Cork flooring is known for its comfort underfoot, quietness, fire resistance, and excellent insulation properties. Additionally, it offers remarkable acoustical advantages by absorbing sound waves and dampening the sound of footsteps.
Cork flooring has a natural and organic appearance with its swirling patterns of light and dark colors, resembling a coastal landscape. The unique shapes vary greatly between different types of cork, ranging from uniform pebble-like designs to more pronounced and modeled variations. With the advent of new high definition digital printing technology, cork floors can now be imprinted with hardwood flooring designs, offering an even wider array of decorative options.
Cork possesses exceptional properties due to its distinctive natural composition. A single cubic inch of cork contains around 100 million fully enclosed air cells that measure only 1/1000" in diameter. These characteristics give cork its comfortable feel underfoot, noise-reducing properties, fire-resistant qualities, and high insulation value. Furthermore, cork flooring offers impressive acoustical advantages by absorbing sound waves and softening footfalls. The air cells also enable cork to bounce back quickly after being dented, making it highly resistant to impact. Cork floors do not attract dust and are impervious to bacterial and fungal growth.
The cork oak tree, scientifically known as QUERCUS SUBER, is the source of cork, which is the outer bark of the tree. Cork oak tree forests are spread across almost 5.4 million acres in seven Mediterranean countries, with Portugal and Spain having the majority of these forests. For centuries, cork has been harvested using traditional and sustainable land use practices. These trees can live up to 200 years, and the first harvest of cork can only be obtained from trees that are 20-25 years old. After the cork is extracted, a new layer starts growing, and it takes nine years before the next harvest can occur. This harvesting process is sustainable and does not harm the tree, which is never cut down or removed. The cork is extracted from the tree by slashing the trunk vertically on a prominent feature and then separating the cork from the bark with a twist of the ax. The cork is carefully removed so that it does not break. The value of the cork board increases with its size.