About Cork Flooring

What is Cork?
Cork is such a remarkable material that even modern technology has been unable to match or surpass it. A completely natural product, cork is harvested without damaging or chopping down a single tree, making it the ultimate environmentally friendly product. Cork is biodegradable and recyclable. Many cork recycling initiatives help to conserve this natural resource. Recycled cork has many uses - such as for the manufacture of memo boards, placemats, coasters, floor tiles and gaskets.

By regaining its shape time and time again, no matter how much it is walked on or how long furniture stands on it, cork always retains its elasticity. These unique qualities make it ideal for use in flooring, as it reduces sound, is warm to the touch and comfortable to walk on.

Cork is made of millions of cork cells - each cell functioning as a miniature sound and thermal insulator, as well as a miniature pressure and shock absorber. 50 percent of cork is gas enclosed in the cells. Suberose sacs make the cork cell membrane impermeable and the cell airtight.

Cork Natural Properties

Cork comes from the bark of the cork oak tree. It is a renewable and sustainable resource, making it ideal in terms of the ever increasing demand for conservation of natural resources.

In cork oak plantations the first cork bark will not be harvested from a tree until it is 25-30 years old, as only then it is considered a fully grown tree. The process of stripping off the bark in sections is a traditionally manual one dating back many hundreds of years.

The tree is not damaged and the bark regrows completely, taking on a smoother texture after each harvest. Harvesting only occurs once every nine years and a cork oak can live for 150-200 years, so it can be safely harvested up to 20 times during its life cycle. It is a truly inexhaustible and natural resource.

There isn't a man-made material that can match cork, nor is one ever likely to take its place. Cork's structure is very similar to that of a honeycomb: each square centimetre is composed of 40 million cells. These cells, as well as the spaces between them, are filled with a gaseous mixture similar to air.

That is what makes cork so remarkable. The unique structure and composition of cork creates the three most important characteristics in its application as flooring.

Where Does Cork Come From?

The evergreen Cork Oak (Quercus Suber L) is grown commercially most favorably in areas bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Portugal and Spain supply approximately 75% of the world's cork. In fact, cork is vital to the economy of the Mediterranean where as many as 80% of people in some areas depend on this crop for their income.

The organic properties of cork have been appreciated for centuries. Thousands of years ago it was already being used as able fishing floats, shoe soles, and bottle stoppers. It began to be utilized for its able display, temperature in the 1890s, and cork acoustic insulation features, whether used as bulletin board displays, wall covering or as flooring, became evident later.