Cork Floors: timeless classic or style fax paus?

[fatboy4]

Hi all,

Been looking at doing another reno (for resale). Biggish (230m2) house with quite a lot of cork tiles. It is an 85 build home but the tiles look in great condition. My wife quite likes them are reckons they are timeless. I like them from a functionality point of view but to me they look dated and I'd rather have tiles of the ceramic variety in the entry, kitchen, dining and family rooms

This is a 4 bed, DLUG, ens family type home. I'm thinking maybe the $3500-ish to replace with decent ceramic tiles might be worth it (we may be reconfiguring/replacing the kitchen which might necessitate new flooring in that room anyway).

I'd appreciate some opinions (I have read the thread about removing cork tiles)

Thanks

Fatboy4

 

[knightm]

agree cork tiles are soooooooo practical - warm, easy to clean, soft, great for vertical darts games etc, but still considered daggy. Surely sometime they will come back "in" with the trensetters and people with cork tiles will be the new retro cool. Sadly for now you will probably get a good return on your 3.5k investment in ceramic tiles

 

[Aimjoy]

Cork is very practical - soft to drop things on, easy to resurface etc......but I have these paisley print ties that I've owned for 30+ years - I think they've come in and out of fashion at least twice in that period.....and some flares too. I think the cork tile has gone with them and my platform shoes.
Cheers,
Aimjoy

 

[Jacque]

I have cork in my kitchen and much prefer it to the cold tiles in the living area. You can actually get cork resurfaced and it comes up looking quite shiny and polished looking. Might not hurt to get a quote for this. Also consider doing the cheaper option and using decorator rugs or even something natural (like sisal or similar) to cover up larger areas so they're not as obvious to buyers.

 

[depreciator]

I saw a cork floor once that had been lightly sanded and stained darker. It looked pretty good - much less daggy.
Scott

 

[knightm]

sound interesting scott - maybe we should put the word out to see if anyone has photos of cork floors looking good?

 

[pulse]

A friend of mine has cork floors that look great. A white melamine kitchen, 20 years old, perfect cork tiles on the floor that you cannot even see the joins on unless you look carefully. I think the whole lot is timeless.

In contrast my parents have a timber country kitchen with orange laminate benchtops that are lifting in places and a room with cork tiles that have been stuck down several times as the corners have lifted.

I think it depends on how they are used. Ceramic tiles are not as good as timber floors for adding value I think. I'd keep the cork or resand it.

Cheers
Pulse

 

[Queen Bee]

Cork Tiles

Hi all

I wouldn't go to the expense of getting rid of the cork tiles. Get them resanded and polyurethaned, if you want them to look really swish, get a high gloss polyurethane, they can look really spectacular.

Cork tiles have come back into fashion over here, especially the coloured ones, you could even paint them and then polyurethane over the top. I remember going into a house once, where the homeowner had got this guy to come in and paint them so they looked like marble! They were stunning.

I wouldn't attempt to sand them yourself though, it is very easy to botch the job up. Get a floorsander who has experience in sanding cork tiles.

Cheers, QB