Cork has been used for more than a century, primarily in commercial flooring applications, but the growing interest in green living is making the product a more popular choice for residential living. From harvest to installation, cork flooring is environmentally sustainable, non-toxic and healthy—some say it is perhaps the most environmentally friendly of all floor covering products, calling it the perfect combination of style and sustainability.

Cork is harvested from the bark of the cork oak tree, grown in the Mediterranean region (the majority coming from Portugal) with a life span up to 250 years. After the first 25 years of growth, the tree is stripped of its bark using traditional hand labor methods. This process has been used virtually unchanged for generations and is repeated every nine years, with little or no affect on the health of the tree. During each harvest, about 50% of the bark is removed.

Unlike traditional wood products the entire tree is not cut down; only the outside is removed with a new layer rapidly growing back. Old age is what kills the trees, not the harvesting process. In fact, in places such as Portugal, strict laws are in place on how and when cork trees can be harvested to ensure the specie is protected for generations.

Similar to growth of the raw material, manufacturing methods are also geared to protect the environment. To produce cork flooring, virgin cork bark and pre-consumer waste cork from the manufacturing of other cork products such as wine stoppers is ground into small granules. During production, all raw materials are consumed, either for the finished flooring product or as an energy source. Production waste of cork dust and tree trimmings are burned in furnaces that supply heat to bake the cork tiles.

Cork has a multitude of other eco benefits with the majority of them coming from its honeycomb cellular structure. Millions of these hexagonal cells are located per square inch of cork, and contain mostly air. This not only makes cork lightweight—which saves on shipping fuels—it is what makes cork warm, soft, durable and acoustically sound.

The cushioning of cork means less fatigue and injuries for people who stand a long time and safe for children to play on. Soft doesn’t mean weak. Cork is very resilient as the cellular structure allows cork to “bounce” back to its original form, even after being walked on by high-heeled shoes.

In fact, cork’s durability has made it a premier floor for commercial and industrial applications for many years. Some of the more high profile places where the original cork is still walked on everyday include the First Congregational Church in Chicago, installed in 1890; the Mayo Clinic & Plummer Building in Rochester, Minn., first installed in 1912 and then in 1940 added additional cork flooring for a total of 300,000 square feet, and architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s residence, Fallingwater in western Pennsylvania, considered by many to be “the most famous residence ever build,” had its cork floor installed in 1937.

Cork naturally reduces the transmission of sound, vibration and heat, making it a great insulator, making it ideal for music and other entertainment spaces, as well as other places where sound needs to be reduced. In terms of heat and cold, its cellular structure allows cork to maintain a medium temperature making it a great thermal insulator.

Finally, an inherent substance known as suberin acts as a natural incest repellent, fire retardant and anti rotting agent. Cork is resistant to termites and other bugs as well as mold, mildew and bacteria. Along with being a fire inhibitor, when burned cork does not release any toxic gasses.

Though cork is not technically waterproof suberin does prevent cork from rotting, even when submerged for long periods, which is why it makes an ideal bottle stopper. Manufacturers are adding water-based finishes to increase the product’s resistance to water as well as making it highly resistant to staining.

If cork’s multitude of inherent environmental benefits weren’t enough, manufacturers have started to incorporate mechanical locking systems similar to those found in laminate floors. These glueless applications not only reduce the use of resources, they allow the floors to be more easily repaired, which cuts down on waste.

And, in many cases, floors can be taken up and re-installed, usually up to three times before having to be discarded. This prolongs the usefulness of the floor which not only keeps materials from the landfill; it reduces the overall need to use virgin resources.

With so many inherent environmental benefits, manufacturers have worked hard over the last several years to create products that go beyond the old-fashioned corkboard look.

Gaining favor
Fact is, with new developments in the manufacture and production process, cork has increasingly become an option for designers, architects, specifiers and homeowners who are seeking something different, fresh, exciting and environmentally friendly all wrapped into a single product.

New colors, shades and textures have expanded the applications for cork, allowing it to be used in almost every room of the house, as well as various commercial settings.

Gary Keeble, marketing manager for USFloors, sees the design trends for cork moving toward narrower width planks that are more similar in format to hardwood planks with more options in color as well as pattern. “We see the market moving away from the monolithic square-edge looks.”

Sheila Furtney, technical advisor for WE Cork, noted, “The classic, granule look of cork is still available but with the use of cork veneers the visual can be strikingly similar to the look and color of slate or even bamboo while retaining the benefits of cork.”

Finally, because cork is a wood product, she pointed out it can be stained or painted to any color desired, “which allows us to manufacture products that reflect today’s design trends.”