would probably install it again. It is beautiful and if you get thick enough cork with a good cushy backing, it feels so much better than wood or tile on your feet and legs. And as clumsy as I am...I have dropped plates, glasses, bowls, vases, etc....and they bounce instead of breaking! :) You can remove stains from this stuff with vinegar and water solution, and with a light sanding, I do know they can be re-sealed, so I am probably going to give this a try when the weather warms. Fingers crossed!

Thanks for the comment. Yes, I know I can have that done, and likely will be doing that this summer. HOWEVER...FINDING someone who knows butkus about cork flooring is another issue. I live about an hour out of Minneapolis/St.Paul. No one out here knows anything, and when it was installed, I had to search high and low for someone to sand and apply the poly. And even then, I had to pay them time and a half just to come out here. I tried calling them again, but both phone numbers I had are no longer working, so I have no idea who to find. I might have to do it myself, as a last resort. Unless you make house calls to SW Minnesota?!!

Great timing on these recent posts -- I've been looking at new flooring on and off for the past year, with a floating cork floor as my first choice, and I really want to move ahead and get it done soon. I have a small condo and want to replace the old wall-to-wall carpet with a new floor in the living room, bedroom and hall, about 500 square feet total. I have only found a handful of flooring companies around here that have experience with cork, and they don't carry many brands, so my choices are limited in terms of color and pattern/texture. And admittedly I am picky in that area, which makes it harder.

One thing I was concerned about was the humidity issue. In my old condo, the range is 35-65%. Trying to keep it less dry in winter leads to too much window condensation (puddles on the windowsills), and there's only so much the A/C can accomplish in summer when it gets really hot and humid. In fact I was starting to think I would have to give up and go with Coretec or something similar -- but maybe not?

I am surprised about your comment re: refinishing, Cancork. I was under the impression that the click-lock cork floors do not need periodic refinishing, except for one brand I found that does recommend it every 5-7 years. Refinishing is actually a deal breaker for me, since it's almost the whole home that would have the new floors and I really don't want to have to pack up all my belongings in order to redo the floors that often.

I moved into my house a year ago. HATE the floating cork floor the seller had installed- I am sure it was not cheap either. It has dents and is curling up. I know the former owner was very diligent, so there was no abuse. Even so… see the pics I hate the color, but that’s not the floor’s fault. It is easy on the feet and is warm, too. Oh, and you have to only use vinegar and water to clean- no . Brand name “Uniclic” - celestial cork.

Nfucito, are those different floors? Top looks finished and other 2 pics do not have top coat? I love top pic!

No, they are the same floor. The lighting makes them look different. The top pic gets the least traffic, but the dents are awful.

And… the directions for care say NOT to wax. Only use vinegar and water to clean.

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.

Thanks. I had no idea about how to “undimple my floor. I will try this today. Thanks in advance. No, I am not one of those who expect perfection, but my floor is coming up a little at the seams. Do you know how I can clean it safely and what I can put on it ( wax, etc). I would probably like it more if it looked a little better. Thanks. I will let you know my results.

I found this pretty informative. I am getting ready to order my cork in next few months.

https://www.icorkfloor.com/care-and-maintenance/

Well, I tried the hot cloth method and it made only a small difference. But thanks for the link to the site for cleaning. I still do not love the floors, but I hope to make them the best they can be.