Is a Cork Floor the Best Option for Your Home?

Bricoflor Eis White Cork Flooring

For any of you who are longtime audience of my blog, you will certainly know about my appreciate affair with cork. It is a single of my all-time favorite resources for so quite a few good reasons and right after I visited the cork harvest in Portugal again in 2019, I became an even bigger supporter of this pure, sustainable and multipurpose material.

In excess of the earlier couple yrs, we have seen architects, designers and decorators rediscovering and embracing cork as they have recognised its outstanding features and the advantages that it can offer you to their assignments. We’ve more and more viewed the design field adopt cork as the materials of alternative for household and commercial tasks, specifically when it comes to insulation and wall and floor coverings.

And this is what I’d like to communicate about today. A cork floor is decided on by numerous owners nowadays thanks to the very clear pros that it gives above alternate options. And no require to worry about it catapulting you appropriate back again to the 1970s. Thanks to advances in technological know-how and a strong emphasis on style, nowadays cork is included into complex floor coverings in a broad variety of textures and colors, ideal for modern day-day tastes.

Presented the go in direction of natural resources, natural textures, biophilic layout and sustainability in interiors it’s no question that cork is owning a bit of a second.

Bricoflor Mystic White Cork Floor

So let’s choose a look at some of the attributes that make cork these kinds of a particular material.

What are the Benefits of a Cork Flooring?

Many thanks to the innate properties of cork, this interesting natural substance presents quite a few benefits that make it perfect for use in flooring.

Hypoallergenic

Cork is one of the very best alternatives for individuals who go through from allergies mainly because it does not collect static electrical energy and therefore does not attract or take up dust, pollen or small fibres. This, along with its resistance to humidity can make it a terrific preference for all those at threat of allergy symptoms or for bronchial asthma sufferers.

Heat and Sound Insulation

Cork offers obvious advantages in phrases of acoustic insulation and can aid to decrease noise because of to the purely natural absorption ability of cork. It also can help with thermal insulation, regulates room temperature, and prevents reduction of heat into the surroundings. This can in turn lower energy intake and outcome in financial cost savings for property owners, which is a large furthermore given the present price tag of power.

Water-resistant

Cork is a by natural means water-proof building product and owing to its composition, it does not absorb drinking water. So is a cork ground water resistant? Properly, this relies upon on the variety of ground that you pick. The glue-down cork ground tiles can be mounted in any place, but click cork tiles or floating tiles, can’t be installed in moist rooms, as there is an HDF board in the plank composition, which is vulnerable to water harm.

So if you have been inquiring you ‘is a cork flooring superior for kitchens?’ or ‘is a cork flooring good for bogs?’ the response is yes. As long as edges are sealed, a h2o-resistant lacquer is used and the cork flooring has a h2o-resistant core, then a cork flooring is completely suitable for loos and kitchens.

Bricoflor’s Dash Cork Floor

Fire-retardant

Cork also performs well went it comes to fireplace as it is a natural hearth retardant. It is even used by the aerospace industry due to its special properties. When it undergoes combustion it burns without having a flame and does not emit poisonous gasses.

Resistant to Mould, Mildew and Termites

Cork is normally resistant to mould, mildew and termites thanks to a material referred to as suberin. The inner walls of cork cells are lined with suberin, a fatty material that is remarkably impermeable to gases and h2o. This is what would make cork inherently antimicrobial.

Comfortable and Heat Underfoot

Cork is a fantastic flooring material mainly because it is at ease to stroll on and stand on for prolonged intervals of time. Cork is generally nice to the contact because of to weak thermal conduction.

Elastic and Compressible

Cork floors are shock absorbent and will keep their unique shape when uncovered to typical compression. This signifies that they perform properly less than heavy furnishings. Cork can in fact be compressed to all over fifty percent its thickness and will get well its condition and volume as soon as launched. Its elasticity usually means it is ready to adapt to variants in temperature and stress with no getting altered.

Eco-welcoming

Cork is a definitely great content because it is 100% purely natural, sustainable, renewable and recyclable. Cork oak trees have the distinctive means to soak up C02 from the atmosphere. It is estimated that the cork oak forests can soak up up to 14 million tons of CO2 per year.

Cork is also labeled as an eco-effective materials. This is due to the fact any waste established through the production approach can be reused as biomass to develop new merchandise.

It is a really green materials that does not harm the ecosystem.

Bricoflor Castello-Terracotta Cork Ground

So now we know the advantages of cork, let’s take a glimpse at some other regularly asked issues when it will come to deciding no matter whether or not to decide on a cork floor.

How is Cork Flooring Created?

Cork is harvested from the cork oak forest in Portgual. The cork oak tree has a existence span of 250-350 several years and the cork can be harvested for the to start with time when the tree reaches maturity at 25 a long time of age. The harvesting process is completed by hand relatively than with equipment so that the trees are not harmed. The moment the cork has been stripped it will grow again and can be harvested just about every 9 many years. A cork oak tree can be safely harvested up to 20 periods for the duration of its life cycle.

When harvested, the cork planks will want to rest for up to six months outside the house so that they can stabilize. Then the planks are chosen by high quality and thickness and the suitable types are selected for flooring.

Is a Cork Floor Hard Carrying?

Sure, cork flooring is really hard wearing and is really resistant to abrasion. Its honeycomb framework will make it resistant to impact and friction so it is much more really hard-putting on than several other tricky surfaces. Nevertheless, it is nonetheless pretty a comfortable materials does call for certain steps to be certain that it is saved in superior issue. Especially if you select raw cork tiles, you will require to guarantee that they are varnished accurately in get to secure the grain construction from hurt.

How to Clean up a Cork Flooring?

A cork floor is really easy to sustain and hold cleanse. When hoovering a cork floor you should constantly use the hardwood flooring placing on the vacuum cleaner, or even use a flooring duster. This is since cork flooring are pretty comfortable and you may possibly hazard scratching the varnish.

Cork flooring can be washed just like laminate flooring with diluted cleaning detergent remedy and a moist mop. Make certain you wipe up any huge spills rapidly, especial if the cork ground has an HDF board in its composition.

What Glimpse Can I Obtain with a Cork Ground?

For lots of men and women, a cork flooring stirs up bad reminiscences from the 1970’s, but technological improvements suggest that cork flooring has appear a lengthy way due to the fact then and can now be used to attain quite a few different seems and styles with many various colors and finishes.

The pure color of cork is a mild tan shade which immediately provides warmth to a house. It can appear in a variety of brown shades dependent on the tint and varnished applied. But it is also available in black versions as well as gray and whitewashed shades.

You can also insert various degrees of texture to your room relying on the dimensions of the granules in the cork floor. Even bigger granules insert more texture whilst scaled-down granules give a smoother finish.

If you desire a a lot more textured glance, then you ought to go for greater granules. The tiny granule cork offers a easy texture. Peeled cork is another choice and this is produced by using strips of cork and inserting them next to every single other to make a streamlined glance.

The natural cork layouts are not that versatile when when compared to the flexibility obtainable in LVT or laminate flooring, as they are limited by the cork sample. But the a lot of benefits that a cork ground can present considerably outweigh this minor aesthetic disadvantage.

Where by can I acquire Cork Flooring?

Bricoflor provides two distinct brand names of cork flooring and focuses primarily on floating cork tiles with manufacturing facility used finish, as these are least complicated to install and can be applied right away just after installation.

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If you have found this put up useful, really do not neglect to help save it for later by pinning the image under. And as often, I would really like to examine your remarks about cork flooring. Do you have it put in in your residence? If not, would you think about it?