Today I decided to lay the cork flooring in the butlers pantry. Now, I just want you to know we don't plan to hire a butler, and since I'm not the cook in the family, I guess that makes me the butler. So I laid on the floor for myself.We had bought 120 sq ft (4 boxes) of cork tile at EcoHaus in Portland last October because they had a decent sale and don't charge sales tax (those are the operative words in our new recession). About $6 a sq ft in 1' x 3' interlocking tiles. The tiles interconnect and float over the subfloor. This means you don't nail them down anywhere, and just cover the edges with molding.
One problem here is that they want you to allow 3/8"-1/2" in for expansion, but the toe kick is made of 1/4" cherry plywood. So that's a bit of a challenge, but I'm game. Just fur the toe kick out with 1/4" cheapo plywood, then cover it with the 1/4" cherry plywood. Shoot it all in with a nail gun and you're done. Got it all laid in one day (a miracle) and even trimmed out the little platform for the washer and drier.
Got all done and thought about the freezer that will sit on the floating floor—looks like it won't float in that spot. Anyway, the main idea is to allow expansion space for the floor, but its nucleus will be the freezer not the center of the floor. No worries, the floors will stay a pretty steady 75° with the Warmboard radiant floor in the winter and 65° without heat in the summer. Yummy toe temps.Brian, my trim carpenter helper, is coming for 2 days starting on Tuesday so we'll take a whack at the skirt boards and base molding for the two floors of the stairway. Then its off to measuring and cutting all the remaining door and floor trim so we can finish it before it goes up (after floor sanding).
