Our cork floating planks are essentially a cork tile mounted onto a low-VOC and low-formaldehyde high-density fiberboard backing (this gives rigidity to allow for the tongue and the groove), below which is a layer of acoustic and thermal conglomerate cork insulation. Our floating planks have veneer tops on them, to add a diversity of designs, as well as having a ceramic finish to catapult their durability and versatility past the competition. Manufactured exclusively for Sustainable Flooring directly from Portugal, cork planks have all the acoustic, thermal, physical, and sustainable properties of cork tiles and are a breeze to install.

Cork Floating Floor Planks

Ceramic-Infused Finish

* Barley Cork Flooring

* Bock Cork Flooring

Stout Cork Flooring

Weiss Cork Flooring

* Witte Cork Flooring

* Barbera Cork Flooring

* Wheat Cork Flooring

Water-Based Polyurethane Finish

Franc Cork Plank

Malbec Cork Plank

* Ortega Cork Plank

Vidal Cork Plank

Vegetable Oil Finish

* Barbera Cork Plank

* Cortese Cork Plank

* Moscato Cork Plank

Note: (*) available in more than one finish
Click on any tile to view a larger image.

Size

Approximately 12″ x 36″ x 7/16″ (actually 300mm x 900mm x 11mm)

Installation
Our planks are floated on top of a suitable substrate (plywood, OSB, concrete, gypcrete, etc.). The planks are attached to one another using a proprietary tongue and groove locking mechanism. You do NOT use adhesive or glue. These planks, as the name indicates, are designed to be “floated” on top of a subfloor. This basically means that they are not adhered to the subfloor, and are allowed to expand and contract with the changes of relative humidity within the space. The floating planks tend to expand and contract as a unit, as opposed to individually when using the glue down tiles. The planks also tend to be more suitable in “remodel” situations where the subfloor is often less than ideal for the tiles, and the cost to make the tiles suitable is more expensive than the increased price for the planks.

Finish

Our cork planks come with a variety of finishes:

• The ceramic-infused polyurethane finish is our newest addition to our cork line. Sporting 3 coats on the surface, this new, ultra-durable finish virtually guarantees that normal traffic will never wear down the flooring to the actual cork, while maintaining all the properties that cork lovers adore.
• The water-based polyurethane is our classic cork finish that we have been selling for years. Glossy, gorgeous, and durable, the true forgiveness of the cork beautifully evident with this classic look and feel.
• The vegetable oil finish is a true cork lover’s dream. Earthy and intimate, this thin-feeling finish has almost zero shine and has a velvety texture over a real cork bark feeling. The durability of the finish remains unaffected while excluding all barriers between your feet and the true sense of cork underneath them.

As with the tiles, it is not a requirement to apply more finish to the surface once installed, but especially in water-prone areas, a screen and recoat process would be advisable. The screen and recoat process is quite simple, and easily done: scuff up the existing finish on the floor to remove its sheen (it can be buffed or lightly sanded), and then thoroughly clean (tack cloth to remove the fine particulates), and then apply additional ceramic-infused or water-based urethane coatings on top. We recommend commercial-grade finishes, such as Bona Kemi Traffic, as we have had tremendous results (both commercially and residentially) over the years.

Hydronic Applications

As with the tiles, our planks do wonderfully in hydronic radiant floor heat applications (contact us about electric infloor heating systems – generally not recommended, but these systems are improving all the time). A common concern, and a logical one at that, is that the cork prohibits heat flow, since it is a thermal insulator. While this is true at face value, we have found that since the hydronic systems are designed to emit continual and constant heat over time, once the heat gets through, the heat continues to get through at a generally constant rate. So, though it does take incrementally longer for the heat to initially go through the cork surface, like when the system is turned on, it does have a constant heat transference. And there is no net negative effect on the in-floor heat output. All in all, cork is a wonderful flooring material for use with hydronic infloor heat.