Cork Floor Expansion Gap

A cork floor laid in a moisture laden room such as a basement without expansion gaps can have a catastrophic effect.

Cork floor expansion gap.

Temperature and humidity will change in all rooms. Expansion gaps are essential in all laminate floor installations. This is a floor in trouble. The expansion gap should be around the whole perimeter of the room wherever the flooring may be against fixed objects such as walls doorways radiator pipes and fireplaces.

Planks can expand as much as one inch in every direction. The term expansion gap when used in conjunction with wood flooring refers to the space left around the edges of a room when a floor is fitted. Why gaps are important. The great advantage of using cork strips is their soft spongy texture.

The cork expansion strips compensate for the work of the floor and provide strain relief in places where there may be warping and deformation of the surface. This allows your wooden floor to naturally expand against the cork when required. To combat this our cork expansion strips can be used. An expansion gap is a term used when fitting wooden flooring.

Corks expansion properties can never be overestimated. Expansion gaps are spaces left around the perimeter of rooms against fixed objects such as columns thresholds hearths baseboard and other stationary items built or secured into the framing structure of the home. But when properly used expansion gaps can relieve the pressure from heat expansion that can affect a floating floor before it meets an immovable vertical obstruction like a wall a doorpost an installed cabinet or a supporting column. Vitrex cork expansion strips 0 6m x 12 5mm 18 pack questions page 2.

These 20mm x 15mm strips simply fit into your expansion gap providing a look that is more visually pleasing than a visible emptiness. Each piece may only move a little but that adds up over the width of an entire room. Even though wood flooring used is no longer living and breathing it still reacts to moisture changes in the environment. We usually think of gaps as a bad thing.

These cork expansion strips have been designed for use around the perimeter of the room. This result is the laminate flooring will expanding and contract as the temperature and humidity change. And like all natural materials cork expands and contracts with changes in weather. They have not been tested for use between floor boards although they may help to fill gaps between floor boards if required.

This leads to buckling or floor planks bending off of the subfloor and into the air. Normally a space of between 10 and 15mm it s not a huge amount of space but it s enough to help prevent problems with wood flooring when it expands and contracts. This cumulative effect requires you to leave a 1 2 inch space around the perimeter of the flooring. The cork is used to fill it as this material isn t only an aesthetic finish on the floor but also plays a very important roll it absorbs all stresses related to floor work.

It s the same with solid and engineered wood floors.