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Cork is an excellent floor covering if you need a “quiet”, pleasant to the touch, warm floor. The laying of cork flooring varies greatly depending on the type of material chosen. The castle cork floor is easy to install, the adhesive one requires certain knowledge. But you can manage both on your own.
Laying cork flooring is not an easy task. It is complicated by the fact that the material is natural and there are flaws in the production on the surface of some tiles. There are also differences in the size of the tiles (the discrepancy can be up to 1 mm) and thickness. Therefore, for self-laying, it is better to choose either the lock option – it fits like a regular laminate. You can also put a cork bag, which is placed on the glue. But it is better to take it with a chamfer – it will be easier. If there is a chamfer during laying, the different thicknesses of the tiles are not visible (the difference can be substantial) and it is easier to work with joints. But when buying, you need to take the material with a large margin – about 10%: the offset must be strictly the same, and this is an additional material consumption.
In any case, you should carefully read the installation instructions – there are a lot of nuances that have a significant impact on the result.
Base
Laying cork flooring requires careful preparation of the base. A concrete slab or screed, leveled with a self-leveling mixture, is suitable as a base for a glued cork floor. They are also called bulk floor. The compositions Vetonit 3000 or Osnovit T-45 performed well, but similar ones can also be used.
Under the adhesive cork flooring, manufacturers recommend achieving a perfectly even base without any drops at all, under the lock on the floor there can be drops of up to 2 mm per 2 meters (checked by a ruler, level or rule). In practice, it turns out that the adhesive cork (cork parquet) normally fits on uneven grounds. It is only important that the recesses / humps are very smooth, without steps, cracks, cavities, etc.
It is possible to lay the cork coating only after the screed has completely dried. Permissible humidity – no more than 5%. If you don’t have a moisture meter, take a piece of polyethylene with an area of about 1 square meter, stick it to the base with tape. It must be sealed. Leave for a day, then tear off. If there is no condensation on the film, the floor has the right humidity, you can glue a cork on it.
Before laying, the base is thoroughly cleaned – first with a broom, then with a vacuum cleaner. There should be no debris or dust on the surface.
Wooden floors are leveled with a “dry screed” – moisture-resistant plywood, OSB, fiberboard, chipboard, GVL. Sheets are laid “in a run” – so that the seams do not match. When laying, gaps of 3-4 mm are left between the sheets, the sheets are attached to the subfloor using self-tapping screws. Their caps must be recessed into the material (if necessary, pre-drill holes).
Seams and holes are sealed with putty. It is better to take acrylic putty – it is more elastic than gypsum, glue “falls” on it without any problems. After drying, sand the putty so that the entire surface is even. The base is cleaned of dust, it can be primed – to reduce glue consumption.
Tools
Laying cork on adhesive requires a number of tools. The set is not very large and does not require large material costs. Difficulties can only arise with a notched trowel – it must be with a very small tooth, and these are rare.
- Steel ruler.
- Sharp stationery or construction knife with replaceable blades. The blade holder must be metal, since considerable effort will have to be applied.
- Rubber mallet.
- Velor roller for applying glue, and then for varnish. You will need several rollers – one for glue and one for varnish – according to the number of layers.
- Metal or plastic spatula with fine teeth (2-3 mm). Make no mistake here, a spatula with a square tooth will not work.
- Roulette and pencil.
Cork adhesive flooring tools
If a spatula with a small tooth could not be found, you can make it from a regular one using a file. The desired depth of cut is obtained when you run the corner of the file along the edge two or three times. It won’t take much time.
Laying method
There are different styling schemes, including patterns. But they must be calculated, and this requires certain knowledge and time. The first self-laying of cork is desirable using the simplest offset schemes. It looks good and is ideal for gaining experience.
If you have an adhesive floor plug without a chamfer, you can use the unsystematic method. Usually at the end of the row the bar is not whole. The rest of it goes to the beginning of the next row. The same procedure continues further, with the only limitation that the “run-up” of the seams should be more than 15 cm. If it turns out less, lay this piece through the row or a little later. As a result, there is no displacement pattern (well, almost), and the joints are almost invisible.
