a friend wanted a cork floor in the kitchen, so went to home depot and they showed her some samples, she picked one and they ordered it (none in stock).
when it arrived, it turns out it’s a laminated (floating) product by Quickstyle.
is this acceptable? i mean, a floating wood floor is a long way from a hardwood floor. is the same true for cork?
she wants to upgrade her kitchen, not downgrade it.
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The big question is, is it what was shown in the store? Same SKU#?
If not, then ya got a gripe, if it is, you bought it. I'd not be concerned too much, unless it adversly affects some other aspect of the job. I can't see how it would "cheapen" her home, I mean, a new floor is still a new floor? Right?
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
They kill Prophets, for Profits.
You won't find much true cork flooring in residential, although many years ago it was popular. To do so requires much more work than the newer common floating laminate cork floors (intense floor prep). Of those I have seen, many are very similar. I consider cork an upgrade...quite comfortable and insulating as well. As far as the Quick Style product... I'm unfamiliar. I thought you meant QuickStep but they don't manufacture a cork floor.
You might want to re-target that to the OP, I'm usin local sawn Cedar for my floors (G).Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
They kill Prophets, for Profits.
The pattern of material joints in cork is more of various rectangles which look much better in 8" by 3' or 4' pieces than a strip wood floor does which is suppose to have random length pieces but have the unnatural end of three of four strips at the end of each floating floor piece every 3' or 4'.
As an old house person who expects a wood floor to be made of truely random length pieces and thus feels that the engineered floating wood floor or (insert gagging sound here) wood look laminate are truely inferior. The engineered floating cork floors I have seen have been quit nice and have a comfortable feel to them. You additionally have the easy installation of a floating floor with the factory doing all the engineering for you.
The higher end engineered floors, are random length, single strip.
It is the qucik install, long units, (7 and 8-foot), that are three or four rows wide, that end up with the strange shorts butted to shorts in a straight row look. But you can staple in a whole lot of it, (1200-sf), in a day with 4 guys, and that includes reinstalling the base boards.
The last one I did, had strips of 1, 2, 3, & 4-ft in length. By the time I cut the ends of the starter rows, and used the offcuts to start the next four rows, you couldn't tell it from prefinished solid wood.
And, the lengths you get now, are not what used to come in a bundle. The ones Dad got in the fifties, were long, 18-ft, and the shorts were generally 4-ft. Not sure if he paid a premium or not. But the bundles I remember his freinds using were pretty much the same.
I understand that a strip floor, whether it has an engineered base or solid wood will give the true random look. The original question was about floating floors which is what I was referring to does not have the true random look.