Ask the Builder: What do you know about cork flooring?

What I’m about to share with you might amaze you. We’ve all heard it said before that “you don’t know what you don’t know.” And when something that has been hidden suddenly comes into your understanding, we call it a “revelation.” That has happened to me numerous times during my life.

One odd example happened about 20 years ago. For decades, I had spent all my time in the United States. A business trip had me travel to Toronto. It’s a huge city, and while being driven to a television station, I looked at the traffic signals at a busy intersection. Much to my surprise there was no separate green light turn arrow. After several seconds, the green light began to flash. Instead of having an extra light, the clever Canadians told their drivers to turn against traffic when the light started to flash!

I’m about to do the same with you right now. I’m willing to bet you two cheese coneys that you’ve never seen cork flooring – or had the pleasure of walking on it. Tell the truth. Did you even know cork flooring existed?

When I saw cork flooring for the first time, it put my head on a swivel. It was the most unique flooring I had ever seen. My father-in-law took me one day to visit Carl, his investing partner. Carl had built a stunning ranch home on a bluff overlooking the great north bend of the Ohio River.

The cork flooring was in his kitchen, of all rooms. It was plank flooring about 8 inches wide. The color was a rich medium brown and the pattern or grain was mesmerizing. I had never seen such material before in my 23 years on the planet.

“What in the world is the floor made from?” I asked.

“Why, it’s cork,” Carl responded.

“Aren’t you worried about the water from the kitchen ruining it?” I asked. Carl just chuckled. He knew that cork was waterproof. He also knew that under typical residential use installing cork was like putting sheets of iron on your floor. It’s nearly indestructible.

As time passed, I discovered cork was the flooring material used at the main public library in Cincinnati. Its closed-cell structure contains about 100 million air cells in each cubic inch of material. This allows it to absorb shock as well as sound. It’s the perfect flooring material for so many rooms in a home, church, busy office space, or other place where peace, quiet, and comfort are commodities in high demand.

I decided to try cork flooring in my own home. It was the perfect material to use in my basement recreation area and office space. It glued down with ease over the smooth concrete floor. I wanted a waterproof material in case the basement flooded. I also wanted flooring that would hold up to rambunctious teenagers and office chairs. It excelled at both challenges.

Visit a home center big-box store and you’ll see them pushing luxury vinyl plank flooring. I just had my first hands-on experience with that this past summer. Cork, in my opinion, is a superior material. It’s not as fussy as LVP with respect to humps and bumps on the floor. Cork is quieter and doesn’t expand or contract to the extent of LVP.

If you’re all about the environment, you’ll love cork. Cork is a renewable resource. The material is generated by harvesting the bark from cork trees. The bark grows back after 10 years or so, and the average cork tree lives for 150 years.

My most recent experience with cork was in Bar Harbor, Maine, of all places. Several years ago I was in town to meet my sister. I had some time to kill before meeting her and decided to visit the historic Jesup Memorial Library.

This stunning building was built in the early 1900s. As soon as I walked through the front door I saw it. A magnificent cork floor covered the entire main floor of the library.

I was walking on a floor that was installed 107 years earlier! While it was in need of a little tender loving care, the floor was still in remarkable shape after all that time. Imagine how many people had walked across that flooring in all those years! You can install it in your home knowing that it will outperform any other flooring you can purchase.

If you want a flooring material that is easy to maintain, that will get you compliments from your friends and visitors, and that is easy on your back and legs should you have to stand up on it, cork should be on your radar. When you see the different styles, sizes, patterns and colors, I’m convinced you’ll then say, “What other building materials don’t I know about?” Well, keep reading me each week and I’ll do my best to share them with you!

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