Apart From the Basement Flooring, Where
Can You Use Cork in Your House?

1. How Useful Can Basement Flooring Made From Cork Be for Your Daily Life?

Nowadays cork had become a very popular material to be used around the house. It has many uses, from basement flooring to floors and to cork wall tiles. And every use of this material will offer different benefits to your house. For the basement floor, a cork floating floor is one of the best alternatives that you can find. Basements come with a high humidity factor that most wood-based materials will be affected by. But for a floating cork floor, that issue can be minimized with the combination of the correct concrete and humidity barrier so you can ensure that your basement humidity will not negatively affect it.

When it is used for the floor in the rest of your house, cork has even more benefits for you and your family. The biggest one is the higher degree of safety that it offers. Everyone has encountered an accident in their house and some of these resulted in a fall. If your floor is made from cork, which is naturally slip-resistant and also softer in comparison to hardwoods, stone, and tiles, falls will be less painful and result in less injuries. This is possible because the genetic texture of the cork tiles provides a ‘give’ that allows it to be softer than other materials.

When used to cover walls, especially in conjunction with the floor, cork will offer another great benefit. The material itself is antimicrobial. So, when it is used to cover a large portion of your house it will repel many of the microbes that can be present in your house. This will result in your house becoming cleaner and healthier environment for your family.

2. How Will Cork Wall Tiles Make Your Life Better?

Apart from the ones presented above, there are more benefits that you will obtain from using cork wall tiles. There are 3 more big advantages that you will get:

- Easy to clean. Cork is a material that has a very high resistance to water and moisture. So apart for being very good for basement flooring this propriety also makes it very easy to clean. Spills are just a wipe away. And a regular gentle sweep or vacuum will keep it free of debris.

- Easy to install. Another advantage that this material has is the fact that it can be easy to install, especially if you have chosen a floating cork floor. DIYers find a floating floor is as easy as 1-2-3 as it is a click together installation. Glue-down floors are more labor intensive, but instructions and videos are available through most sellers.

- Easy and affordable to refinish. Like any other flooring material, damage can accumulate over time. From time to time, a cork floor can be refinished or re-sealed to help it look like new again. The good news is that refinishing an old cork floor is cheaper and easier than installing a whole new floor.

3. How Will a Cork Floor Increase the safety of Your House and Improve Your Life?

As mentioned above, your house will be safer due to cork’s gentler and non-slip surface. Cork is a natural material that does not put off any toxic off-gassing, so the air will be cleaner with fewer microbes floating around. But there is another benefit that can influence the health of your family. As you may already know, the temperature of the floor is almost always noticeably different from the room or space temperature. If you walk around the house barefoot, then this difference can affect your immune system. And the sensation itself is not pleasurable at all.

Another property that cork has is that it is a thermal insulator. Cork works as an inhibitor that will hinder the transfer of heat/cold from one space to another. It is also naturally warm to the touch. This means that even on a chilly winter’s morning your cork floor will be warm. You and your family will be free to walk around barefoot all you want without the worry of cold feet.

Due to cork’s airtight cell structure, there will be much less noise created from the interaction of cork with other materials or objects. This means that the noise that you would normally make while walking around the house will be reduced. Someone walking about on a cork floor in the early hours of the morning will generate less noise, a blessing for you and your family.

4. Do Cork Floors and Walls Have Any Disadvantages?

Unfortunately, there is no perfection in the world. This also means that cork has its disadvantages as well. There are certain situations in which you cannot or should not use cork because the floors and walls can take on damage fast:

- Pets. Cork is a wood-based material so it can be very easy for your pet to damage it with its claws. To protect against this any cork floor should be sealed with the appropriate sealant, such as the Loba 2K Supra AT polyurethane for a water-based cork floor. 1-2 coats can help prevent scratches and cuts. Even the basement flooring can be damaged by your pets, so if you have pets but love the idea of a cork floor, be sure to protect it from the start.

- Too much sun. Again, cork is wood. It will fade in direct and prolonged exposure to sunlight. If you are placing a big importance on the visual aspects of your floors and walls then be sure to protect them properly, especially in rooms where they will get a lot of sun. Curtains or specialized window shading is a must in such situations.

- Heavy furniture. As mentioned above, this material has a genetic structure that supports rather than repels, it has a softer surface than its harder competitors. But this also means that the weight that it can support without damage is restricted. Although normal furniture will not be a problem, big sized pieces of furniture that are very heavy has a higher probability to create permanent dents and scratches. Care should be taken to minimize these affects.