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Cork Floors, eco-friendly, environmentally sound
If you’re looking for a flooring option that’s suitable for any area in the home, there are many reasons why you can’t go past a cork floor:
- As a harvested resource, cork floors are by far the most environmentally sound of all wood flooring options. Cork floors only require harvested bark from a cork oak tree, quite normal for a 200 year old tree to still be producing cork bark. The harvesting process causes no damage to the tree which simply grows new bark to replace the harvested material. Thus cork is completely natural, recyclable and biodegradable.
- The cellular structure of cork is the characteristic most responsible for many of the benefits of cork floors; because the membranes of the millions of cells in cork retain gas, cork has the capacity to float, insulate and quickly re-expand after compression.
In practical terms, this means that cork floors are extremely soft to walk on, have excellent heat insulation properties, and are highly resistant to moisture.
- Cork is also hypoallergenic and mildew, dust and pollen resistant, does not emit toxins or shed fibre so it’s a very good option for anyone who suffers from asthma or allergies.
- A further interesting property of cork floors is that they’re also anti-static, making them ideal for areas housing computers and electrical equipment.
Not only is it environmentally friendly, but because of its extreme resilience, impermeability, lightness and insulating ability, it is ideal for many flooring applications. For instance, it can be difficult to find an easily-maintainable, attractive and affordable flooring option for kitchens and other wet areas in the home. Because cork is a non-slip surface and highly moisture resistant, cork floors are a viable option for those areas of the home customarily limited to tiles or vinyl.
Additionally, the excellent insulation of cork floors help pay for themselves by reducing heating and cooling costs. Warm to walk on even without under-floor heating, its low thermal conductivity makes cork floors an ideal option to cover cold, hard cement subflooring.
Cork floors come in a wide variety of colour options, are practical, versatile and fairly easy to maintain, so get a cork floor today!
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