Top Ten Benefits of Cork Flooring
- Environmentally Friendly
Ecologically speaking, cork is one of the best products you can use in your home. The raw material for cork flooring comes from the bark of cork trees, which regrow their bark after it has been harvested. This is much more environmentally efficient than taking the entire tree down, as is the case with the acquirement of raw material for real hardwood flooring. This makes cork flooring one of the most renewable choices on the market today! The manufacturing process generates almost zero waste since a great deal of the product comes from grinding the left-over pieces from the wine cork industry.
Cork is completely biodegradable and will break down into the environment at the end of its life cycle leaving no negative effects on our environment.
2. Natural Acoustic Insulation
The porous and soft nature of cork material makes it the perfect product to reduce noise in any home. Cork is used on walls of musical venues and studios to reduce the transfer of noise and it has the same sound absorption qualities when used for flooring for impact noise. Cork tiles and floating flooring will offer the same insulating properties whether you are using them for your walls or flooring projects. In multi tenanted buildings this makes for great neighbors!
- Thermal Insulation
Cork underlayment is a fantastic alternative to paying for an extra layer of flooring insulation such as a subfloor. The natural properties of this material make it a low conductor of heat, which is perfect for rooms that you want to keep toasty warm all year long. That same honeycomb cell structure that insulates the floor against noise will reduce transmission of heat into a room in the summer or out of a room in the winter. In one study, a standard cork floor had an R-value of 1.125, compared to a value of only 0.250 for ceramic tile and 0.638 for oak hardwood flooring.
- Water Resistant
With the proper type of glue down cork tile, you can make the flooring of any room in your home water-resistant. Even though cork is naturally water-resistant, the way that cork tiles are made allows for the surface to be sealed with our Loba 2K AT Supra water-based polyurethane after installation to prevent standing liquids from penetrating the floor and making the flooring highly durable. This allows you to install cork into your bathroom or laundry room to have warm inviting floors to great you in the morning.
- Comfortable Under Foot
Cork has a soft, cushiony surface. One of the best things about this material is how soft and yielding it feels beneath your feet. When people first experience walking on cork flooring, they are amazed with how completely different they feel after spending time in a home or office that has a cork flooring installed. Simply experiencing the relief of back and joint pain are enough to convince. For this reason, cork is popular in rooms where you will be standing for long periods of time, such as kitchens. Cork is being used more as a go to product for offices restaurants, yoga studios and other commercial settings as well as homes.
The soft surface of a cork floor can act as a kind of cushion that provides a certain amount of protection when someone accidentally trips and falls. This makes it a great choice for children’s rooms and for older residents prone to falling.
- Antimicrobial
Cork is naturally resistant to mold, mildew and insect infestations and cork is the natural defense of a tree it comes by these properties naturally. Resistant property of suberin, a natural component of cork that creates mold resistance that few other flooring products possess without chemical additives.
Cork is also anti-microbial and does not off-gas or shed microfibers to negatively affect indoor air quality which makes it the best choice for anyone suffering from indoor allergies.
- Resilient
Cork flooring once installed should be sealed in place using our Loba 2K AT Supra polyurethane as this protects the most vulnerable area of cork which is the edges. Once this has been done after installation your floors should last you a decade or more without having to repeat this process. However, if you need to the Loba product is very easy to refinish with if you require a bit of freshening up This involves sanding the cork down, cleaning the floor completely spotless and then re-applying the finish sealer to the surface. With the Loba 2K AT Supra polyurethane this refinishing may not be required for up to a decade.
- Aesthetically Versatile
Cork flooring is available in tiles and planks in many styles, colors and sizes. Use planks to create an almost seamless floor. Cork tiles in single or alternating colors can be used to create designs that are only limited to the installer or artists abilities.
- Fire Resistant
Cork flooring is a type of flooring that is naturally fire resistant. It does not burn very easily like some of the other types of flooring on the market. For example, wood flooring can easily ignite, and carpet will spread a fire not to mention the toxic fumes that are produced.
If cork does happen to catch fire it will give you and the fire fighters add time and it will not release toxic chemicals. With most other flooring options you will find that dangerous chemicals are released when the flooring burns.
In multi tenanted buildings cork can slow the progress of a fire saving property and lives. Cork flooring should be at the top of every HOA / Strata’s recommended flooring products when you are renovating.
- Cost Effective
Now that you are connected to one of the largest distributors of cork flooring in North America your cost on this product have been largely reduced making this luxury product available to everyone.