Cork is a natural material that comes from the bark of the cork oak tree. Its cell structure resembles a honeycomb, enabling it to act as a natural thermal and sound insulator as well as providing shock absorbing properties. These exclusive qualities of cork make it ideal to use in flooring, as it grants an exceptional comfort while also being a renewable and sustainable resource.
Sound
Cork’s natural properties make it an excellent sound absorber. Cork floors reduce noise transmission between and within rooms, creating a quieter and peaceful environment. Thanks to the acoustic insulation provided by cork, floors can easily cut noise within and between rooms. Comparing the walking sound between cork and laminate floors, tests confirm that cork floors have an exceptional result, reducing the sound up to 53%.
Natural Thermal Insulation
The unique thermal insulation features of cork provide an optimal floor temperature all year round, assuring a more warm and comfortable ambiance with energy cost savings. When testing foot temperature in contact with four different materials, cork floors stand out as being the best solution to retain heat.
Body Wellness
Cork floors are very comfortable to walk on because of its natural flexibility providing more comfort in movement. Even when walking barefoot, a sense of cosiness is felt. Softer than wood and harder than carpets, cork is the perfect mix to relieve leg and back stress, but stable enough to help the foot impulse and decrease walking fatigue.
Structure
Over the years, cork floors have become more durable by using a unique engineered multilayer structure. This construction combines state of the art technology with the exclusive natural properties of cork, creating a higher standard in flooring. Cork floors have become the perfect blend of beauty, comfort and durability.
The uniqueness of cork floors is achieved by integrating three cork layers with different purposes. The decorative visual is accomplished by combining various shapes of natural cork, in order to produce thin sheets of veneer full of authenticity and personality. A second, thicker layer of cork provides superior comfort, noise reduction and warmth. The integrated cork underlay reinforces thermal and acoustic properties, resulting in a silent environment and important energy cost savings.
Cork floors have the ability to bounce back from hard impacts, which makes them very robust and increases the life span of the flooring.
Durability
Due to cork’s resilience and elasticity, cork floors have the ability to bounce back from hard impacts. Tests show that cork floors have the highest shock absorbing performance. When an object accidentally falls in a cork or in a laminate floor, there are different results. Cork floors are very comfortable to walk on, due to cork’s natural and inherent flexibility, providing a unique comfort in movement. When testing the level of comfort perception of people walking for 45 minutes over five different materials, results show that cork floors have a great outcome.
