Whats Your Floor

Between the many environmental and ergonomic benefits that cork flooring has, it makes sense for anyone thinking about new flooring around their home, to give it some serious consideration. With the many finishes available it is suitable for almost any room in the house.

For The Planet

Probably about as eco friendly a product that you will find when it comes to making home alterations. The process of harvesting the cork oak trees for the cork allows them to fixate up to three or more times the carbon dioxide than normal. Cork flooring tiles are actually a recycled product, as the cork taken from the trees is first taken for the manufacture of wine bottle stoppers. It is the subsequent waste from this process that goes into a cork floor tile. None of the really nasty stuff is used in their manufacture, such as VOC’s.

For You

They don’t just look nice, they also feel great. They give a naturally warm and soft feeling underfoot. Great fitted in the kitchen where you would spend a lot of time standing, which a solid tile floor for instance, would cause a lot of stress in your feet and lower legs.

Help reduce noise. Especially if you have children running around but you have to worry about upsetting neighbours below.

They are naturally insulating. This should benefit the utility bills, whether for heating or air conditioning.

We all need good health. Laying cork flooring maybe beneficial to your health. It is resistant to bacteria and fungus, and does not cause allergies and poses no risk to asthma.

Bonus

Ease of fitting and maintenance. For anyone who is keen at DIY it should be possible to install cork flooring themselves. If in doubt though, get a professional to do it.

Cleaning should be a simple vacuum or sweep with a brush. Cork does not adsorb dust. If needed a wipe with a damp mop should keep the floor clean. As with any organic product always keep as dry as possible to a void any problems. Liquid spills should be mopped up as soon as possible.

So whether its stepping out of bed on a cold winters morning, or standing in the kitchen cooking, I’m sure a cork floor won’t disappoint you.

The fact that cork floor products come from trees may be the cause of some concern to many people. It is generally perceived that anything that is produced from trees can’t be environmentally friendly, and considering the massive deforestation around the world, this is usually true. But cork is very different.

Cork is harvested from the cork oak tree, native to several countries on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The highest producers being Portugal, Algeria, Spain, Italy, Tunisia, Morocco and France. Cork trees are NOT cut down to make cork products. The ability of allowing their outer bark to be removed and not be harmed is where these trees are unique.

Once a tree reaches a certain level of maturity the farmers are able to harvest the outer bark. Then a harvested tree is left for a period of about ten years to regenerate a new layer of bark. Each tree can give several hundred kilo’s of cork per harvest. They can live as long as two hundred years or more, even after repeated harvests. The process of removing the bark also increases the amount of carbon dioxide the tree consumes from the air by as much as three to five times.

The cork tree farmers harvest the cork to produce wine bottle stoppers. It is the waste bark from the process of cutting out the bottle stoppers that cork flooring manufacturers then use to make their products such as cork tile flooring. So a recycling chain has begun from the start.

Even during the manufacture of natural cork flooring, the adhesives and finishing substances are environmentally friendly. They do not contain any Formaldehyde, and VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) are not detectable.

Once you are finished with your cork products and dispose of them, the cork is adsorbed back into the soil.

So over all cork floors are a very ecologically sound. From the sustainability of the forests, which helps the environment and keeping highly skilled people in work.