Laying timber flooring over cork tiles

Daithi

Hi all,

I am currently going to lay down timber floor boards in my kitchen / dining, however my current surface is old cork tiles. I am assuming these have been glued directly onto the concrete slab below so aware getting them off is going to be a lot of work. Is it OK to channel out the cork tiles so that I can lay down my timber battens (attach to concrete) prior to floor boards? Or else am I able to lay the floor boards directly onto the cork tiles (unlikely)?

Thanks for any help on this, appreciated.

David.

MitchellMc

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Daithi. It's fantastic to have you join us and many thanks for your questions.

You might like to consider our range of timber look laminate flooring which can be laid directly over the cork tiles once an underlay has been installed. It's easy to install, looks fantastic and you could start laying straight away. You should find this step-by-step tutorial helpful: How to lay laminate flooring.

I can't see any reason why channelling out the cork and fixing battens directly on the concrete wouldn't work. If you do channel out the cork then a Multi-function tool would be great for the job.

If you were to lay the timber flooring over the cork, I'm not really sure how you would go about fixing it to the concrete. The only option I can think of would be concrete nails and they don't have particularly attractive heads on them.

Let me mention @Brad, @ProjectPete and @Walzz to see if they might like to join the conversation.

Mitchell

Alilou

I wish to lay clay tiles over sound cork floor tiles on top of chipboard underfloor.

EricL

Hello @Alilou

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's sensational to have you join us.

If you are planning on tiling over your existing floor, I suggest removing the cork tiles and laying down James Hardie 1800 x 1200 x 6mm 2.16m² Ceramic Tile Underlay Flooring down first and tiling over that. The cork floor is too soft and flexible to be tiled over whereas the ceramic tile underlay is rigid and will provide a sound base for the tiles.

Here are some handy step-by-step guides:

If you need further assistance, please let me know.

Eric