Cork Flooring

Posted: 2 December 2011

Are you one of those people who saves wine bottle corks thinking you will someday do something creative with them? These days, cork flooring is looked to as a great “green” building material but truth be told, it first came into use at the end of the 19th century. Frank Lloyd Wright was incorporating cork flooring in some of the public buildings he designed in the early 20th century. The reason cork has been used for so long is because the process of making it is so simple; the bark of the cork oak tree is ground up, boiled, and made into sheets.

 

From harvest to production to installation, cork is environmentally sustainable, non-toxic, and healthy. Cork is a truly sustainable “green" building material. Trees are grown and the bark is harvested in a centuries' old tradition that harms neither the trees or their habitat. In many cases, cork flooring also utilizes the  post-industrial by-product of the bottle stopper industry. This waste material is ground up and then formed into sheets under high pressure, which requires only minimal amounts of adhesive to bind the particles together.

 

In your home, cork floors can create a warm, comfortable, resilient surface that is gentle underfoot and is anti-microbial. Most commonly thought of for kitchens, cork is comfortable to stand on and easy to maintain. You may also consider using it in a basement playroom where it would be a warmer cushioned alternative to tile.

 

The applications for cork are almost limitless. It can be used on floors, walls, even on ceilings to improve the acoustics of a space such as for a music room or home theater. Cork is available in a multitude of colors and patterns. It comes in planks or square or rectangular tiles that can be glued down or installed as a floating floor system.

 

The most common concerns are the use of cork with pets, heavy furniture and whether it is suited for use in kitchens and bathrooms. Don't worry! Cork is very dense and is designed to withstand even commercial traffic. Scratches from claws of cats and dogs running on the floor are less noticeable on cork than on hardwood floors. Cork is resilient and will recover from compression over time, and the use of protective pads underneath legs will prevent damage. But, like other flooring materials, you need to take care so that it is not punctured by sharp objects or damaged by dragging heavy furniture.

 

We recently had the opportunity to complete a kitchen project in a mid-century modern home, where cork flooring was the "piece de resistance."

 

Our designers chose to open up the former closed off kitchen and mud areas to the adjacent living/dining room.  The challenge was to  find a creative way to differentiate the living space from the open kitchen.

 

Using cork flooring in the new kitchen did just the trick and brought together the tones of the existing oak wood floors and cedar clad walls and ceiling as well as the new beech cabinetry with cherry and stainless accents.

 

The style of cork chosen makes the whole floor look like a single sheet instead of the individual 12”x12” tiles that were used in the project.

 

For maintenance, regular sweeping and damp mopping of dirt and grit is recommended. Once a year you will want to refurbish your cork floor according to the manufacturer's maintenance guidelines.


Click to read more about RealCorkFloors.

 

 


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