Cork Floor Expansion Gap

Without an expansion gap buckling is a common problem.

Cork floor expansion gap. This leads to buckling or floor planks bending off of the subfloor and into the air. It is an essential gap that must be left around the edge of the room when fitting hardwood bamboo or laminate flooring. This allows your wooden floor to naturally expand against the cork when required. These 20mm x 15mm strips simply fit into your expansion gap providing a look that is more visually pleasing than a visible emptiness.

Planks can expand as much as one inch in every direction. 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. The great advantage of using cork strips is their soft spongy texture. An expansion gap is a term used when fitting wooden flooring.

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 result is the laminate flooring will expanding and contract as the temperature and humidity change. 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. Vitrex cork expansion strips 0 6m x 12 5mm 18 pack questions page 2.

This cumulative effect requires you to leave a 1 2 inch space around the perimeter of the flooring. And like all natural materials cork expands and contracts with changes in weather. 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. They have not been tested for use between floor boards although they may help to fill gaps between floor boards if required.

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. This is a floor in trouble. Expansion gaps are essential in all laminate floor installations. 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.

We usually think of gaps as a bad thing. Temperature and humidity will change in all rooms. It s the same with solid and engineered wood floors. Even though wood flooring used is no longer living and breathing it still reacts to moisture changes in the environment.

Of course for a finished appearance you ll want to hide that expansion gap. To combat this our cork expansion strips can be used. 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. A cork floor laid in a moisture laden room such as a basement without expansion gaps can have a catastrophic effect.

Corks expansion properties can never be overestimated.