Natural Cork Flooring

By Lara Newcomb

Natural cork flooring is a very multipurpose building material, which has been used successfully to the satisfaction of building owners. One of the main reasons for its attractiveness is the fact that it is renewable, taken from the cork oak and processed with no injury to the plant. Moreover, cork’s environmentally friendly image does not mar its other attributes, making it an extremely workable option as a flooring material. Cork is unmatched in its functionality and texture. It is also biodegradable and recyclable – attributes that are not to be found in any synthetic flooring material.

Cork flooring is made from the bark of the cork oak tree, native to Southern Europe, especially Portugal, where the bark is collected by hand. Cork is a very durable, resistant-to-moisture, and anti-static flooring material. Cork flooring is environmentally sound and, as a result of stringent harvesting rules, a renewable resource of a very high order.

For the kind of foot traffic that a home or office floor will have to endure, cork flooring is very resilient. It is also comfortable to walk on, and its soft surface is able to take the impact of footfalls. Cork flooring is well known for retaining heat and cold, which makes it a very practical flooring solution. Another reason why cork flooring is gaining popularity is because it is keeps the sound from walking to a minimum.

Cork flooring has been used in commercial spaces for years. One commonly cited example is the Toronto Stock Exchange building. The cork flooring did not negatively impact the joints of traders who were up and about the livelong day. It also made for a more serene indoor atmosphere as opposed to most other traditional flooring solutions. During the 1950s, cork floors were installed in public spaces such as restaurants and gyms because people spent a lot of time standing in these places.

Cork flooring is considered ideal for quiet interiors because it emits no sound from footfalls. When complete insulation from sound is an absolute necessity, like in a sound-studio for example, then cork flooring is ideal. Flooring made from cork is aesthetically pleasing, environmentally friendly, and helps in creating an atmosphere of serenity. It is also water resistant, and that makes it ideal for use in the bathroom and kitchen.

The cellular nature of cork is such that it has millions of fourteen-sided cells that keep the heat in, create a cushion-like surface that is easy on the feet and the ears, and, perhaps most importantly, is durable. Moreover, due to these qualities, when a plate is dropped on it, it will not break, but simply bounce, making no noise in the process.

While soundless flooring is gaining in popularity, creating the perfectly noiseless flooring solution is not easy. Cork is the closest that one can come to noiseless flooring because it keeps the echo from footfalls and the sound of dropped objects to a minimum.

The health benefits of natural cork flooring are many. For example, microbes, molds, and fungi cannot find a home on the surface of natural cork flooring. People who have a propensity towards allergies will have a much healthier home environment with natural cork flooring. Natural cork flooring has been the preferred choice for centuries for many reasons, not the least of which is its availability and the fact that it is a renewable resource.

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