Environmentally Sound Cork In The Age Of Going Green

By Author: Vikram Kumar
Total Articles: 9721
Comment this article

With Global warming nipping at our heels and Mother Nature showing her discontent, more and more of us are becoming environmentally aware. The effects of global warming have been wreaking havoc all over the world, and nobody can afford to be complacent anymore. We’ve got a homebuilding material that can help you go green. Cork.

Why is cork considered environmentally friendly? Foremost, at no time is any cork tree cut down to provide source material. Only the bark off the tree is used in the manufacturing of cork flooring material. The scientific name of this tree is QuercusSuber, a species farmed commercially primarily in Spain, Portugal, Morocco and Algeria. The bark of this tree is thick and spongy and buoyant enough to float in water. It is carefully peeled off the tree and used first to manufacture corks for wine bottles. The remaining scraps are then pulverized and combined with a non-toxic glue under high pressure to manufacture cork flooring and cork tile. Cork floors are not only completely formaldehyde free but also do not emit any volatile organic compounds, VOCs even when burnt.

Strict laws prevent ...
... any harm from befalling the trees, so only highly trained artisans are allowed to perform the de-barking process. After the bark has been peeled off the trees are left alone to regenerate. This period takes nearly nine years before the tree will be allowed to be harvested again. The life span of each tree is averages about 200 years.The long life span combined with the fact that the tree itself continues regenerating and growing new bark make this a renewable, environmentally friendly resource.

Cork itself is made up of millions of tiny chambers packed closely together like a honeycomb. These cells contain air that is able to compress and release with pressure. These air chambers give cork flooring its resilient and insulating properties. Therefore chill winter floors are no longer a worry.

When you are walk across a hardwood floor. How does the floor feel? Most of us will confirm that walking barefoot on hardwood floors can feel cold and hard and walking with heels will cause loud clicking soundsas the heels strike against the floor. With cork flooring, it’s a different experience. When you walk barefoot across cork floors it feels warm and has more of a cushy give and when you walk with shoes on, nobody will hear a sound. This is because the cells not only absorb the sounds but acts as an insulating material so it never gets too cold. It also absorbs the impact as you walk across the floor, which is great news for anyone who suffers from knee and joint pain.

As you can see cork is a great material to build with. It not only has great benefits, a few whom have been mentioned above, but it is one of the most environmentally sound building materials on the market today.

Cork floor Natural environment offers several benefits, the most significant of which is it is a green product. If you are considering a Cork Floor for your home, check out icorkfloor today for some beautiful choices.