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Cork looks great and is comfortable/cushy to walk on. Bathroom 2 tile is very pretty and the thickness cuts down on cold conduction. Bathroom 1 slate is nice but cold and wish we had chosen a contrasting grout for interest. Floating plank floors need space at the edge to allow for movement, so we’ll eventually want to finish the edges somehow. Installer used red marker (slipped that one by my eagle eyes) to mark planks so we’ve found red marks at many edges. Told Mike about it and he sent a can of some cleaner up with Rich the plumber. He claims it will remove any stain; we’re hesitant to use it because it looks toxic; need to try it or come up with another concoction which will remove the marks. Bathroom 2 t-molding did not stay glued down. Mike told us to remove old glue, add new liquid nails and weight down until secure. We bought another t-molding for bathroom 1 (because the leftover reducer we had them use there is too narrow and doesn’t look right) and it, too, needs to be glued down. It would be nice looking (I think…) to put bamboo baseboard along all the floor edges; not pressing, though.

The day after we closed, an abatement company, Nealco, removed all of the asbestos floor tiles and took the bad carpet away too! They are required to test the air quality once finished so we felt safe breathing upon arrival the next day. Once the majority of the messy work was done (two weeks later), it was time to lay down floor. After walking around on cement slab with ugly mastic remains, it was wonderful and took the place a long ways towards becoming Home. Mike Orecchio and his B & M Floors team progressed quickly and were great about working around the ongoing demo/construction. As for materials, bamboo and/or reclaimed hardwood were the original choices but as we learned more about cork and it’s insulating/cushioning properties we decided to take that route. Thankfully the toilet and whole main line backed up the day before the installers were going to put cork in the bathrooms too. They (and the floor supplier) had tried to talk us out of that application, but after living in Florida where ceramic tile is everywhere, including the living room, we fought it. The overflow made us realize the un-wisdom of our decision so we scrambled around and found new material: Vermont green slate for bathroom 1 and Italian tile for bathroom 2.