Cork rennovation

[cork]

Hi
I have a 20+ year old cork kitchen floor. The cork is an orangy colour and the rest of the living area has been retiled recently with a grey/stone coloured tile. I'd like to rennovate the cork floor or put lino over the top. Do you know whether cork can be sanded and reglossed? Is it likely to be pale coloured after sanding- or would I be stuck with the orange colour? Can cork be stained or painted after sanding then resurfaced with a good hard wearing lacquor/sealer? If I did decide to cover it with lino could the lino go straight over the top of the cork? The cork is in good condition and nice and level.
Looking forward to some advice on this one.
Cork.

[Dusty]

Yes. The cork can be re-sanded and stained, or more to the point limed, which is simply a light stain applied and then wiped off, effectively changing the colour of the cork, yet still allowing you to see the character of the cork beneath.

It can then be coated with some form of polyurethane, in your choice of either gloss or satin.

[mic-d]

What Dusty says unless it has been sanded once already. You can only confidently sand cork once, since the tiles get too thin.

I don't know much about cork, but I asked a Co i Brisbane to come out and sand ours, and they just happened to be the same Co a previous owner had used, so no go. The tiles were originally 6mm thick, now they're 3-4mm thick - you can see what will happen with the next sanding

Cheers
Michael

[Dusty]

Correct, mic-d.

A good method of checking the thickness of the cork is to get a sturdy pin, make a mark six millimetres from the sharp end and poke it in till you hit the masonite underlay. Do this in several areas all over the floor to get a fair indication of how much cork you might have left to sand.

Also, bear in mind that if the cork seems to be too thin, that most likely underneath the cork and underlay will be some fine timber floorboards, worthy of your consideration for sanding and finishing.

[cork]

Hi all
Thanks for the advice. The liming followed by polyurethane looks like the go for us!- and I think we will go with the professional sanding option.

[Damon_11]

Hello everyone,

While of the topic of cork, I'm looking for approx 15m2 of cork tiles 6mm that I can lay on concrete and over the top will go my wood floating floor so I have a consistent cound and feel under foot across the whole floor. I have 20 year old cork the rest of the house

They don't have to be new. If anyone knows or has some, please let me know.

Thanks

Damon

[BrettB]

Hi all
Thanks for the advice. The liming followed by polyurethane looks like the go for us!- and I think we will go with the professional sanding option.

Do go with the professional sanding option because some old glues (phased out during the 80's) contain asbestos - no problem until it is sanded and becomes airborne. Probably not so much a problem if you are only sanding back the top layer (i.e and not removing the tiles completely) but just bear it in mind...

Please write with the results of liming and polyurethane on your floor. I've often wondered about colouring cork - e.g sanding it back and painting or whatever...then sealing the top. I was told by a cork seller/layer that coloured cork was tried but taken off the market as it wasn't very successful - dunno what that is meant to mean Cork would be an awesome product if it wasn't so ugly in colour!! I know it would be very pourous but surely there's a way.