If the cork floor was bought with a chamfer, then the offset should be clear – the boundaries of the tiles are clearly visible, therefore there must be order. In this case, an offset of 1/3 or 1/2 of the bar length is applied. The consumption with this method of laying cork is more and this should be taken into account when buying.
Preparing adhesive cork floor tiles
The tiles are unpacked (all packs) and left for a day at room temperature. During this time, the tile will take on “working” dimensions and subsequently no cracks will appear. By the way, there are requirements for “weather conditions”: humidity 40-70%, temperature from +18°C to +30°C.
While the tile is acclimatizing, it must be sorted. This material is made from natural raw materials and defects are often found. When sorting, you will need masking tape (paper) to indicate the defects found, so as not to re-search for them. We sort tiles into three categories:
- without defects;
- with small defects (dents, slightly knocked down edges and corners);
- with significant deviations (potholes, foreign inclusions, delamination of the decorative layer).
Near each “marriage” we glue pieces of paper tape – it will be easier to find. There may be many tiles with a defect, but this is not scary – they will find a place. Those tiles that have slight deviations are glued against the walls. There is usually no direct light and these flaws are not visible. Heavily defective tiles are laid last in a row. We choose one so that the defect is under the plinth, and the remaining piece goes to the beginning of the next row without flaws.
There is another defect that is difficult to see in a separate tile, but it is very visible in the laying. It happens that the decorative layer along the edge is sanded so that the substrate shows through. We look through all the “good” bars for this shortcoming. We put them in the first or last row along the wall so that the beveled edge is also under the plinth.
There are also tiles of different thicknesses, so everything needs to be checked on this basis as well. We take a reference piece (you can cut it off from a defective plank), put it on one side and the other, draw a finger, checking whether the thickness matches. Set aside the thinner ones. We will lay them closer to the wall, where the drops are not so visible. For thicker ones, we sand the edges. To do this, glue a strip of medium-grained sandpaper to the standard with the grain down, grind off the excess from the wrong side. The cork rests on the floor, the sandpaper cuts off the excess. As soon as the thickness is equal, we stop. After such preparation, laying the cork on the adhesive will be easier.
Layout
It is best to start laying the cork floor from the middle of the room. We find the center, through this point we draw lines perpendicular to the walls (at an angle of 90 °). In this case, we will lay the tiles along the walls. If you want to lay the cork flooring diagonally, draw the lines at a 45° angle to the walls. It is easier to beat them off with a masking cord (a regular cord smeared in blue).
Usually the long side of the cork plank is placed along the long wall, but this is not necessary. Having decided how you will lay out the cork tiles, you need to check whether the last plank is wider than 5 cm. To do this, “dry” tightly one to the other, we lay out the tiles in a row on the floor – from wall to wall. The gaps near the walls should be more than 5 cm. If not, move the tiles so that the rule is followed. It is necessary to check on the “narrow” – transverse side. Next, you can lay the cork flooring, but the process itself is more complicated for cork parquet, and it will be discussed further.
Glue for laying cork
This is a very important point. When laying cork on glue, manufacturers usually recommend a specific brand. It is advisable to listen to their opinion, but it is quite possible to use a replacement that is similar in quality.
Solvent-based neoprene contact adhesive is used for cork laying. It “smells” very much, therefore it is advisable to work in a well-ventilated area, but it is still better to have a gas mask. Without protective equipment, there may be a severe headache, vomiting, and hallucinations may occur.
One more moment. Glue and its fumes are highly flammable. Therefore, no smoking and even the close presence of fire. Just one spark (short circuit, for example) leads to ignition. Even dried glue burns, and fresh glue generally burns over the entire surface. Therefore handle very carefully.
