If you are constantly on the lookout for green products, using cork floor will help you stay on the right side of green. Cork is a renewable resource and provides one of the best green flooring solutions. With today’s pressing need for environmental conservation, cork products provide a true environmentally friendly alternative. |
Cork, an all-natural product, is produced from the bark of the QuercusSuber tree, more commonly known as the cork oak tree. Found mainly in Portugal and Spain around the Mediterranean Basin, the bark is carefully harvested from the tree. Great care is taken so that the tree is not damaged or injured. After the top layer of bark is stripped off, the tree then regenerates and grows a new layer of bark. This process will take up to about nine years before the tree is ready for re-harvesting.
This process was implemented to prevent over-harvesting. In the 1930’s laws were passed. Including one that stipulated that the bark could be stripped from a tree only once in nine years. Moreover, no tree that was less than twenty five years in maturity could be harvested of its bark for the manufacturing of cork. Older trees provide better quality of cork, which is more mature and has a richer texture.
When the cork is ready to be used, it is ground into small bits, mixed together with some adhesive and compressed under tremendous pressure; or baked to produce planks or tiles of cork. In order to create a variety of patterns and colors, manufacturers burn the cork first before compressing. After burning, they then compress together different sizes of granules. Both of these processes work in tandem to produce the wide array of colors and designs that can be seen in the cork flooring available today.
Cork is softer and warmer than most of the other commonly used flooring materials, including hardwood and parquet. This is because the structure of cork itself is made up of millions of cells that are saturated with air. The air-pockets within the cells act as shock absorbers, neutralizing the impact when you walk on a cork floor. The air filled cells also tend to make cork warmer to the touch so you can actually walk around without any footwear all year round. Truly, winter cold floors will be a thing of the past. Cork also helps reduce your heating bills.
Knowing what you do now, can you deny that cork is a great material. This all natural, 100% renewable resource and modern technology have combined to make this the go green product for your home. Cork with us today.
If you are looking for an environmentally friendly flooring, cork flooring is your best option. iCork Floors offers you a wide range of options in cork glue down tiles as well as cork floating flooring .
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