Mentioned of “cork flooring”, perhaps the first impression in your mind is “soft” and “wood”, because of the name “cork”. It makes you feel that the cork flooring must be very, very, very comfortable. Not only does it have the high-end quality of solid wood, but when you step on it, the floor can stably support your body, and it is slightly sunken, between soft and hard, just like stepping on a foam splicing floor mat.
But because it is a completely natural product, it is eco-friendly to our health. It doesn’t matter if your baby rolls or crawls on it, and you don’t even worry about him licking the floor directly… STOP! Find a bottle of wine and pinch its cork, you will know that the material of cork is not as soft as you think. Walking on the cork floor, there will be no feeling of walking on the foam floor mat. But this does not mean that cork flooring has no advantages-on the contrary, it is still a very good thing.
Cork flooring, like cork, comes from natural materials-a tree called cork oak tree. The tree does no need to be cut down during harvest season, but peeling only the bark, which will not affect the growth of the tree at all. The bark is hand-harvested every nine years, leaving a protective inner layer of bark that allows the tree to continue to grow and regenerate new bark. The tree is a miracle in itself.
The kind of cork that cracks or drops chips as soon as it was drilled by the bottle opener is what I mentioned “composite cork”, and it is a composite cork of relatively poor quality. Since the supply of wine corks is not enough, it is reasonable for the cork floor to be expensive.
In the past, wine cork stoppers were directly dug out from the peeled bark; but now as the production of wine is increasing, the cork is not enough any more, so only the high-end wines can use this nature cork. Cheap wines can only be used by the glued cork composite corks.
The cork flooring is also produced by smashed cork grain, just like the composite cork, you can also make it simply understood: the laminate floor is made of smashed wood, and the cork floor is produced by smashed cork bark. In Portugal, where most of the cork oak tree grown, so the cork resources are the most abundant, the high-end wine cork stoppers are not even enough, the rest material which was left after digging out the stoppers, are then made into other cork products. Just like us, the high end natural cork material was made into cork fabric, while leftover material was made into other cork products, such as cork coasters,cork yoga mats,cork yoga block and ball.
Unlike laminate flooring, cork flooring has larger grain size and better materials. Speaking of that, everyone must be worried about the safety of glue. The glue we used is water-based, up to food contact grade. So the glue with extremely low formaldehyde, and VOC free.
There are dozens of cork flooring which is less than 200 yuan/㎡ on-line sales, and there is also cork flooring of 700 to 800 yuan per square meter. Let me give you a reference: the cheapest cork floor in the United States is about 4 US dollars per square foot, which is close to 300 yuan per square meter.
Cork flooring is divided into two categories: paste type and lock type. Paste-type cork flooring is also called pure cork flooring, it is a thin sheet of cork, the thickness is only 3~4mm. To spread with this kind of cork floor, the ground needs to be leveled with cement self-leveling, and then glue directly on the cement, and the cork floor will be pasted on. There is no need to leave seams when pasting.
Later, considering that some people were worried about using glue for spreading, they developed a lock-type cork floor. A layer of high-density board is sandwiched between two layers of cork, which can be understood as a cork-style laminate floor. The lock type cork floor is very convenient to install, and it is exactly the same as the ordinary wooden floor.
The patterns of the cork floor surface is different, but it is nothing more than the size of the cork grain. For the more expensive cork floors, the top layer will use the natural cork fabric as a decoration to show the original bark texture. It can also be understood as a solid wood surface patch like a three-layer wooden floor. There are also some cork floors that have a veneer on the cork layer, which looks like a stone or solid wood floor.
When you see this, you may ask again: In this case, why can’t you just spread the cork board on the ground? The principle is correct, but the cork flooring will be pressed tighter, and the surface is also painted with varnish, which is more suitable for use as a floor, more wear-resistant and more durable. However, the production process requirements of the cork board with pushpins will not be so high.
We have talked a lot of cork flooring, so the next question is: Do I use cork flooring for decoration?
Cork is indeed softer than other woods. Its cell structure looks like a honeycomb under a microscope, which means that it contains more air inside. When stepping on it, there will be a slight deformation. Compared with floor tiles, you can feel it is softer obviously, but compared with wooden floors, there is different opinions. Some people think that feel is very different, and some people think there is no difference.
But in any case, there will not be that very soft foot feeling like stepping on a soft hotel carpet. So you still need to experience it in person. When you experience the cork floor in the store, you must take off your shoes. When the shoes step on the cork floor from the wooden floor, they will be “muted”, because cork has great quality-sound absorber. Indeed, it’s really soft, but not as soft as carpet.
The cork oak tree does no need to be cut down during harvest season, only the outer bark was peeled off, and the bark can regenerate back in about 9 years, which make it a truly sustainable material to protect our forest resources. Our company used cork from Portugal with FSC certification.
If you just care about “safe and pollution-free”, cork flooring is almost the same as imported laminate flooring and ordinary domestic three-layer solid wood flooring. There is no need to spend the extra cost. The finished imported laminate flooring of EGGER and Luxon are all EU standards. , The price is only one-third of the cork floor.
If you just care about “safe and pollution-free”, cork flooring is almost the same as imported laminate flooring and ordinary domestic three-layer solid wood flooring. There is no need to spend the extra cost. The finished imported laminate flooring of EGGER and Luxon are all EU standards. , The price is only one-third of the cork floor.
It’s a lot quieter to step on the cork floor with shoes, even if you change your shoes or barefoot in the house. The cork floor can reduce a lot the noise from walking downstairs,so you will be a good neighbor for every one
Some people on the Internet think that the cork floor is rich in holes and resistant to blisters, so it can also be spread in the bathroom, and it can also prevent moisture, just like the example of red wine stopper. However, the reason why the wine stopper can be stable is also because that the wine has been soaking the cork, and the cork swells, which can prevent air from entering the wine bottle. This is why when you store wine, never placed upright, and the bottle must be up down.
Finally, is the cork floor good-looking? Well, it depends. If you love nature, have eco-conscious, I believe you will love it. So should we use cork flooring? Our opinion is-when your floor budget exceeds 500 yuan/㎡, cork flooring can be a good choice, suitable for families who like bare feet, have elderly and children at home, and have floor heating. If you want to learn more about cork flooring, please contact us.
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