On the back side of the cork tile, the glue is applied with a velor roller, it is well rolled out in an even layer. It is poured onto the floor, then spread over the surface with a spatula with a fine tooth. After application, the glue should dry for 30-40 minutes (more precisely, see the instructions on the bank), and the viability of the glue is several hours, so there is time for gluing and eliminating defects. But it will not be possible to completely tear off the laid and “stuccoed” tiles, therefore, when laying the cork coating, we try on well and only then begin to press it.
When smearing the tile, it is important to try not to stain the front side – all stains appear under the varnish. If there are still stains, we remove them immediately after gluing with white spirit or another solvent for your brand of glue.
To make the work move faster, find a flat sheet (cardboard, fiberboard, hardboard, any other material) on which 5-10 tiles are placed. Lay the tiles wrong side up, close to each other, joining the wide parts. Get a track. We coat all the tiles at a time and leave to dry.
Subsequently, in order for the work to go faster, it is better to have two boards on which the glue dries and coat two areas with glue on the floor. Each time, wait 30-40 minutes – it will take a lot of time to lay, and so, while the first one is laid, the second is almost ready. We clean the freed board from glue, lay the next batch, coat it, etc.
How to cut cork
Cutting the cork is easy – with a sharp blade along the metal ruler. If the tile is thick (there are 4 mm and 6 mm), approximately 1/3 of the thickness is cut in one pass. If the cut is hidden by the floor with a plinth, we raise the bar, bend it along the cut line, it breaks. If necessary, you can help yourself with a knife.
Sometimes the cut line has to be joined. Then you have to cut it off with a knife. You will have to carry out 2-3 times, and in order for the cut to turn out even, it is necessary that the ruler does not move. To do this, several pieces of double-sided tape are glued to the wrong side of the ruler. So that the adhesive tape is not too sticky, it is “powdered” with dust, mortar, flour, etc.
The installation process
Next, the actual laying of cork flooring begins. The first row is laid along the drawn line. It is very important to lay it evenly, without distortions and deviations. All joints must be absolutely even, therefore, in the first two rows from the “without marriage” pile, select tiles with absolutely the same size. They can be laid out on an unpasted part of the floor, checking the coincidence of sizes and thicknesses.
We smear the selected tiles with glue, wait for the allotted time. Let’s start installation. We lay out one edge strictly along the line. From the first, everything is simple: they put it on, pressed it down with their hands, tapped it with a mallet.
The next one must be laid so that it comes 1-1,5 mm edge on the laid tile. So the joint will turn out to be tight and cracks will not even form subsequently. To do this, we try it on, holding it on weight, making sure that it does not stick. When you are convinced that the edge goes to the desired distance, you can lower the far end, set the long side of the plank exactly along the line, and set the second end butt. A wave forms near the junction. It will straighten out due to the elasticity of the tile, but the adhesive cork floor will more resemble a continuous coating and there will be no gaps between the tiles.
We glue the laid strip from the far end, first smoothing it with our hand, then tapping it with a mallet. Lay the “wave” last. It is nailed with a mallet towards the joint. It turns out a very tight seam. All other tiles are laid in the same way. They should be a little tight. Due to the received wave, we seal the seam, in subsequent rows, due to elasticity, we also correct the discrepancies between the strips in size.
When laying the second and subsequent rows, we also compact the longitudinal joint by creating “crowding”, but not to the same extent. Tightly, with a slight bend, we attach the bar to the edge of the laid one, after which we lower the opposite edge (the joint on the short side is still the same – with a wave). We carefully tap each tile over the entire plane with a mallet, paying special attention to the joints.
We cut the tiles near the walls so that there is a gap of 5 mm. This distance compensates for the thermal expansion of the floor covering and it does not swell when the temperature rises.
Difficult places
Laying cork flooring is rarely without complications. It is usually difficult to bypass the pipes. Try to make them meet the junction of the tiles. If not, we cut the cork in this place. but not straight, but obliquely, and so that the upper front part lies on the lower one.
