DIY cork flooring

Recommendation points

• Selection of materials and tools
• Floating floor
• Cork panels “for glue”
• Subfloor preparation
• Adhesive way of laying a cork floor
• “Floating” way of laying a cork floor

You can make your own cork floor for warmth and comfort. In our article you will find professional step-by-step instructions for installing such a floor and choosing high-quality materials for it..

The coatings made from the bark of cork oak do not rot, burn, and have millions of cells in their structure, filled with a nitrogen-oxygen mixture. This gives the products lightness, elasticity and excellent insulating properties..

Selection of materials and tools

According to the composition of the components, cork floors are divided into three types:

• agglomerate is a pressed crumb of cork bark used to cover substrates;
• one-piece veneer is a covering, the front side of which is covered with veneer – a cut of cork oak bark;
• mixed look is a coating made of a mixture of veneer and chips.

Of these, the most expensive and high-quality is the all-veneer type of flooring..

According to the method of installation, cork floors are divided into categories.

Floating floor

It is made in the form of an MDF panel, the front side of which is covered with cork material. Such a coating is not attached to the base – hence the corresponding name. Floor elements are interconnected by “locks” according to the tongue-and-groove principle.

Cork panels “for glue”

Such panels are made in the form of tiles of various sizes and have a rectangular shape. In fact, this is a pressed cork covered with veneer; they are attached to the original base of the floor using a special glue.

Below is a comparative table of typical characteristics of such panels:

Adhesive cork floors	Castle cork floors
Specifications
Plates 600×300 mm, 450×450, etc. made of pressed cork, covered with veneer on the front. Attached with glue and painted with wear-resistant polyurethane varnish in 2-3 layers. Material consumption per 1 m2: Decol Vern glue – 0.6 l Wakol D 354 glue – 250 g Wacol D 3074 primer (concentrate) – 40 g Varnish WS 2K Supra – 120 g per layer	Multilayer panel consisting of (from bottom to top): a 1.5 mm compensating backing, dense MDF panel, 3 mm pressed cork, decorative cork veneer and 2-3 layers of wear-resistant varnish. Connection of floor elements “locking” without the use of glue.
Advantages
They are easy to cut, they are not afraid of water, they are conveniently joined with other coatings, they can be easily repaired by replacing damaged areas. Only the varnish layer is subject to wear, which can be renewed every few years.	They have a finished factory varnish coating, they can be used immediately after installation. Scrupulous preparation of the base is not needed – permissible differences are up to 2 mm per 2 m of the length of the section. Fast and easy installation without the cost of associated materials. Possibility of easy disassembly and installation in another place.
disadvantages
The need for thorough preparation of the base, the cost of varnish and glue, a complex installation process.	Afraid of moisture, no more than 24 hours contact with water.
Application area
For rooms with any humidity, including kitchens and bathrooms. In houses of temporary residence (cottages, summer cottages) and in offices with medium traffic.	In dry living spaces without frequent wet cleaning and offices with below average traffic.
The cost
Coverage: 900-2000 rubles / m2 Varnish and glue: 720-750 rubles / m2	Coverage: 1000-2000 rubles / m2 No additional costs

After comparing the data in the table, you can start choosing a manufacturer (the best of them are ranked in descending order):

Brand name	Coverage cost, rub / m2	Advantages	disadvantages
Сorkstyle (Switzerland)	880-3300	A huge variety of designs with a large number of collections. Wear-resistant five-layer coatings made by nanotechnology.	High price of some types of floor.
Wicanders (Portugal)	1410-2405	Constantly updated collections with different characteristics of the decorative layer and varnish coating. High noise insulation and environmental friendliness.	High price.
Egger (Germany)	1270-1560	The direct printing method creates a pattern on the outer layer of the coating. The varnish used for the coatings preserves the excellent quality of the floor for years. Resistant to UV rays. Natural cork backing.	After 1.5-2 years, residual deformation from furniture may appear.
Сorkart (Portugal)	1140-2590	Has over a dozen cork veneer textures and over 30 decors.	Sometimes there are roughness on the surface of the varnish, but wear resistance is normal.
Maestro (Russia)	1065-1510	The company’s products are manufactured at the Wicanders plant. Affordable price with good quality, shock resistance.	Deformation of connections when liquid gets in.

