Accessories

Cork Flooring Accessories

When you have bought a cork floor, there are a number of other items that you may require to help you to install it in a safe and secure way that will ensure it lasts a long time in the bathroom, kitchen or wherever it is installed and keeps looking good for many years.

Our cork floor products are made by Florence and either come with stick-down insulation or, in the case of our engineered floors, click system installation that does not need glue. As a result, one product you will not require is a flooring adhesive.

However, your floor will need a flooring underlay unless one is already in place and it is worth checking on the sort of subfloor you have. Unlike a wooden subfloor, one made of concrete is particularly prone to letting moisture seep through so to avoid your cork floor being damaged from below, it is important in such a case to get one of our underlays with a moisture barrier. Our barrier underlays come in 3 mm of thickness and come in the different types required depending on the sort of subfloor you have.

We can also offer underlays that have sound-proofing to help reduce drum sound, the noise made when you walk across the floor, as well as heat insulation. However, it is worth noting that the cork itself possesses both these properties.

A fibreboard may be useful in levelling out uneven floors. We produce such a product for use with engineered floors that is 5.5 mm thick and as well as evening out the surface below the engineered floor, provides additional soundproofing.

Our recommendation is that Tuplex underlay is used for floors where there is underfloor heating. This is a wood laminate underlay that has a unique way of trapping moisture, instead of just forming a barrier and keeping it below. This design also allows air to actually pass through it, which is what makes it suitable for underfloor heating because it does not block off the rising warmth.

Because cork is a wooden material made from tree bark, it can expand and contract just as normal wood does. For this reason, other products you may need will include scotia beading or skirting boards, which provide a neat edge to the bottom of the walls and doorways where they join the floor. By doing this, you can hide the otherwise slightly unsightly 10 mm gap that it is necessary to leave in order to allow for expansion. This gap will need to be left in both the doorway and up against the walls.

You may also need to use one of our ramp profiles or end profiles in the doorway, for points where the level of the floor in one room differs slightly from its neighbour. Again, this is an aesthetic device that gives the edge of the floor a neater look.

By acquiring such items as these, you will be able to ensure that the floor is protected, even, looks neat and is able to be the thing of beauty you wanted when you first saw it. Then you can get on with enjoying the benefits of having an attractive cork floor for many years.