apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

We decided to do our kitchen floors with cork and thinking of ordering from here http://www.greenfloors.com/
anyone used them before?

When I was researching flooring I found that many of the cork products were made with glue that was not fomaldahyde free. The small cork pieces are all glued together to make a smooth surface, so that seems like it could be a lot of carcinogenic material. It also took a LOT of phone calling to determine this, as retailers often do not truly know what's in the flooring. This was true even for some products labeled "eco".

SFGail,

Could you share with us what and from where you ended up buying? which brands are the safest?

We're in the design phase of our new kitchen and I originally thought cork would be great, but have read here and other places that it only has a 10 yr avg. life span. Would be interested to hear other's experience with it.

I was interested in cork floors during our recent remodel, but was advised against it by our contractor -- he said that when the finish wears off after a few years, moisture will eventually get into the tiles and cause them to expand/peel.

Cork is known to contain formaldahyde. My biggest concern is that cork is so soft. High heels tend to make dents easily. It looks beautiful, but I don't think the lifecycle analysis is good.

We actually decided against cork flooring. At the time, I couldn't get a real guarantee from any of the manufacturers of cork that they were using formaldahyde free adhesives. Maybe this has changed. Also, I found that the really beautiful cork was too expensive, and I wasn't really interested in the kind that just looks like a cork board. Also, (this is completely unscientific and I have no proof) it just seemed that cork would not wear well, to me it's too flimsy. We also have radiant floor heating, and i was told there is something of a controversy over whether cork is suitable over radiant heat or not.

I finally went with an engineered wood floor from Boen. Their floors are formaldahyde free and (mostly) made from FSC certified lumber. Another good choice was engineered flooring from Berg & Berg. Between the radiant floor, air quality and ecological concerns and my very small budget, my choices were pretty slim. I think the flooring industry still has a ways to go before there are truly a lot of affordable ecological healthy alternatives out there.

Have I missed something? Isn't cork NOT being used for wine bottles anymore because of the shortage?? Is the flooring somehow different? I mean it's beautiful and bouncy, but...

Totally unrelated to cork...

Any idea who the maker of that vent-hood above the stove is? We're planning a kitchen update and that'd be perfect.

TIA!

My mother's kitchen has had the same cork floor for 30 years. It has darkened with wear but never buckled or dented - it's still a smooth, beautiful surface despite all the efforts of three kids. Cork certainly can wear very well. I'm not sure why some floors do not - maybe the thickness or surface treatment.