Moving Your Refrigerator Into Place

• You are far more likely to damage your cork floor while moving a refrigerator into place than after it is set up. While cork is fairly resistant to pressure, it is far less resistant to scrapes and gouging. Cover your cork floor with plywood on top of an old quilt or other padding before moving any heavy appliance or piece of furniture across it. Load the refrigerator onto a dolly with clean wheels to move it, and wheel it across the layer of plywood to get it into position for installation.
  
  

Setting up Your Refrigerator

• While cork recovers well from compression, it isn't indestructible. Permanent dents occur when a large amount of pressure is placed on a very small area, especially when the object touching the floor is hard or has sharp edges, like a lady's stiletto heel. Your cork floor can support the weight of a refrigerator, but you should make sure the refrigerator is standing on padded feet. Rubber, felt, and, ironically, cork pads all work well.
  
  

Maintaining the Cork Floor Around Your Refrigerator

• Once your refrigerator is installed on protective pads, the biggest danger to your cork floor is water leaking from the fridge. Small spills, wiped up promptly, won't damage a cork floor. An undetected leak that sits unnoticed for hours or days, however, may permanently stain and warp the cork, and even seep through to damage the subfloor underneath. Check your refrigerator drain pan regularly to stay on top of potential problems.
  
  

Other Concerns for Cork Floors in the Kitchen

• Aside from gouges and undetected spills, heat from appliances in the kitchen is the biggest concern for your cork floor. Cork flooring may either be glued down to the subfloor or floating (not attached to the subfloor). Choose floating cork floor for the kitchen since areas that get hot may expand and contract, placing stress on the glue holding the cork tiles in place. Floating floors can expand and contract freely.