What’s new at Kate’s retro ranch — Cork flooring!

My husband Jim and I have lived in our 1962 ranch house for six years now. The previous owners had readied the house for sale by painting every wall greige and installing new light beige carpeting in all three of the bedrooms and the hallway, which I suppose created a blank canvas for potential buyers to start with. Right away we started painting all of the walls different colors, but since the carpet was brand new, we didn’t feel like it was a priority to replace it right away, so we lived with it. Our beloved dog Leo is not easy on carpeting, so after this amount of time, there were many dog related dirt stains and wear paths on the wall to wall carpet — especially in the hallway and at the foot of our bed, where he sleeps each night. Jim and I decided it was time to replace the carpet — so we took a cue from 1962 and looked into cork. 

Why cork?

The goal for any remodeling and decor project in my 1962 ranch house is always to choose as period appropriate materials as the budget and availability will allow. Cork was a popular flooring choice in midcentury America, and one that was definitely used in our retro ranch — a few examples still were in place.

Besides being period appropriate for the era of our house, cork is a fantastic option because of its durability and ease of care, and because it is easy — somewhat resilient — and warm to walk on. It is really quite comfortable. You can read more about the benefits of cork, specifically the brand we purchased here.

How I choose my brand/style of cork

In the photo above, you can see the original cork flooring that is in the closets in each bedroom (top). The cork in the closets were still in like-new shape, so we left it as is. We really liked the look of the original cork, so we searched for a cork flooring option that would be as similar as possible to it. Wicanders CorkComfort Originals Rhapsody (0225002) vinyl backed cork flooring was the closest we could find in pattern and coloring.

The second reason we chose Wicanders was because I liked the fact it came with a protective pre-finished coating, which seemed to help it perform well in the quality test I came up with. In my test, which I used on a variety of brands of samples we had collected, I scratched the edge of a quarter across the sample with some pressure and after about 10 minutes, checked to see if the cork had “bounced back.” On the Wicanders, I could not tell where I had performed the quarter test at all. This is important for someone who lives with a large dog like Leo, whose nails have scratched our hardwood floors. And so far, he’s been unable to inflict any damage to the Wicanders cork! It could be that the Wicanders performed well because it has a protective pre-finished coating on it. This also means that I didn’t have to apply any sealer, and the flooring will not need to be periodically waxed or coated with anything to maintain it. Just vacuuming and damp mopping once in a while is all that is needed — much easier to clean up that doggy dirt! Note: It could well be that other brands that require you apply your own sealer after installation would do just as well on my quality test — do your own research on this — there are a lot of options to weigh!

We also notice that the cork hides dirt quite well, so even if the floor is in need of a cleaning, it doesn’t look bad at all.

Wicanders flooring is available in both glue-down and snap-together plank flooring options, but this particular style — CorkComfort Originals Rhapsody — was only available in 12″ x 23.75″ glue down tiles. While that type of installation is more challenging than snap-together planks, we were okay with it because the thinner, glue down tiles would line up evenly with our other flooring, allowing for smoother transitions between our tile bathroom floors and wood flooring in the rest of the house.

Be tenacious — but be nice, too — to avert a crisis!

Once we decided to go with the Wicanders flooring, ordering it was a challenge. It took calls to several different local flooring showrooms before we found one that could make the order for us and even then they noted that the particular style we wanted had been discontinued! Ack! I explained that I had my heart set on this particular style and the flooring representative was luckily able to find the eight boxes of flooring we needed for our project and have it shipped to their store for pick up. Crisis averted! One bonus to us picking a discontinued style: We got a nice discount on the price per square foot!

The results

Since I am well versed in DIY and the flooring itself was not inexpensive, I decided to install it myself. I started in our office first. It was quite a job and took several days, but the end results are fantastic! Of course, I followed all the installation instructions carefully and used all the safety and ventilation equipment and guidance recommended — do your homework on this — Be Safe / Renovate Safe!

Next came our bedroom. By this time I had the installation process figured out, so the hardest part was moving all of the furniture around. Broyhill Brasilia is not lightweight stuff! Once the flooring was down, Jim and I thought about getting a small area rug to go under the bed for further warmth underfoot, especially in the winter. But, we found that the cork really doesn’t get that cold, even during January in Wisconsin. On bare feet it feels much warmer than our hardwood floor in the main part of the house. We just love it!

The third bedroom got the royal cork treatment… and then…

Above: New cork installed.

…We wrapped up the job in the hallway. Another reason we picked this particular cork — look how well the color matches the hardwood flooring and the original oak trim. Keeping the flooring in the same color family makes the whole house blend together and avoids a choppy feeling.

I also love how the cork looks next to our tile bathroom floors.

Once the floor was installed, it blends together and looks like one big piece of cork — the individual tiles can only be discerned at certain angles with the light hitting them just right. I think that is part of what helps our hallway look bigger than it did before.

We’ve been living with our new cork flooring for about six months now, and we are still in love with it. It fits our lifestyle well, is easy to clean and maintain and fits the era of our house perfectly. It was not an inexpensive project — even with our discount and my doing the installation — but we think that with proper care, it should last a lifetime, whereas if we had recarpeted, our dog would have destroyed it in another 5-8 years, necessitating another major flooring project.

The verdict: If I had it all to do again, I’d pick cork every time.

Link Love:

• During my researching phase, I found this story on fellow retro loving couple Rita and Cane’s blog This Sorta Old Life to be very helpful. Lots of good information there! Of course, when undertaking projects like this, do your own research and consult with your own pros.

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