Cork floors - best quality vs. Click-Lock Floating floor
Kitchen Floor Hell – Part 2 So my floor guy confirms that the termite-ruined planks of my kitchen floor will be an ugly, messy repair. He’s offering to put an unfinished oak tongue and groove floor in for $1200 – plus sanding/polyurethaning. It comes to about $2100 all told. TOday I visited Aronson’s in Manhattan…
Kitchen Floor Hell – Part 2
So my floor guy confirms that the termite-ruined planks of my kitchen floor will be an ugly, messy repair. He’s offering to put an unfinished oak tongue and groove floor in for $1200 – plus sanding/polyurethaning. It comes to about $2100 all told.
TOday I visited Aronson’s in Manhattan – the Mercedes of cork flooring, apparently. They only sell cork tiles – not inexpensive, and will also do expert installation and polyurethaning. The floor will cost about $4500 installed, and I need to have a sanded smooth plywood subfloor preinstalled.
I also conttacted a cool place in East Harlem called Habitus. They sell a floating floor slcik-lock cork floor system for about $7.00 sq. ft. – they say I’ll need no sub-floor, and I can do it myself. (ahem.) This is about a third of the cost of Aronson’s. Of course the guy at Aronson stuck his nose in the air abot this solution – says it’s a lousy floor, not architectural quality etc.
What do people here think?
I’m tempted by all three solutions – the oak (boring, but perfectly servicable), the click-lock (but I think I’ll mess up the installation and would need a handyman type to install it) and the fancy Aronson’s cork – although it’s a lot of $$$ – $$$ I could use for other things in this kitchen – like counters or appliances. On the other hand – the cork is gorgeous.
Mr. Bamboo, Inc. is to introduce the high-traffic, the FIRST 100% solid strand woven bamboo floating click floor called BamLoc™, they are 100 percent harder than red oak and 18 percent harder than hard maple. BamLoc™ strand floating in natural and coffee. For longevity and exceptional wear, BamLoc™ includes six coats of ceramic sealer finish that is water-based, solvent-free and non-off gassing. The BamLoc™ boards are wider and come with three random lengths, which make it easy to install on any type of subfloor and reduced installation costs. BamLoc™ is 9/16†solid bamboo and is competitively priced at $6.50 per square foot.
As you can imagine in this day of everyone and everything going green, there is a proliferation of bamboo flooring products. Please do not be fooled, not all bamboo is the same. For homes with pets, children and lots of activity, Mr. Bamboo advises to stay away from the traditional bamboo flooring. Additionally, do not be misled with bamboo veneer products. They do not have the same properties as solid bamboo flooring. Mr. Bamboo offers only solid bamboo flooring – BamStrand™ for nail or glue down applications and the floating, clickable flooring for suspended floors – BamLoc™ .
Mr. Bamboo Team
55 Kelly St,
Elk Grove, IL 60007
Tel: 847-640-7316 or 888-672-2628
Fax: 847-952-8471
http://www.mrbambooflooring.com
Get to the bottom of your termite issues – have it treated by a professional. Then think about what color you’d like to have on floors, i.e. dark, light, red, etc.
Pre-Finished floors are a great solution for kitchens and small spaces. Pre-Finished products offer tough finishes that last longer.
Then consider your budget – if you anwser these questions – I can then make a recomendation.
Brewse
Summit Surfaces – 646-284-0304
I don’t know how big your kitchen is but from the numbers you put out it sounds like around 200 sq. ft. ($7/ft will be 1/3 of $4500 so about $1500)
You can get new oak installed, sanded, sealed, and poly’d for about $7/ft as well. Not sure if your subfloor needs a lot of work to prep it but you should be able to get 200 ft of oak installed for less than $2100. You may want to get some other quotes.