This was meant to be the post where I triumphantly announce “The floors are DONE!” with an enthusiastic exclamation point. Instead, I’m admitting “The floors are almost done.” with a sheepish period. They’re mostly installed, and honestly they weren’t that hard — anyone can do this with a little patience.
Since we last updated you, the room has changed quite a bit. It went from this:
To this:
Note: Some photos make the cork look a bit red/orange. In real life it’s a rich mocha. The installation videos show the color most accurately — we’ll take better photos once everything’s finished.
We thought we could finish the last section in a few days, but cutting pieces to fit around the peninsula, cabinets and doorways, plus moving appliances to slide a few planks under them to keep things level, took longer than expected. Because this blog is real-time, we can’t fast-forward to glossy after photos (we wish we could), so we keep plugging away and share progress photos as we go. We did take some how-to photos and a video during the process, so here’s what we learned.
The cork planks use a snapping system: the tongue fits into the groove, the boards lie flat, and everything clicks together.
When placing a plank, we worked exactly as shown in the video. If you can’t watch, the photos below explain the same steps. Watching the video on mute is helpful to see the motion.
First, slide the tongue into the groove at a slight angle.
That holds the plank loosely so you can bring it down flat and slide the short end into the next board’s groove.
To secure the joint, use a tapping block and hammer. We used a flooring kit tapping block (from Home Depot); it lets you give a firm tap without damaging the cork because the block absorbs the blow.
After a few taps the short end seam closed up. Then repeat along the long side — a slight seam disappears after tapping (you can see it vanish in the video).
Sometimes the outer edge of a plank will lift slightly when the long side snaps in. To prevent a raised edge and ensure a flat floor, stand or put weight on the board while giving a couple more taps until it lays flush.
Good — it’s behaving.
Edges require a different approach because there’s often no room for a tapping block or hammer.
That’s when a pull bar is essential (also in the flooring kit). Hook the wide end over the plank and tap the other end with a hammer to close the seam.
Leave an expansion gap (about 5/16″) around the room perimeter. Floating floors need that space to expand and contract. Shoe molding will cover the gap, so it’s invisible once the finish work is done. We used spacers to keep this gap consistent as we worked.
In practice, fitting and tapping planks wasn’t the slow part — cutting the pieces to fit around cabinets, doorways and the peninsula was. Moving appliances to slide a few planks underneath them to keep them level also added time. We were extra careful when sliding appliances because we’ve damaged floors before; two layers of cardboard over a scrap piece of cork helped protect the surface while we moved things.
I don’t have final “after” photos yet — we still need to install transitions, add shoe molding and seal the cork for durability. In the meantime I took pictures from angles that avoid the unfinished laundry room so things look tidier than they really are. Works for now.
Hopefully the unfinished bit won’t be a permanent fixture we avoid in photos. We’ll finish it — especially since baby Clara keeps appearing in cute videos and we want finished shots that don’t reveal the unfinished corner. Oddly, on one video her thrown football makes the floor sound much louder than it actually is; the cork is soft and absorbs sound well, so the loud noise is just the camera’s audio quirks.
The laundry room section should go quickly — knock on wood… or cork.
Anyone else working on a project that’s taking longer than planned? Have you installed cork flooring? We’re really happy with the results so far: the deep color warmed the previously all-white room, the surface resists scratches and dents from pets and dropped items, it’s soft and comfortable underfoot, and once sealed it should be even more durable. One tip we learned: if you’re remodeling a kitchen from scratch, install cabinets first and then float the cork floor around them. Heavy cabinetry shouldn’t sit directly on a floating floor because the floor needs room to expand and contract. We installed cabinets first in our case and floated the flooring around them, and that approach worked well.