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Williamsem: Just checked out the Globus cork floors!

deedles
11 years ago

Beautiful! The colors and inlay possibilities!

Thanks for putting this out there.

Can you post when your tiles go in? What pattern/colors have you chosen? Also, are you ordering online or have you found a store that carries it? Price per sq?

I'm guessing this goes down after the cabs are in, right?

Comments (13)

  • williamsem
    11 years ago

    I'm excited too!

    I have 8 samples, and I think we are down to 2 choices. Depends on if we stick with the Earth Glitter when we go visit it this week. Likely either bleached or whitewashed. Most likely a solid color, though I could be coerced into a pattern :-). I LOVE the floor someone here has that is large light squares with a dark line between them (I think 4 light squares making 1 large square with a single dark square line between the larger squares, if you can follow that) but my space is too small for a larger pattern.

    I am meeting with the GC next week and the floor is on my list of questions. The site says the glue down tiles installation is similar in difficulty/process to vinyl tiles, so installation should be fairly easy. They are pre glued, just need to put a layer of stuff on the floor and tap in place.

    Pricing is on their site, I will probably order online. I may even drive down to pick it up since it's only 2-3 hours away. They also have a local dealer, but that's one of the places that never got back to me with a cabinet quote so probably not going to try them. There is a dealer locator on the site too.

    My project is in May, so still a bit off. I am dying to see how it looks and feels. If we like it there are other rooms we would consider using it for.

    Btw, did you see the picture of the hexagon pattern installed?! Fantastic! That's what I saw that made me track them down. I wish we had a house that could take it, but it's a little more style than our boring house can handle :-(

  • deedles
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Any chance I could talk you into laying out the samples that you have and post a pic? Which colors did you get samples in? The whitewashed looks beautiful on the website. Does it have blue in it, IRL?
    I really like the alabaster with the amber pine. I can envision a diagonal checkerboard of 18" tiles. Of course, I've been envisioning a diagonal checkerboard of anything for 20 years or so now, lol.

    I like our marmoleum, but that installation experience has left me somewhat reluctant to go there again so I'm still looking. We liked the idea of cork years ago and now all the options for color are kind of exciting! The only thing I worry about are DOG NAILS. I worry that our big mutt could tear up a cork floor if he goes on one of his 'dog frenzys' where he just runs like a nutcase for no apparent reason. I wonder if anyone on here has cork and dogs?

    I didn't see the hexagon picture on the website nor the floor on here that you mention but it sounds nice.

    Maybe I'll order some samples!

  • williamsem
    11 years ago

    Sure! When the downpour stops I'll dig them out and post. Might be tomorrow though, looks like rain for a bit. I think I have sable, maple, cement grey, ocean fog, whitewashed, alabaster, natural, and bleached if I remember right.

    I guess you know you've been doing too much thinking about your kitchen when you can name off your sample colors without looking, lol!

    They have been very responsive to sample requests and questions. You do have to pay for any samples above 3, but it's very minimal, I think probably to cover postage and handling (it was maybe $8 for my other 5).

    With a dog, you might want to call them for some insight. I didn't ask too much about finish, but I did ask about coloring. Since cork does not absorb liquid to any great extent any color is applied on top, in the finish. I have taken a bottle cap to the sable sample to see if I could scratch through. I managed to make some dull spots, but the only kind of scratch that went through was from digging the edge in and almost digging a bit out. I'm not concerned about dullness, it can easily be recoated at home (need to apply one coat of clear finish aftr install anyway). Seems pretty durable.

  • luckymom
    11 years ago

    I can address the dog nail issues with cork-3 dogs (80 lb giant schnauzer, 20 lb terrier & 10 lb brussels). All go to the groomer every 3 weeks and have nail trims. They come home with small to huge rough spears that can draw blood in a single swipe. My cork stood up to that for over 7 years (I'm thinking 10, but suffer from old age CRS syndromme) We had the click stiff with 2 coats of poly over the factory poly. HIGHLY reccomend that in a kitchen. It does need to be redone occasionally- which we didn't do- couldn't figure out what to do with the dogs for the 24 hour dry time... Only issue we ever had was under the old stool DH loved to sit at- had those rubber "boots" on the legs that would cut thru & need to be replaced. That spot was a bit worn, otherwise the floor looked great and felt wonderful.
    I've tried almost every floor around over the last 25 years- tile, vinyl, Pergo, real wood, etc., in my kitchen. The one I loved was the cork. This re-do, I keep looking at the cork again (and those Globus colors!), but I've spent so much extra already (and I really want new carpet in the master BR)- so I'm hesitating. wonder how long I can stand bare concrete in the kitchen?

