Natural Cork is enjoying a resurgence in popularity today. From television design shows to home design magazines, Natural Cork is seemingly everywhere and ostensibly the "hottest new product" on the market.
Many people think of cork as a relatively new and possibly unreliable option particularly as a surface flooring material. And yet, there are examples of Natural Cork floors in public buildings that were installed over 100-years ago and are still in use today. The Library of Congress in Washington, DC is one excellent case.
Today, cork flooring is created from the post-industrial by-product of the bottle-stopper industry. This 'waste' material is ground up and then formed into sheets using minimal amounts of adhesive to bind the particles together under high pressure. The size, quantity, and type of cork granule in conjunction with varying degrees of pressure make the difference between "bulletin board" material and material suitable for flooring applications.
New finishing techniques and improved technologies have revived interest in cork over the past decade. Though still a small fraction of the overall floor coverings market, Natural Cork is enjoying a resurgeance in popularity driven in large part by consumer demand. What does cork have to offer that sets it apart from other flooring choices? Quite a bit it turns out. In fact, no other floor covering can match the combined benefits of cork.
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