Friday, August 19, 2011

Cork Flooring!

I was looking for natural products for flooring, and had settled on cork or marmoleum. Cork is made from a rapidly renewable resource, and is a great comfortable surface to walk on. Marmoleum is a healthy and durable alternative to linoleum, made from linseed oil and wood flour (an old technology that is experiencing a resurgence, it is also known as "battleship floor," as that is what the Navy used in their ships.) Both products are durable and renewable.

Both products are rather pricey too, at $8/sf material cost. Even for my tiny floor, I would end up spending almost $1000 on my floor!!!

I went to a local floor supplier and asked him what he had for odd stock lying around. He showed us some cutoffs of marmoleum which would have sufficed, and as we were hemming and hawing about them, the flooring guy said he would check out back to see what he has in the back.

He came back with a cartload of boxes, and apologetically told us they were all different patterns, leftovers from a sample flooring section that they had done in the store. We were thrilled!!!

He had no use for the 75 square feet of assorted flooring. The whole lot he sold us for $100! Yay!