  • williamsem
    11 years ago

    Luckymom, what kind of poly did you use? Was it something the company recommended and/or sold, or something you found on your own? I know Globus sells the coating they recommend after install, and I'm pretty sure that's the stuff you can use to refresh periodically.

    Deedles, here are two pics. I took one after the rain and one this morning so the light is a little different. I will post the colors in the next comment, I want to see how the pics orient first! You can see in the sable where I tried to scratch through. It's practically invisible when wet, so I think it would look fine if resealed. That was some serious effort with th bottle cap and didn't remove the color.


  • williamsem
    11 years ago

    Ok, first pic, top row to bottom row:
    Cement, sable
    Alabaster, whitewashed
    Bleached, natural
    Maple, ocean fog

    Second pic:
    Ocean fog, maple, alabaster, cement
    Bleached, whitewashed, sable, natural

    The whitewashed doesn't look like it has blue tones, though the grey bits could definitely tend toward blue and play nice with blue. The Ocean Fog is a slightly blue cast. The whitewashed and ocean fog look very nice together, the grey in the whitewashed is very similar to the ocean fog.

  • deedles
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Luckymom: thanks for weighing in with the dog nail info. That makes me feel better. That was the one thing that took cork off my list. Your experience definitely puts it back on and I think it may have just taken first place! Thanks again.
    Williamsem: thanks so much for taking the time to post your pics, with all you have going on I appreciate it! I'm going to order up some samples. What color are your cabs? Tough choice between bleached and whitewashed.. they are both really nice. Maybe the one that hides dirt the best wins? :)

    Okay, off to order my samples! Thanks again and I'm excited to see what you choose and how it installs and looks when you are done. How fun!

  • deedles
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Just ordered 21 samples.

    nuts.

  • Mayo510
    11 years ago

    I really like that sable! Thanks for sharing the pictures, and to others for sharing their experiences. We will have seating, a kitchen table that will be our primary eating area. I want a floor that will hold up well to that kind of constant chair-scraping. Luckymom, do you think there's some arrangement that would have mitigated the issue you had?

  • williamsem
    11 years ago

    @Deedles, glad to help. Haven't picked a cabinet color yet, I'm taking DH to visit the Earth Glitter granite I fell in love with this week. I still have some time, so we can pick based on the granite. If it comes time to order and we haven't found a slab, we'll just pick and work around it.

    Top contenders:


  • deedles
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Oh yes, I remember the granite now. You were explaining that it has way more brown than the pics show.

    You've got some tough choices...

    Mayo: I wonder if they make those slider things for furniture feet? You know, those round discs you put under 10,000 pounds of stuff and then can push it with your finger? Infomercial, but I bought some to move a cabinet and they worked well, other than the cab legs aren't exactly the same so two of them kept getting left behind, lol.

  • luckymom
    11 years ago

    We just used regular poly from Lowes- we "think" it was water based, but it was so long ago. Back then, it was hard to FIND cork- only saw it 1 place in our area- and ordred it online. DH installed. No colors (blues, whites, etc) to speak of even-just got a color that went with the wood floors.

    The issue was the metal legs of the stool cutting thru the rubber boots/feet on the stool and not being replaced as needed. We'd forget about them. 200 + lb hubby, bare metal stool legs = scuffed up floor. I won't even say it was cut-cork is will sort of self heal. Honestly, we were not careful with that floor. A light sanding and more poly would have fixed the problem areas. Other bar stools we had didn't cause any issues (and I kept trying to find a differnt one he liked but never could).

    I've got 3 samples coming- looks like I need to order a couple more...

  • williamsem
    11 years ago

    Thanks!

    Lol, Deedles. I missed that you ordered 21 samples! When they arrive, let us know what you're thinking of doing with the colors. Wish I had the guts to do a light/dark green checkerboard. Maybe in our forever home when we build it in the distant future.