A Photo Tour: Before and After - A Cork Floor Installation and Room Transformation

It was time to re-do this home's multi-purpose room and cork was selected as the flooring of choice. The room is pretty much the first room you see upon entering the home and with its ragged and stained carpet, it wasn't a pleasant welcome. Installing cork would ensure a clean, stylish look and by beveling the edges of the tiles, provide an additional pleasing visual. Cork also serves the multi-functional purpose of being a warm floor both in look as well as function. The honeycomb cellular structure of cork that is created from enclosed air cells makes cork a natural thermal and acoustic insulating material - created by nature.

Before: A multi-purpose room is ready for a make over.

The Transformation

After removing the carpet and prepping the room, the installation process began. To add an additional thermal and acoustic layer to the floor, QuietCork underlayment was installed first. This was followed by a plywood subfloor. The holes, seams and any imperfections on the subfloor must be patched with filler prior to installing the cork floor tiles.

QuietCork underlayment is installed over the original subfloor providing an additional acoustic and thermal insulative layer.

Plywood subfloor installed over the QuietCork layer.

Patching and filling the plywood subfloor. Making the subfloor smooth helps keep imperfections from "telegraphing" through to the cork tile.

Once the subfloor is complete, its time to start prepping for installation. As this is a glue-down cork floor tile, water-based contact cement is applied to both the back of the cork tiles as well as the subfloor. Once it dries, the tile and the floor adhere to each other.

Laying out the tiles and rolling contact cement on the backs of the tiles can be an easier process however be careful contact cement doesn't get on the front of the tiles.

Rolling contact cement onto the prepared subfloor.

Once the contact cement dries thoroughly on both surfaces, its time to install the cork floor tiles.

Once the contact cement is dry on both surfaces, its time to start installing the cork tiles.

The cork floor is installed! Note: This is an unfinished tile so there is still more work to be done.

Now that the floor is installed, its time to finish the floor. To seal and protect the floor, typically three coats are recommended. In this case, one coat of sealer was used followed by two coats of finish - a water-based polyurethane. 

Sealer is applied to the installed yet unfinished cork floor.

Once the sealer is dry, two additional coats of water-based polyurethane are applied.

The floor is finished!

Once the floor is finished and the polyurethane has dried, its time to furnish the room!

The room is finished!

What a transformation!!!

Cork Flooring: Jelinek Cork Flooring (glue-down). Pattern: Madrid. Extras: Custom beveled edges.

Giving a powder room a fresh look: Jelinek Cork Mosaic Floors

A water leak in the powder room of this 25 year old home led to a stylish update. Jelinek Cork Mosaic was chosen as the flooring using a dark gray grout.

Before: 

The powder room before the update.

During:

Jelinek Cork Mosaic installed, next step is the grout.

Grouting the Jelinek Cork Mosaic.

After the cork mosaic is grouted, the floor was finished with additional coats of water-based polyurethane. The trim, vanity and toilet were also installed. The finished room looks amazing! A beautiful, stylish powder room!

After:

Its done! 

More information on Jelinek Cork Mosaic. 
Installation Instructions for Jelinek Cork Mosaic.

Jelinek Cork Flooring - A Photo Tour

Cork flooring adds so much to a room both in decor and function. Cork flooring looks beautiful and adds warmth to any room. With many patterns available, it blends perfectly with all interiors. Functionally, cork has many natural benefits. To list only a few, cork is sound absorbing and insulating, warm and comfortable under foot, easy to clean and maintain, durable and long lasting. Cork is also a fully sustainable, natural resource. To learn more about the many benefits of cork flooring, visit jelinek.com

Now on to the tour...

Jelinek Cork Flooring, pattern: Chestnut, Available in Glue Down Tiles and Floating Floor.

Jelinek Cork Flooring, pattern: Harmony. Available in Glue Down Tiles and Floating Floor.

Jelinek Cork Flooring, pattern: Traditional Pebble. Available in Glue Down Tiles and Floating Floor.

Jelinek Cork Flooring, pattern: Casablanca. Available in Glue Down Tiles and Floating Floor.

Jelinek Cork Flooring, pattern: Corkstone. Available in Glue Down Tiles and Floating Floor.

Jelinek Cork Flooring, pattern: Harmony Brown. Available in Glue Down Tiles and Floating Floor.

Jelinek Cork Flooring, pattern: Harmony White. Available in Glue Down Tiles and Floating Floor.

Jelinek Cork Flooring, pattern: Madrid. Available in Glue Down Tiles and Floating Floor.

Jelinek Cork Flooring, pattern: Sierra. Available in Glue Down Tiles and Floating Floor.

Jelinek Cork Flooring, pattern: Sierra Brown. Available in Glue Down Tiles and Floating Floor.

 
Note: Due to the natural characteristics of cork along with the variations in technology displays, the color of the tile may vary slightly from the image.

Taking a closer look: Natural Cork Top Wall Tiles

We're in the middle of painting the walls of our home and one of the walls screams "accent wall". Looking at the wall, I realize what it needs - texture. Immediately I thought of cork and the beauty and warmth it brings with it. I'm not thinking cork roll here but rather natural cork topped wall tiles - from a decorative standpoint, the perfect solution - texture, color and style. Cork is also so much more than beauty. It also brings with it the functional appeal. Its sound-deadening qualities, its insulative properties (both temperature and sounds) and if I really wanted (which I don't in this case), it could multi-function as a tackboard. You can read more about cork here.

