Sustainable Cork Wood Flooring

By Jerry Work

Despite what some environmentalists preach about the evils of using wood for purposes such as wood flooring, purchasing cork wood flooring can actually be very beneficial to you and this planet.

Cork is prized for its use in flooring for a variety of reasons, the foremost being that is a very attractive flooring surface available in many colors and patterns. Cork is also durable and can be installed on almost any floor. It provides excellent insulation for both thermal and acoustic purposes. Cork flooring is also easy to keep clean, requiring only vacuuming or damp mopping.

Cork flooring is also mold-resistant and hypoallergenic. It is easy to clean and sheds no dust. In fact, cork contains a substance called suberin that repels mold and insects. Cork's softness makes it a very comfortable surface on which to stand, which is ideal for people with back or leg problems. In other words, cork can actually help make your home a more beautiful, pleasant and healthy environment.

Cork flooring can actually be produced without doing any damage to the cork oak trees from which it is derived. This may seem impossible, but it's actually quite a simple phenomenon. If only the outer bark of a cork oak tree is used to produce the flooring, then the tree will live on and its outer bark will grow back in about nine years. Then the cycle can be repeated. So every nine years, a cork tree can be harvested for its beautiful wood and still live on.

Contrast this with man-made flooring products and you can see another of cork's big advantages. Flooring products created from man-made materials are manufactured in a factory, which results in great environmental damage due to the large amounts of fossil fuels required to run those factories. There is no substitute for wood that is renewable and that requires only sunlight to produce.

Cork flooring lasts decades and is biodegradable upon being removed. As opposed to man-made flooring such as linoleum, once it is no longer useful, cork can be returned to the earth without doing any damage.

Another advantage of the harvesting of cork is that the process provides financial opportunities for the inhabitants of areas where cork wood grows. Employment opportunities are limited in some of these areas, so cork is a valuable resource for the people who live there. And no factory is required.

Environmentally managed cork oak forests aid in soil conservation as well as acting as a buffer against desertification, water table recharge and run-off control.

Cork wood flooring is an environmentally-friendly option for your home that will make your home a better place to live. It is good for your health (it is a low-dust flooring option that actually reduces air pollutants), it has low impact on the environment (cork can be harvested every nine years without killing the tree), and it definitely adds to the beauty of a home. So save the earth and save yourself – use cork wood flooring in your home.

About the Author: For more information about cork flooring, visit WorldFloorsDirect.com, a company specializing in wood flooring that originates from managed sustainable forests.

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