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About This Project
Step-by-step instructions for laying 12-in. cork tiles, for a hassle-free, natural and comfortable floor. With some basic tools and patience, you can lay this floor in a weekend. Here's how to choose the right type, install them and apply an easy finish.
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Quiet
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Warm
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Durable
Largely popular decades ago, natural cork is quickly regaining its lost turf as a major flooring choice. Why? It’s a natural, renewable product; warm, comfortable and quiet underfoot; and just plain beautiful. Best of all, with basic tools, some patience and persistence, you can enjoy the benefits of a natural cork floor in a weekend.
In the demonstration photos, we show you how to install natural 12-in. unfinished cork tile over a sound plywood underlayment. This is just one of a wide variety of cork flooring products that are available.
An Installation Is Only as Good as the Surface BelowNatural cork squares must be glued to a flat, smooth surface. You can’t install them directly over plank flooring, vinyl or linoleum. You’ll need to screw a plywood underlayment at least 1/4 in. thick over your existing flooring.
Although it’s not the installation that we show, cork can be glued to a flat, smooth and moisture-free concrete floor. Check with your flooring supplier for special tips on installing cork over concrete.
If you already have a few layers of flooring in the room of choice, tear out the old layers and install new underlayment on the subfloor.
Cut your underlayment plywood and screw it to your subfloor or existing floor. Don’t substitute particleboard or hardboard for plywood. It must be at least 1/4 in. thick and stamped and graded as underlayment plywood.
Make sure your screws are set flush with or just below the plywood underlayment surface. Stagger the joints of your plywood (at least 32 in.) and leave a gap 1/16 to 1/8 in. between sheets. Screw the seams every 4 in. and every 6 in. elsewhere.
Plan Your Design on Graph PaperMeasure your room and draw it to scale on graph paper. As you lay out your design, avoid thin cuts of tile near walls by shifting the layout to one side or the other. Draw your border or pattern as well and add up all the tile. Buy several extra tiles of each color just in case you make some cutting errors (you can always cut the extras into coasters).
Note: Our decorative border started about 8-1/2 in. from each side wall and was 11-1/2 in. wide (close to a full-size tile) including the 2-in. special-order dark cork strips. Avoid placing a border too close to the wall.
Spread the Contact Adhesive Ahead of TimeFigure out how many cork tiles you have time to lay and roll the adhesive onto their backsides the night before. This will make the job go a lot smoother the next morning. We easily laid the tile for our 10 x 10-ft. room in one day, but if you’re a first timer, allow another day. You can cut preglued tiles when they’re dry to the touch, but if you have a lot of cutting to do (like we had for our border), then cut the pieces first and then roll the cement onto the backsides.
For an open rectangular room like ours, it works best to separate it into quadrants. Snap your lines and then spread the adhesive for your first quadrant. Overlap the adhesive an inch or more beyond the quadrant so you don’t have to meticulously roll the adhesive near the laid tile while preparing the next quadrant.
CAUTION: IF YOU HAVE AN OLD FLOOR GLUED DOWN BEFORE 1980, THERE MAY BE ASBESTOS IN THE TILE OR ADHESIVE. THIS MINERAL CAN BE HAZARDOUS IF IT BECOMES AIRBORNE, SO CALL YOUR LOCAL HEALTH DEPARTMENT TO LEARN ITS PROCEDURES FOR REMOVAL AND DISPOSAL.
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