Cork For The New Age

By Author: Vikram Kumar
Total Articles: 9424
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Looking to find a flooring material that is warm, beautiful and impact and sound resistant? Wantone that is eco-friendly and sustainable too?

There are all kinds of options on the market, but one you might not have considered is cork. Yes, that’s right, we said Cork.

Cork is rapidly gaining popularity in residential and corporate locations because of its unique and beneficial qualities. It’s able to mimic the natural look of hardwood, but is softer and warmer to the touch, and provides a more giving walking surface. Cork also resists scratching and denting better than most of its competition.

Cork is derived from the cork oak tree, Quercussuber, which is found mainly in the areas surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, such as Spain and Portugal. Cork is a tremendously sustainable and renewable resource for flooring due to its process of harvest.

The cork that most manufacturers use for the basis of their flooring product is actually the bark of the cork oak tree. Entire villages have made cork harvesting their livelihood as it requires highly trained artisans and special hand-held tools ...
... to methodically and effectively remove the bark without harming the tree. Once the outer layer of the bark that has been removed is trimmed of the unusable surface layer, stoppers are punched out. The remaining “scrap” is then what is used for producing all other cork products, including flooring tiles and planks. A cork tree’s virgin harvest is allowed at its 25th year and then each tree can be reharvested every 9-12 years for the life of the tree, which can be up to 250 years. Can you believe that, at no time is a single cork oak tree cut down to provide the base material. Talk about a sustainable resource.

Installation of cork floors come in two designations, glue down tiles and floating floor tiles. Both are great products. Floating floor installation is pretty easy and can be done by do-it-yourselfers with its click and lock system. Glue down tiles are a bit more complicated in the subfloor prep and installation. It is often recommended that this form of install is done by a professional. One important step not to forget before installation is acclimation. Because of the porous, expandable nature of cork, it's imperative to set the opened materials in the room you intend to install it in for at least 48 hours so it can balance out with the moisture content of the subflooring and air.

Cork is a natural product, so variations in color and pattern are ingrained as no two pieces will be exactly the same. In addition to the beautiful look and rich feel that cork tiles offers, it also has outstanding acoustic qualities. This property is what makes it popular not just in homes but also the music industry as well as in businesses where acoustics matter.

The structure of cork itself is such that it is made up of millions of tiny cells that resemble a honeycomb. These cells are filled with air or a gaseous substance, which give cork flooring its soft feel as well as its resiliency, sound-blocking and thermal properties.

Given these positives, does cork sound like an option for you?

Cork Flooring looks good and offers several benefits including being environmentally friendly. You will find the widest range of Cork floating flooring at the best price at iCorkfloor.