Do you want retro-style, resilient flooring for your kitchen, bathroom, basement — maybe even your entire house? We tend to write about new designs one at time — when we, or readers, spot them. And we’ll continue doing that. But realistically, if you are in the market for new resilient flooring, I recommend that you prepare your eyeballs and start looking through all the styles available from every manufacturer. “Every manufacturer?” Yes — and to help, I’ve begun the following list.
“Resilient”: meaning not tile or concrete, but cushioned flooring stuff that kind of bounces back underfoot.
Shown above: Dave and Frances’ Marmoleum-brand linoleum floor.
Where to look for linoleum flooring — available in sheets or in tiles:
I know of three companies in the U.S.:
- Marmoleum
- Armstrong
- Johnsonite
Where to look for vinyl, luxury vinyl and vinyl composite flooring — sheet and tile:
Brian and Keri chose an Azrock 12″ vinyl tile for their kitchen update.
In alphabetical order:
- Amtico
- Armstrong
- Azrock
- Congoleum
- Fritztile
- IVC
- Johnsonite
- Karndean
- Lonseal
- Mannington
- Olympia Tile
- Tandus-Centiva
- Tarkett
Important research tip: When searching these companies’ websites, look at the Residential/Homeowner sections of these companies’ websites, of course. BUT, you may be most likely to find flooring that suits our midcentury sensibilities in the Commercial/Contract sections.
I started to try and bucket and sort particular lines by size and type… but immediately became frustrated because there are so many options. Perhaps I will do this someday — but it will need to be an X-Y chart. There IS a lot of cool stuff available.
Meanwhile, check out this IVC basic sheet vinyl collection — these sheets are 13’2″ wide — you could get this in most midcentury kitchens, I bet, with no seams.
Where to find glue-down cork flooring:
Rebecca and Keith installed cork floors in their mid mod kitchen remodel.
Re cork flooring, I don’t know anything about the new floating floor technologies, so for this list, I focused on companies that sell original style glue ’em down cork flooring, just like I have in my 1951 bedrooms and foyer. When and if I ever redo these floors (the foyer in particular has seen better days), I will be using glue-down tiles from companies such as these:
- Duro Design Cork Flooring
- Expanko
- Evora Cork
- Forna Cork Flooring
- Globus Cork Flooring
- Jelinek Cork Flooring
- Lisbon Cork Flooring
- Nova Cork Flooring
- U.S. Floors
- Wicanders
Note: I have no idea how to vet the quality of one manufacturer’s cork floor tile vs. another’s. I do note in their product descriptions, however, that some tiles are thicker than others. I’m betting thick = longer lasting. As I mentioned, I have cork tiles in my foyer that were installed in 1951. A few years ago, I actually had them refinished. Yes, we started by trying to sand the top layer — but that didn’t work too well, the machine kept clogging. So then, my floor refinisher did some scraping thing. He then recoated the floor in some sort of liquid finish (I did not take the name down, my floor refinisher recommended it). The floor is gougy in some places — this was a bear of a job — but you don’t really see the scrapes unless you squat down and look for them sideways in the light — moreover, it salvaged my floors for another long time, probably decades.
I think we are not very hard on these floors compared to prior residents; in the 10 years since they have been refinished, I don’t see any visible further deterioration.
All this to say: It seems like you can refinish cork — the glue-down kind. (I do not know whether this is possible with the floating floors.) So the thicker the tile you start with, the more times you could conceivably refinish the floor.
Note, Precautionary Pam reminds: Be sure you know what’s in the vintage layers of your house — they could contain vintage nastiness such as lead and asbestos …. consult with a professional to assess what you have so that you can make informed decisions. For more info and links see our Be Safe / Renovate Safe page here.
All of our flooring research
is filed in the category Kitchen Help / Flooring
Thank you, dear readers: I was turned on to a number of these companies — likely, most — by readers. Thank you a million times over!
Are we missing any companies, readers?
If so, please comment and let us know!
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Lori Gibson says
There is a new type of cork floor by Harris Wood. It is called “LVC” or luxury vinyl cork. It is a plank product with a vinyl backing, a later of cork and then a wood image and a wear layer. The product has the comfort and warmth of cork but a easy to care for surface that looks amazingly like real wood.
jivesnake says
I was just googling colored cork and came across recycled cork rubber tile. Company is Zandur and the stuff comes in every color you can think of (48). It may just be similar to that stuff you can put on your garage floor but on line it looks a lot like gold flecked Formica!
Check it out:
http://reps.zandur.com/crfcolor.html
Ed says
Thanks for that link jivesnake. We are looking for replacement lino for our 1940s kitchen. The original lino is still down and if I could save it I would, but it is just sooo worn. Missing in some places. This looks very interesting.
Jennie & Aidan says
Just came across this post, I realize its older, so I may not get many responses. I’m wondering if any of you lovely people have big dogs? We have a 65 lb dog and a second 50 lb rescue pup is about to join our family! We’re going to redo the basement rec room flooring soonish, and we need something that is mid century appropriate (1958 sidesplit), and very durable against big dogs and their nails. The walnut engineered hardwood we put in upstairs is beautiful, but already scratched up a year later. We installed a wood look vinyl plank floor in the previous house, and even that wasn’t immune to the dog. It certainly wasn’t the most expensive option, so maybe some are more durable than others. Since it’s the basement, we’re looking for moisture resistant, just in case. Any advice???
Holland VanDieren says
I have a houseful of big rescue dogs too. Past couple of homes, I’ve used commercial grade vinyl, which is cost-effective, durable and looks great. Former house, I put in Mannington sheet and in my present house, I have Armstrong Stonetex 18″ x 18″ tiles. Neither one has ever been marked by my dogs’ nails (which I do keep trimmed for their own comfort — I’m sure that helps.) And I don’t use polish, which I found just dulls in traffic areas and is more likely to show surface scratches. My vinyls have looked much better with the natural matte finish.
(If you go to today’s entry from Pam on flooring, I said some more about this.)
Lisa Crocker says
I installed the Marmoleum Click Cinch Loc flooring in the kitchen of my mid-century modest ranch. I love it! Easy to clean and easy to stand on for hours at a time. Lots of colors and patterns to choose from.
Keith says
I have searched Armstrong VCT and the other ones you listed (many thanks), but I have not found something suitable for a nice match to the light pink appliances of the early 1960’s. I was hoping to use Armstrong’s VCT, but the only pink is called “shocking” and it lives up to it’s name. I was more looking for something more of a match, like gray and soft pink in a checkerboard pattern. Any readers have suggestions?
Pam Kueber says
Hi Keith, I tend to think that heading into the 60s, folks trended toward vinyl sheet rather than vinyl tiles. Also, checkerboard flooring was not that common in kitchens that I’ve seen.
I whipped through some of my go-to sites and like you, found nothing in that desirable light pink. How about a sheet flooring that is warm white/gray with pink undertones, something like this: https://residential.tarkett.com/en_US/collection-C000479-footnotes/impresario-white-58053
I though that Tarkett COMMERCIAL had lots of nice looks. But like I said, I did not go through everyone’s stuff — there are lots to go through.
Fundamentally what I’m suggesting is: Go neutral but with some underlying pattern/movement in colors that harmonize with your cabinetry, appliances and countertop.
Pam Kueber says
Hey Keith, I ran across this one for ya, what do you think? https://retrorenovation.com/2017/11/07/before-after-kitchen-1965-pink/