Grout for Cork floor tiles

[nomisg]

I am looking for advice as to a suitable coloured grout for cork floor tiles. These are not your average cork tiles, but a cork mosaic. For those who have never seen them (not easily available in UK), imagine hundreds of 6mm. slices of bottle cork stuck to a spacing mesh. They are laid in the same way as mosaic sheet, but stuck down with a cork adhesive. Joint spacing can exceed 5mm. They are laid on a solid wood floor, but upstairs, so there is a need for some flexibility. The cork is of course flexible, and has been acrylic sealed. Can anyone advise on a brand of floor grout that could be suitable? Mapei make a good colour range, but there is one other consideration - the final "cleaning off" has to done without anything too abrasive to avoid damaging the cork, so a reasonable time needs to be available for "polishing". Additional sealer is applied after the grout is fully dry. Any thoughts gratefully sought

[Dave]

Hello and welcome..

Not one i have seen or heard of and IMO grout will not hold..

Does it not say on the instructions what to use..?

[nomisg]

I think the cork product is made in Eastern Europe, but I acquired "old stock" from someone who had a dozen square meters left over. I cannot find any proper information on it. The continent tends to have stone/concrete floors throughout a house,so no problem. Thanks for the reply.

[Dave]

The only one that might hold is Epoxy.. but will have to use hot'ish water to remove and will hold into any holes/pores in the cork..

Have you any pics..?

[maniek]

is it sth like this

http://www.habitusnyc.com/CORK%20MOS...%20HABITUS.pdf

[Dave]

is it sth like this

http://www.habitusnyc.com/CORK%20MOS...%20HABITUS.pdf

Hey thanks for that.. i have never seen those before and the instructions are on there..

[nomisg]

Photo attached. We were short of "bottle tops" for all the rooms so we made up some parquetry patterns with solid cork to eke it out.

[maniek]

looks good, unusual, can you post some pic after grouting it??

[maniek]

Dave, I've seen them before but they seems to be kind of underlay but never grouted

[aph257]

Photo attached. We were short of "bottle tops" for all the rooms so we made up some parquetry patterns with solid cork to eke it out.

a good idea, i wonder how many corks i've thrown away over the years! prop more than enough to cover my house!!!!!!!

[nomisg]

is it sth like this

http://www.habitusnyc.com/CORK%20MOS...%20HABITUS.pdf

Maniek - Many thanks. It appears that most of the major brands will work! You can use coloured grout, and we may stencil the solid sections with a pattern. Any thoughts as to preference for ease of final "polishing" ? I have used several brands for wall grouting, but not on a regular basis. Mapei appears to have the best range of ready mixed colours. I could mix my own, but this is definitely not a cut it out and do it again job!

[Ken Bruty]

Nice post nomisg/maniek, I never knew this was possible, and if anyone had asked I would have probably said no, until now. Looks very good too. Would be good to see some pics when finished if possible.

[nomisg]

Maniek, I am posting a picture of the first floor finished. This is ivory grout and Acrylic gloss sealer. We may add some stencil designs to the borders. Thanks again to all for your help.

[Dave]

I quite like that..

[Bri]

Ive never seen anything quite like that before. I didn't think I'd like it, but I really do! Very striking and different!

[user123]

Last time I looked my new pc wasn't geared up for seeing the images, now it is and I love this - cork is wonderful stuff, what a good idea!

[maniek]

nomisq the floor look great to me..
was it difficult to clean the cork after grouting??

[nomisg]

Maniek. It needs to be well stuck down with a sealing coat before grouting to prevent the odd cork dislodging. Grout can be left "low" by sponging off several times or left full. Afterwards you can sand it which removes any imperfections and dry powder. Final coats of sealant finish the job. We found a great product called Abranet, which is a form of abrasive net, available in different grades and shapes. It is velcro backed and because it is "open" backed does not clog when using the finer grades.

[nomisg]

Mosaic Girl. Only just picked up your post. Have a look at this site for some of the ideas that have been tried with this product.
Welcome to Cork mosaic
Only problem is that it is not - to my knowledge - available in the UK, and costs €85 per square meter in Germany! For art work I guess one could cut wine corks on a miniature cut-off saw, or stamp them out of sheet with a punch, though most sheet of decent thickness does not have much character.

[user123]

Mosaic Girl. Only just picked up your post. Have a look at this site for some of the ideas that have been tried with this product.
Welcome to Cork mosaic
Only problem is that it is not - to my knowledge - available in the UK, and costs €85 per square meter in Germany! For art work I guess one could cut wine corks on a miniature cut-off saw, or stamp them out of sheet with a punch, though most sheet of decent thickness does not have much character.

Thanks for that, nomisg, yes, noticed it was an American site and did wonder...but it is another texture to think about including in projects, very nice ideas overload...

[maniek]

nomisg i just checked polish market and looks like you can get sq meter for about 18 pounds

[nomisg]

Maniek. Very interesting! Appears that I had heard right. If that is a "retail" price then it would be a viable product. We were in a real quandary about the bathroom floors. Carpet is great for the tootsies, but has the potential for rot, smell and dirt; marble is great providing you are a 20 year old Ballet dancer without a hangover and the Marmoleum type products remind me of an F1 garage floor. Plain cork is also a bit 1960's. This material is warm, and quite forgiving in the laying since there are 100's of joints and no true straight lines. The fancy patterns were our attempt to maximise the 13 meters we had, but we are quite pleased with the result; the edging enabled us to "square" the rooms (old house), and not have to stick fragments of cork roundels around the basin etc.

[maniek]

marble is great providing you are a 20 year old Ballet dancer without a hangover

its retail price...

[Scott]

I like it, but not sure i would have it myself. Its very retro but retro is very in at the moment

[nomisg]

Just for fun- rooms 2 and 3. We were running out for the last one! Thanks for all your posts.

[user123]

Love that second picture, not keen on the first look, but the second, oh yes, could live with that... looks incredibly soothing, calm, soft and comfortable - very nice

[nomisg]

Thank you Mosaic Girl. That's Mapei Terracotta.

[glt1]

Hi,
I know this is an old thread, but Maniek - I would really like to know where you can get the cork tiles for at that kind of price?? I can't find anything under about £75 sq m.
Please help!