Cork flooring

Covering the floor with parquet was always considered a sign of luxury and good taste of the owners of the house. Cork parquet is not only an excellent competitor to wood, but also a leader among environmentally friendly finishing materials. This floor will never rot and become a favorite dainty of rodents and pests. The cork is completely safe and is often used for children's rooms. Among other things, this material has high heat and noise insulation performance. But there is a cork and a few cons. What are these minuses and how to choose the parquet, we will consider in this article.

Cork flooring: disadvantages

In order not to be mistaken with the choice, it is necessary to get acquainted not only with their advantages, but also with cons. Among the disadvantages of the cork flooring are the following:

• the floating appearance of this coating is not suitable for rooms with high humidity conditions (in this case, the cork itself is not swelling but a plate made of fiberboard or MDF), for such premises one should choose only glue type;
• the adhesive coating in turn will require you to thoroughly prepare the surface, and too thin a layer of material will make noise when walking;
• any kind of coating from a cork without toning will lose its color in the course of time under the influence of sunlight;
• there are models of a parquet with a rough covering that looks more natural, but creates some difficulties at operation (it is more difficult to wash, and socks with stockings will quickly become battered and become unusable if you often walk on such surface);
• the last and obvious minus of the traffic jam is its cost, this material is high enough and it is not used massively.

Cork flooring for kitchen floor

If you correctly choose the thickness of the coating and its appearance, then the kitchen will always be cozy and warm. The fact that the floor of the cork itself is very warm: this material almost does not let the cold pass, so that cold concrete is not terrible for you. Also the cork is not afraid of moisture, does not absorb odors and is very useful for legs.

For housewives, there will be another argument that the cork has an anti-static effect and therefore does not accumulate or collect dust. The appearance of this coating is very spectacular. Most often prefer warm yellow, brown shades. You can always experiment with texture and drawing, because the choice is really wide.

If the traditional cork flooring for the kitchen floor does not fit into the overall style, you can always look for suitable models among the cork photo fields. Due to photo printing, the effect of veneer of any tree is created. For the traditional design, you can pick an oak or pine, more modern styles better complement the effect of zebrano or walnut.

In addition to wood, the cork parquet perfectly imitates other surfaces: stone, sand, marble or pebbles. With the naked eye at once a difference and you will not notice. So this is a good alternative to laminate and for families with children it will be the best choice.

Cork parquet: styling

The process takes place in several stages. By itself, it is uncomplicated, but rather laborious. In addition, there are some subtleties and trust the work better to high-level professionals.

1. Before laying , the substrate must be primed.
2. Before work it is always necessary to mix tiles from different packs, so that the shade transitions were invisible.
3. Cork parquet begins to be laid from the middle part of the room. First, the baselines are drawn and the first tile is placed at the intersection point. Next lay out the rest of the tiles closely along the planned lines.
4. Each tile is treated with a roller and a little tapping.
5. After 24 hours the coating is passed by a vibration grinder.
6. Then follows a layer of soil and after drying, sanding.
7. At the very end, the floor is covered with wax and polished in a day.