http://www.corkfloor.co.uk/ The Cork Floor company sell cork flooring The Spectrum Elite is a New Glue down tile in great colours Call them on 03456 528 825

hi sue I would not touch the colour of the island,Never, The kitchen looks almost finished, it just needs NATURAL COLOUR/light oak colour flooring to finish it off, maybe a tone lighter from your kitchen worktops I advise to have a look at QUICK STEP FLOORING, there product are made to a very high standard , you can also get matching scotia's beadings, door bars and all accessories, the area that your covering is in the kitchen, look at the Splash prove/Water Prove flooring range

My father laid cork tiles precoated with polyurethane, in the kitchen of the house I grew up in, that was in the '70s, he sold the house when he retired over 20 years later and the floor was still good. I have been thinking about laying them in my current kitchen, the floor is currently of heavy duty tiles which I would coat with a self leveling screed and then lay the cork tiles, I find them comfortable summer or winter, plus the added bonus of not usually breaking things if you drop them. I have laid them a few times and find them easy to lay and I think they look good.

Hi Amy! I love cork flooring. It's really a sustainable material and has got some great properties, like sound and heat insulation. I don't have personal experience of using cork in kitchens, but I do have experience of using it in bathrooms. I think bathrooms are actually tougher on cork than kitchens, especially if you have little kids who enjoy a lot of splashing in the bath like I do!! Kitchen floors rarely get as wet, so hopefully my experience with bathroom floors in cork will help you. I'm not sure I understand from your post what the floor build-up is going to be, so I would need you to clarify a bit more on that to say anything much about the underlay or floor prep needed. What I can tell you about is my experience of both the laminate type cork flooring and the glue down cork tiles. My parents have had glue-down cork tiles, well sealed with varnish, in their family bathroom for at least 30 years and they are still going strong, although they could do with a gentle sand down and a recoat of varnish. I did a major renovation of my bathroom about 6 years ago and used the laminate type of click together cork flooring, which is absolutely beautiful. The only thing is that it really has not stood up to use. However, it was never sealed with anything, so possibly a coat of varnish might help. I was really careful to select a version that was supposed to be suitable for use in kitchens and bathrooms, but it hasn't coped with the amount of wet that happens in my bathroom. However, this is not to say that it wouldn't be OK in a kitchen if you are the kind of people to quickly clean up spills and notice and deal with leaks. The problem with my bathroom was that the tap was faulty and leaked from day one, and I didn't notice for a long time because it was behind the pedestal and soaked under the flooring. So now my floor is completely ruined and I need to replace it. But it did look beautiful for a couple of years and it did suffer from a lot of abuse from unseen leaks and then was finished off by very splashy kids bathtimes! For both bathrooms, mine and my parents, the cork floor is lovely to walk around on barefoot. You don't get the same chill that you get with tiles. So I would definitely use it again. I'm planning to replace my laminate cork floor in the bathroom with a high density cork tile instead and seal it well with some kind of eco-friendly varnish, once I've found one! Hope this helps! Jane www.i-architect.co.uk