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We’ve hit the new millennium and while other flooring manufacturers are continuing to offer the old stand-by flooring products like carpet, vinyl, and hardwood, there are some manufacturers who are responding to environmental concerns by looking for sustainable alternatives. The movement toward using appropriate forestry procedures will go a long way to uphold and sustain hardwood products in the market. Technological advances have gone far in making carpets and vinyl products safer, but natural flooring resources like cork are set apart as examples of truly environmentally friendly. Forna Cork Flooring is committed to transforming the way people think about flooring. We are proud to enlighten the public about the amazing life-cycle of the cork oak tree, as well as the remarkable qualities of its unique bark. Cork oaks are primarily found in Mediterranean forests.A small yet ever increasing amount of commercial cork is being produced from Chinese cork oaks – QuercusVeriabilis. The Chinese or Asian Cork Oak is a variant of the European Cork Oak. Asian cork is still found in natural or wild cork forests throughout China. The Asian Cork Oak has a slower growth cycle. The cork produced from the Asian oak is denser than but not as spongy as the more common European commercial cork. Forna’s cork source is from this Asian cousin. The cork oak, be it European or Asian, has the natural ability to shed its bark. Scientists believe this ability developed as a natural deviation in response to wild fires. It’s believed that the cork’s ability to shed damaged bark enables the tree survive the fire and to reestablish itself as the dominant species without having to establish new trees in an area that has been ravaged by fire.As a result, harvests of the cork oak bark leaves the tree undamaged and unfelled. With an average lifespan of 200 years, each tree can be harvested up to 20 times, giving humans a sustainable renewable resource. And while cork has been used in wine bottle stopper production for centuries, this material is also ideal for other applications, especially flooring.Cork boasts a number of benefits; as it is anti-microbial, burn-resistant and insect-resistant properties, also cork’s unique cellular structure makes it a warm, sound-dampening and cushioning flooring material in the home. Forna Cork Flooring offers cork flooring in two configurations: glue-down tiles or floating floor planks. Whichever chosen, customers have a variety of colors and styles from which to choose. Besides the color and style variations, the company offers cork underlayment and wall tiles, as well as water-based adhesives and polyurethane. And as you might expect, their website at icorkfloor.com also offers full installation instructions and care guidelines, to make a customer’s introduction to cork as easy as possible. It’s easy to see that cork as a viable, environmentally sustainable alternative to the more common flooring materials. Forna Cork Flooring is committed to cork, it’s the only flooring material we stand behind. Anyone who is determined to use only products that are environmentally friendly should consider the option of cork floating flooring . Find out more about Cork Floor in the Kitchen by going to icorkfloor.
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