Let's look more in depth into the options for natural cork top wall tiles.

There are three styles of natural cork top wall tiles - Colorado, Arizona and California. These are all composed of solid cork. They are individually produced directly from the bark of the cork oak tree. For those wondering, harvesting the cork does not harm the tree, the cork grows back only to be harvested time after time. Cork is a truly sustainable resource. Read more about it.

The Colorado cork tile is the unique outer bark of the cork tree. The texture is truly that of the tree. These tiles are naturally dramatic, rich, warm, and durable as Mother Nature meant bark to be.

Jelinek Cork Natural Cork Top Wall Tiles: Colorado, side view.

Jelinek Cork Natural Cork Top Wall Tiles: Colorado

The Arizona cork tile is made of the natural cork belly of the cork bark. This is the part of the cork that grows closest to the tree. The texture, though not as dramatic as the Colorado cork tile, is still dramatic as it uses the natural texture of the tree. This cork tile adds texture, warmth and character to any room.

Jelinek Cork Natural Cork Top Wall Tiles: Arizona

The California cork tile is made of solid natural cork with a unique textured surface. The tiles are composed of various "blocks" of cork giving a non-uniform look/feel with variations in color, size, thickness and texture.

Jelinek Cork Wall Tiles: California

What are we going to put on our wall? You'll have to wait and see!

 

Jelinek Cork Wall Tile, Arizona pattern, as an accent wall in a restaurant.

Jelinek Cork Wall Tile, Colorado pattern, as an accent wall.

If the natural cork top wall tiles are not for you, there are many other options for using cork on your walls. You can take a look at some of them here.

Jelinek Cork North America in Savannah, GA

Jelinek Cork North America managers meetings are being held at the Jelinek Cork facility in Savannah, GA, USA during the week of March 14, 2016. 

Sonny and Jay Jelinek taking a break from the Jelinek Cork North American managers meeting in beautiful Savannah, Georgia.

Jelinek Cork / The Cork House voted Oakville's favourite flooring store for the 3rd consecutive year!

Thank you for voting Jelinek Cork / The Cork House as your favourite flooring store for the third year in a row! We are honoured to be the Diamond Medal winner of the 2015 Oakville Beaver Readers' Choice award.

Jelinek Cork / Cork House has been voted Oakville's Best Flooring Store winning the Diamond Award! Thank you Oakville!

The Cork House, the showroom for the Jelinek Cork Group, specializes in natural home design products, flooring installations, painting and refinishing services. Eco-friendly and renewable cork products represent the core offerings of Jelinek Cork. The Cork House present these products in a real-world situation providing ideas of how to integrate sustainability into your life.

Thank you Oakville for your continued support. 

The Cork House

2441 Neyagawa Blvd.

Oakville, Ontario L6H 6Y3 

CANADA

web: corkhouse.com

phone: 905-257-5588

email: cork@jelinek.com

Cork Walls - A Natural, Sustainable Wall Covering

I remember growing up, sharing a room with my sibling and our giant cork wall. Yup - one of our walls was completely corked. It was awesome! We pinned up all our art work and many other "treasures" not worrying about putting holes all over the walls. This wall was dedicated to us and to whatever we wanted to pin onto it.

Now, having children of my own, I recognize the genius of corking an entire wall. The difference is there are now so many more choices. Yes - the standard cork roll would still work perfectly. This gives a beautiful, consistent, seamless look to the wall. It basically looks like a big bulletin board. Perfect in many instances.

Cork installed on a classroom wall helps with acoustics plus great for displaying student work.

Rolled cork installed directly on a wall.

Decorative cork wall tiles are another option and work wonderfully in any room of the house or office. You choose a pattern to match your tastes and decor. These wall tiles are available in three thicknesses depending on your needs. The thinnest cork wall tile (3mm thick) is not meant to hold pushpins, its primarily decorative. A fantastic alternative to wallpaper, paint or other wall coverings. The other two thicknesses are designed with pushpins in mind - acoustic wall tiles (1/2" thick) and tackboard wall tiles (1/4" thick). Remember cork is a fantastic insulator as well - naturally. It helps insulate against sound, temperature, vibrations.

Staggered thicknesses (acoustic and tackboard) of cork wall tiles are  installed on this tween bedroom wall.

Cork wall tiles help with acoustics while also being decorative in this basement tv room.

Cork wall tiles - decorative and functional.

Add an accent wall of cork to compliment your home decor.

 Other options include natural cork topped wall tiles. These individually hand produced wall tiles are produced from the first harvest of the fully renewable cork tree. The texture and warmth these tiles emit is amazing. Yes - you could use pushpins on these tiles or leave the tile completely undecorated as they are decor themselves. Actually all these cork tiles are decor and provide so many decorating ideas while remaining functional as well. You can see many options in cork wall and ceiling coverings at the corkstore.com or jelinek.com

Highlight a specific area of your space with a natural cork wall.

Natural cork topped wall tiles add texture and warmth.

Natural cork topped wall tiles - adding an attractive focal point to a wall.

  Questions? The friendly and knowledgeable support team at Jelinek Cork is happy to help.