A little about finishing cork floors with the natural vegetable oil finish.

Q:
Could you tell me a little about cork floor finishes, specifically the vegetable oil finish (Jelinek Cork Comfort Finish Flooring)?

A:
Cork flooring is not impervious to stains and oils unless it is coated with some sort of finish. In fact, an unfinished floor takes stain very well, thereby allowing the floor to be stained various colors before being finished. Once coated, the finish is what protects the floor from further staining. All cork floors need some sort of finish to protect them. The most common cork floor finish is polyurethane. Polyurethane is a fairly flexible finish that allows the floor to provide somewhat of a 'cork feel' while it protects. After that there are more rigid finishes such as aluminum oxide, vinyl, and epoxy (in order of rigidity). The more rigid the finish the more it protects the floor but the less the natural properties of cork are available. For example, one reason people purchase cork flooring is for the soft, warm feeling underfoot. A cork floor finished with epoxy is so rigid that you loose this feeling entirely.

The natural vegetable oil finish is the opposite of a rigid finish. This finish maintains the feel and attributes of cork while protecting against spills and stains. It does not protect against heavy pressure points which can cause indentations (eg. a heavy desk with narrow legs will create an indentation in the floor unless furniture pads are placed under the desk legs). The other nice thing about a vegetable oil finish is that it is a natural product unlike all of the rigid finish products - its main component is "safflower oil".

A floor can be coated with vegetable oil by hand (using a rag to rub the oil into the floor) or by a machine. It does not get heated. Multiple applications of the oil are applied to create the finished floor. If finishing the floor using vegetable oil by hand (can be done at home), 3 coats of oil are recommended. The same method is used to refinish a floor if it needed to be done. However, typically only one coat would need to be applied in order to refinish the floor. Cork floors finished with the vegetable oil finish need to be cleaned with a special cleaner (called Dergos natural oil cleaner, available from corkstore.com) about once a month. There is a very small amount of vegetable oil in the cleaner that enhances the existing finish. By doing this, you generally would never need to refinish the floor (rubbing oil into the floor). In comparison, a floor finished with polyurethane often needs a new coat of urethane every 5 years or so (depending on traffic). Recoating a urethane floor involves abrading the existing finish (using either a chemical abrader or a physical abrader such as sandpaper). The new coat of urethane is applied wet and allowed to dry. It is a day long process. With the vegetable oil finish, this type of recoating is not necessary provided the floor is maintained using the cleaner.

The Jelinek Cork flooring finished with natural vegetable oil is called the Comfort Finish line. Please contact us for further details or you can order online at corkstore.com

For more information on cork flooring visit http://jelinek.com/flooring.htm