Catherine... you need to seal the floors with a varnish. Marine varnish works well because it's water resistant. Then you can damp mop the floors to clean them. Have you thought of an industrial rubber floor? They're great if you do a lot of cooking. I always freak out when people put in hard tile floors! They're killer to stand on and anything that falls, shatters!

You can get floating cork floors that are pre-sealed. Years ago in Europe I did my bathroom floor with pre-sealed cork tiles and they held up to splashes with no problem. They're so much warmer than tiles, too.

I love the idea of a soft kitchen floor that I could sit on.

I have cork floors in my kitchen and love them! The planks I bought were pre-finished, but I had the installers put an extra two coats of poly on too. I have two dogs who run through the room constantly and it has held up really well. An added bonus of the cork is that things generally don't break if you drop them. I dropped a jar of grape jelly the other day and cringed as I watched it fall - but the thing just bounced. If I had the old tile, I'm sure it would have shattered...

Cork floors aren't "green" if you seal them with marine varnish or polyurethane, as both of these finishes contain toxic, off-gassing chemicals. It takes yearly, or in a kitchen, probably bi-yearly, upkeep, but you can wax them. The finish and upkeep is very similar to hardwood. Waxed cork floors were one of Frank Loyd Wright's favorite things and the original floors are still being walked on in several of his residences today. It is a misconception that cork won't hold up, it is extremely durable and beautiful. (And yes you just damp-mop)

Cork floors are great. I had them in the UK and there they came pre-sealed and were easy to mop. Also, as everyone says, great for standing for long periods and not breaking things.

And I liked the fact that they were comparatively cheap but didn't look it.

We're going to have a kitchen floor situation soon, and I'd love to try a rubber or epoxy floor.

I'm here in Denmark right now. My cousin, here, has had cork floors for 18 years, and they look great. She puts some sort of cleaning/finish on the floor, not sure what it is. So many things are green here, maybe that is as well.

susan, thekitchendesigner.org

We installed 24" cork tiles in our Seattle kitchen seven years ago and have been thrilled with them. Nothing breaks, it feels great under your bare feet and best of all you can't see dirt! We finished the floor with a water based clear coat called CrystalFin that requires a hardener when used as a floor finish. It dries quickly, is non-toxic and has held up great.

When we were floor shopping recently we looked at cork. They have more variety than I never could have imagined. One thing - supposedly they are prine to fading in a room with lots of direct sun.

The owner of the wine shop I frequent had leftover floating cork flooring anf used it on his counters. He coated them with 3-4 coats of poly. Looks fabulous! Just gorgeous... Has anyone used this on a kitchen countertop. We've done our galley kitchen over and it has the feel of an elegant wine bar. We thought cork on the counters would be a green and inexpensive fix for our laminate counters. Biggest concern is under the coffee maker. My husband "spills" and I'm concerned the seams of the floating tiles will suffer. Any thoughts?