Kitchen Flooring Options, Cork Flooring

Installing cork flooring was the first good taste in a new kitchen built in a large private home near Columbia, South Carolina.

"Kitchens require a strong surface", says Don Chase, a principal with Advanced Structure and Design, in Savannah, Georgia. An expert in interior remodeling who specializes in luxury homes and historic renovations, he says: "We remind clients that the person using the kitchen is almost always standing, frequently for long periods of time. A cork floor is literally a great comfort to someone who has been standing for an hour or so on a kitchen floor."

The same flexibility that provides such comfort has another benefit. "A certain resilience is a valuable characteristic of cork floors in kitchens. The flexible cork underlayment won't allow you to bounce dishes and glassware like tennis balls, but it does provide a greater cushion against impact than wood or tile floors."

"Kitchen floors are exposed to quite a wide range of spilled food substances, and then to the cleaners necessary to remove them. To maintain a level of hygiene, you need a floor that can be cleaned successfully. A number of floors" Chase notes, "are like improper counter and cutting surfaces, they cannot be rendered sterile by simple cleaning. CorkDirect floors are supplied with a firm, multi-coated UV finish that can be cleaned of both organic and inorganic spills. Over the years, they will withstand repeated applications of chemical and biological cleaners, and both retain their finish and provide a clean and safe working domain."

Chase has elected to site-finish cork floating floor planks. "The plank is one foot by three feet, has its own underlayment and interlocks. It makes an extremely efficient installation which is glued only to itself, not the subfloor, and can be site-finished to match custom designs. Cork is one of the easiest flooring installations we do."

Chase says "We do everything we can to discourage the use of carpet in kitchens and breakfast areas. Aside from the tendency of fiber to trap and breed bioforms, and the need for constant cleaning, carpet soon becomes stained and discolored, and clients quickly become dissatisfied. Carpet is very appropriate in a formal dining room, but not in an area of food preparation."

"People think of cork as the color of a wine bottle stopper", the late Ron Wolfe, ASID of Atlanta, once told a colleague. "What they don't realize is that a cork floor can provide a look as delicate and graceful as marble, but remain as flexible and resilient as vinyl. And cork can be finished in place, either to matching or to contrasting colors. And unlike wood, which has many of the same surface properties, it makes a much more intimate space."

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