In any case, first we make a template from thick paper or cardboard. We lay the cork floor so that less than one tile remains before the pipes, wait some more time for the glue to dry even better, otherwise the paper or cardboard will simply stick and cannot be torn off without damage. In general, we wait about an hour or a little more. Now the template will not stick “tightly”. We cut out a piece of paper (cardboard) according to the size of the tile, then we cut out what should come out of it. We attach the cork to the sheet, circle and cut it out, then glue it in place. It’s long, but it will turn out beautifully and without flaws. If something goes wrong, the flaws can be repaired with parquet sealant before varnishing.
After laying the entire cork floor, according to technology, it is supposed to be rolled with a pressure roller. This is an ordinary roller, but its mass is 50 kg and it firmly presses the coating to the glue. Since not everyone has such a device, you can try to replace it – gently trample on the entire surface yourself. The weight is not less, so the effect should be.
Cork plinth
The penultimate stage of laying the cork flooring is the installation of the cork plinth. It is “tightly” glued to the floor covering, then it is also filled with varnish. So laid cork parquet is absolutely hermetic – a kind of trough is formed on the floor, the burs of which are the plinth. Therefore, we pay special attention to fitting – the joints must be tight.
The fitting process is not much different from the installation of a skirting board made of ordinary materials: the corners are cut with a carpenter’s miter box (how to do it right, read the article about the ceiling skirting board here, but the floor skirting board is also cut). The fitted cork plinth is glued to the floor surface, but not to the wall. He just leans against the wall.
By choosing the length, the approach is this – we cut off a little longer than necessary so that the joints are without gaps. After everything is cut, folded dry, the docking is checked (the flaws can be improved with sandpaper), you can glue the cork plinth. We glue a strip along the width of the plinth on the floor with glue, on the underside of the plinth itself, wait for the right time, glue it in place, pressing it well with our hands.
Now the floor is almost ready. The laying of the cork coating on the glue is completed, the final stage remains – varnishing. We leave the finished floor to dry for several days (usually 72 hours, but look exactly in the instructions for the glue) and while we try not to walk on it – so as not to move or get dirty. After the final setting of the glue, varnishing can begin.
How to varnish
The varnish is applied in a few words with a velor roller. The number of rollers – according to the number of layers. Before varnishing, carefully inspect the cork floor for defects. They will definitely be – you laid the tiles with flaws, in addition, new ones may appear in the process of work: the edge is crumpled somewhere, a dent has formed somewhere, etc. After the first varnishing, all these flaws are covered with parquet sealant. The first layer is a large consumption of varnish, but the film does not form on the surface, but all the flaws “climb” out. We eliminate them. Please note, if the tile is already with a protective varnish coating (there are some), we use the sealant immediately.
We take parquet sealant of a suitable color. Sometimes you have to mix several different colors to get the right shade. We close up recesses, chips, etc. with them. We immediately wipe the excess.
After applying the first coat of varnish, be prepared for the fact that all the flaws will become more visible, and the surface will become rough. We close up all the flaws, after the sealant dries, we smooth out the roughness over the entire plane of the floor with sandpaper with a medium grain. The resulting dust is removed with a vacuum cleaner, wiped with a damp cloth. After drying, cover with a second layer of varnish. We pour it without sparing, fill in all the bumps (chamfers, if any, too). Sometimes this is sufficient (floor is smooth), sometimes a third layer is required. If you need the next layer, again with a sandpaper with a slightly finer grain, we eliminate roughness, remove dust, wipe, dry, varnish. So until the result satisfies you.
There is a separate article about varnishing at home. You can read it here.
Laying the castle cork coating
No wonder this type of cork is called “cork laminate”. Laying – one to one. In the same way, a substrate is required, only it is better to use cork. The difference is that it is also recommended to lay a dense plastic film under it. It is better if it is seamless, but you can splice two canvases. You will need double sided tape for this.
Two canvases are spread with an overlap of 10-15 cm. The knock is glued with two strips of double-sided tape. This ensures a sufficient degree of sealing. This layer cuts off the possibility of capillary suction of moisture in case of wetting of the overlap.
A substrate is laid on the spread film, and a cork floor with locks is already laid on it. The whole process is similar to laying a laminate, but it is described here.