Cork Flooring as a Durable and Environmentally-Friendly Alternative

It seems as if wood flooring is growing in popularity, as people discover just how beautiful and inexpensive durable wood flooring can be. Most people tend to consider hardwood floors when they think of flooring, especially woods like oak that is popular for its beauty and durability. Some will even opt for a more exotic hard wood, such as bamboo. However, cork flooring is a great alternative to the other styles of flooring that are available. This type of material has been used in flooring products for a long time. There are a lot of great reasons to consider cork flooring, including its durability and environmentally-friendly method of production. If you are searching for the perfect style of flooring to install in your home, consider the many advantages of cork flooring.

Durability

If you are expecting cork flooring to be soft as a corkboard, prepare to be very surprised! Cork is actually one of the toughest materials around. Its design is scuff resistant and unlike most hardwood floors, resists penetration from moisture - the same reason that this material is so popular for plugging a bottle of wine! There are cork flooring installations that have lasted for more than 100 years, and it's even one of the materials of choice that is used in the Library of Congress. The very composition of cork also makes it very elastic, so it's hard to damage the floor from normal use.

Aesthetics

Cork flooring tends to have that unmistakable speckled look to it, which can be a refreshing departure from the simple wood grain looks of other floors. There are a number of different patterns and colors to choose from, so you have a chance to find cork flooring to suit whatever your decoration scheme is. Because of its elastic nature, cork is a comfortable material to walk on, and very easy on the feet. Its impermeable properties seem to apply to sound as well, which makes it an effective acoustic insulator. This is a huge advantage to someone who is living in a noisy apartment building or condominium complex, as well as those who would like more peace and quiet between bedrooms.

Source

Though cork flooring is a product that comes from cork trees, it's not actually made from the wood of the tree. Instead, the material is gathered through stripping away the bark on the outside of the trunk. This means that rather than cutting down a tree just once for material, cork farms can strip the bark away again and again; there are still trees used in bark harvests that are around 200 years old! For the environmentally conscious home decorator, this makes cork flooring an ideal material, since it comes from a renewable resource. Even for those who have not considered the source of the material, cork flooring is a wonderful alternative for hardwood floors.