Flooring Types
Cork Flooring in New Orleans
We install cork flooring in homes across New Orleans, Metairie and the Northshore, in tiles and floating planks. Cork can handle a humid city when it's acclimated, sealed in wet rooms and laid over a flat subfloor, but it doesn't belong in a room that floods.
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What kinds of cork flooring can you choose from?
This page is for homeowners considering cork for a bedroom, office, kitchen or upstairs room. It covers the forms cork comes in, where it fits in New Orleans homes, how to get the install right in a settling house, and how to care for it.
Cork comes in a few forms, and the form decides how it goes down.
Glue-down cork tiles
Thin tiles bonded to the subfloor, which suit kitchens and baths where the finish can be sealed across the joints.
Floating cork planks
Click-together planks that float over an underlayment, with no glue to the subfloor.
Cork underlayment
Cork also goes under other floors as an underlayment layer, for example in upstairs rooms.
Built for New Orleans
Where cork flooring works in New Orleans homes, and where it doesn't
Most of the rules for cork here come down to water and sun.
Bedrooms, offices and upstairs rooms
Dry rooms with steady air conditioning are the easy fit, including the upper floors of raised homes.
Kitchens, baths and mudrooms
AmCork's install guide says kitchens, bathrooms, laundry rooms and entry or mud rooms should be recoated with polyurethane so dirt and liquid can't get through the joints. Without that recoat, keep cork out of wet rooms.
Rooms that can flood
For homes in flood-prone areas, FEMA suggests replacing wooden floorboards and carpet with tile, vinyl, rubber or other flood-resistant materials. On a ground floor that can flood, look at those floors.
Sunny rooms
AmCork notes that cork, like any wood floor, fades in prolonged direct sunlight. Use blinds, drapes or window film in sunrooms and on west-facing galleries.
- 890459Residential license
- 3667Commercial license
- 14Cities in the New Orleans metro
- FREEEstimate on all services
How it works
Getting the install right in a humid, settling city
The USDA Wood Handbook lists outdoor equilibrium moisture content in New Orleans at 13.7% to 15.0% depending on the month, and the City of New Orleans notes that houses not on deep pilings are seeing differential settlement. Both shape a cork install.
- 01
Acclimate first
AmCork warns that with improper acclimation, the floor could expand or contract after installation, so the cork sits in the air-conditioned house before it goes down.
- 02
Flatten the subfloor
AmCork says any abnormality in the subfloor will show through cork parquet tiles, so settled floors get leveled first.
- 03
Radiant heat
AmCork's tiles work only with hot water radiant heating, not electric, at no more than 85 degrees. Our floor heating page covers heated floors.
- 04
Mop lightly
AmCork says to damp mop as needed and never saturate the floor with water.
How cork compares with bamboo and vinyl
Two neighboring floors are worth comparing before you decide.
- Cork or bamboo Both are plant-based floors that need acclimation and steady humidity. See our bamboo flooring page.
- Cork or vinyl FEMA's guide accepts vinyl only when it is chemical-set on concrete, not over plywood, so for a ground-floor kitchen or bath that could flood, ask how the vinyl will go down. See our vinyl flooring page.
Where we install cork flooring and how to get a free estimate
We install cork across New Orleans, Metairie, Harahan, Kenner, Mandeville and Covington. See every town on our service areas page, and read about the job on our flooring installation page.
For a free estimate, tell us the rooms, whether any of them are wet rooms and whether the house is raised or on a slab.
Explore
Related flooring types
Bamboo Flooring
Learn more about Bamboo Flooring
Carpet Flooring
Learn more about Carpet Flooring
Engineered Wood Flooring
Learn more about Engineered Wood Flooring
Reviews
What Customers Say About TurnKey Floorings
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