Q: I notice that a number of snap together cork floors require expansion joints at 30 feet. I have a game room that is 41 feet long and 18 feet wide. I do not want an expansion joint in this room as it will be unsightly no matter where it is located although I could make a break at about 30 feet but I am not sure that I would want the T-bead in it. Does your company have any snap together floors that would work?
Also, I have an exterior deck door that I would like to butt the cork tight to, I might be able to run a small piece of trim but it will likely look odd. I also so have a surface hearth for a gas fire place that I would like to but to and there is no way to trim out that location?
Finally, I have been looking locally for cork but most that I find appear to be store brands and on dealership has stopped carrying their brand as it has had too many failures, principally wear related. How can I determine a good brand whether it is yours or someone else’s? With all these issues I have been considering individual cork tiles, but I am hesitant as the work involved would likely be numbing, thoughts.
Michael
A: High quality floating cork floors can easily be laid over the entire area of your game room with out a joint, you just need to ensure you leave plenty of room for the expansion gap along the edges of the floor. I would suggest having an expansion gap of 1/2″ to 3/4″ along the edge of your floor.
An easy way to account for this gap without having rather wide trim would be to cut your drywall about 5/8″ from the top of the subfloor, leaving a gap which expands under the drywall. This will allow you to use shallower base molds while still having a good expansion gap for the floor. In the case of doorways, you will want to cut a good chamfer out under the door to allow for plenty of room for floor expansion. Treat this similar to the drywall, use a proper jambsaw and cut a good relief into the door jamb to allow for expansion room. This type of gap should also help you out with your exterior deck issue, but keep in mind you MUST have an expansion gap or the floor will fail (whether this is buckling, warping or various other nasty problems).
As far as the hearth is concerned there are some complicated ways to put reliefs into them, but your best bet would be to glue a bit of trim in place to cover the expansion gap. I have seen this done with several installations in the past and if done carefully it can look very nice. If carefully done, as is done with solid hardwood, you can but the flooring up to the hearth, but you will want the floor the end with a very small gap between the floor and the hearth (typically this is almost invisible to the eye when in a room). Most wood floors with this approach have a border built with the flooring expanding out from there, with the border looking much like a wood picture frame.
As far as brands are concerned, I would look into the floating lines made by APC or Westhollow. These are amongst the best in the industry available and are made to rather high standards in Europe unlike some of the cheaper cork floors made out in China. When it comes to durability cork floors will dent easily as they are very soft, but unlike other wood floors the cork will naturally push dents out. The big problem you may run into is that the finishes used on cork are not quite as durable as something like laminate, which has very high levels of aluminum oxide, but if proper maintenance routines and planning for foot traffic is taken in mind, cork floors can last a very long time and maintain a beautiful appearance.
Good practices would be to put place mats at exterior doors, trim any pet nails, and vacuum up dirt and debris regularly. This will help remove a majority of what causes scratching in wood floors and vastly improve your floor’s life time.
