Correct underlay crucial for cork floors

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/02/2002 (8673 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you choose the variety of sheet or plank cork (rather than pre-backed and pre-finished cork tiles) you could lay your new cork floor over an existing floor or directly over your subfloor, but, says Craig Werntz of Heartland, this will not get you the best result. Here’s why:

z Any floor needs support. The type of floor will determine the type of support needed. For this reason there are several flooring underlay products made, specifically suited to providing ‘good bones’ beneath the beautiful surface of your floor.

z Cork is very thin. Therefore it requires the support of a wood underlay that is strong and solid.

“Any glue-down floor will eventually telegraph any seams or flaws to the floor surface, Werntz says. Therefore, you need a solid foundation for a new floor.

Of the many underlay products, Werntz particularly recommends (and his crew always uses) either K3 or ProBoard particle board, which comes in 4-foot by 8-foot sheets. Another popular product, OSB, is fine for other applications but not recommended for cork floors, Werntz says, because it is made up of bigger chips of wood, and therefore does not give a smooth enough surface for cork. In Werntz’s opinion, the very best cork floor formula is a solid subfloor + K3 + cork. However, K3 is 3/8″ thick, while Pro-Board is 1″ . Doesn’t sound like much, but when floor height is critical (for built-in cabinetry, for example) K3 is the choice.

It is possible to put cork over an existing floor, such as on top of ceramic, using a floor-leveling compound to smooth the surface, “but if you’ve got more than one layer of floor, get rid of it,” Werntz says, because a beautiful cork floor is more than skin deep.

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