Lock and adhesive coatings are produced by all manufacturers. You need to be careful with the cheap products of Chinese enterprises. Such coatings can be made from waste cork using hazardous adhesives or varnishes..

For cork floors, contact adhesive based on latex-acrylic or polychloroprene is used. Decol Vern and Wakol D 354 adhesives have proven themselves well. Their cost is 360 rubles / liter. Varnish WS 2K Supra for the top layer of coatings can be purchased for 1400-1500 rubles / liter. The consumption of these materials is indicated in the table above..

After purchasing the material, you need to give a little time to acclimatize it. For this, the packaging must be opened in a room with room temperature and moderate humidity. In a couple of days, the cork coating will gain the parameters necessary for installation. After this time, you can start laying the floor..

To work, you need to stock up:

• ruler
• cutter
• tape measure
• pencil
• chalk
• napkin
• rubber mallet
• velor roller

Subfloor preparation

The cork floor must be laid on a level surface. It is created with:

• moisture resistant plywood
• laid linoleum
• concrete screed

Plywood sheets are attached to the floor on logs and then sanded. Laying a cork covering on linoleum is possible if there is a flat base under it. With this option, there is no need to lay the substrate.

Most often, the preparation of the floor for the installation of the coating is accompanied by a screed device. After drying, it is leveled with a grinder, covered with a polyethylene film, and then with a substrate.

Adhesive way of laying a cork floor

This method involves laying the material from the center of the room towards its walls. Therefore, you first need to do the markup. The intersection of the room’s floor diagonals defines its center point. After finding it, two mutually perpendicular guide lines are drawn through the center, parallel to the walls. Sometimes, depending on the geometric shape of the floor, it becomes necessary to shift the rows of panels in relation to the middle of the room. Then the slabs are measured dry to the floor. When getting ridges between them, you will have to better align the base.

With a successful preliminary layout of the slabs, apply contact adhesive to the floor surface with a notched trowel and leave it for half an hour to “rest”.

After this time, the lower part of the products should be coated with glue and the material should be laid end-to-end, pressing it to the base. The gluing should be started from the center towards the wall opposite the door. 2-3 plates are glued one by one along any guide, and then they also come with another line. Installation is carried out without gaps between products.

The laid floor must be rolled with a special roller or tapped with a rubber mallet. When excess glue appears on the slabs, they must be immediately removed with white spirit. With good ventilation of the room, the glue will dry after 48 hours.

In places where the floor joins the walls, the slabs are usually trimmed, leaving a small gap of 3-4 mm for thermal expansion of the material. This gap can then be easily closed with a plinth..

The glued cork floor should then be coated with a roller with a protective wear-resistant varnish in 2–4 layers, waiting for them to dry alternately. Furniture can be brought into a room with a new cork floor no earlier than a week after the end of work.

“Floating” way of laying a cork floor

In this method of installation, a locking joint of floor elements is used, consisting of a wooden core, spikes and grooves provided for by the design of the slabs..

First, the first row of the floor should be assembled, and then the second row is assembled, which is located in relation to the first with an offset of the cork panels by? their lengths. This can ensure uniform placement of the stiffeners of all stacked products. The “floating” method involves the installation of elements between the walls in turn: a row following a row.

In order to visually lengthen the room, the cork floor is laid so that the end of each slab is located along the wall with the door. This is how the whole structure is assembled.

Attention: This method requires the presence of a substrate and a polyethylene film in the structure, which is laid with an overlap at the joints of a little more than 25 cm and is installed on the walls above the level of the planned skirting boards. After finishing the work, the excess film is cut off. The underlay serves to smooth out unevenness in the floor and isolate the room from noise.

A protective varnish should be applied to the finished snap-joint cork coating. It prevents water damage and premature floor wear. To seal the joints between the elements of the cork structure, you can use special gels-sealants.

For joining cork floors with other types of coatings, they are edged with special aluminum or metal sills. This is especially true for interior transitions.

Now that the floor has been laid, it is worth taking care of its safety. The furniture legs can be wrapped in a soft cloth. Rubber pads will not work here as they can stain the surface. Any type of detergent will work to remove dirt from the cork floor, except for those containing solvents or abrasives. Once every 2-3 years, the cork floor can be varnished.

If you follow all these recommendations, then a cork floor will serve you for many years..