Cork Flooring

Cork woes

For those of you looking down or turning up noses at wines now being bottled with synthetic or screw tops, your scorn does not calculate the latest, most useful function of the Phellodendron genus. True, wine bottle romance does suffer a blow from whiffing a plastic plug or watching a waiter wrench a threaded metal cap off a bottle. But such are the trade-offs whenever a resource changes purpose.

Ask a waiter about synthetic cork and screw tops and he will tell you of a cork shortage. A more specific and obvious answer is that there may be a new game in town. Cork floor sales have shot up in the last few years along with a number of "green" homebuilding supply alternatives. The benefits are many and the costs are competitive.

Cork works

Cork is elastic, anti-static, and does a fair job of insulating noise and heat. That said, it provides a valuable service to weary feet treading apartment floors. It works underneath carpet, wood, tile, or any other stomping surface.

And if you think a private residence won't benefit from cork flooring, think again. Cork flooring shames standards set by other subsurfaces by being resistant to mildew- and water-resistant. Sure, a malfunctioning washing machine will still have ruinous effects on your home, but if you can soak up the water before it finds a seam in your cork floor, you may save thousands. And that's not to say that people downstairs wouldn't appreciate your footsteps being deadened by the millions of cork cells per square inch that trap air and absorb sound.

Putting a lid on it

So before you mourn the absence of cork from a cheap bottle of Pinot Gris, just think of what the world is getting in return. Who knows, with what you’re saving on heating and repair bills, you may be able to afford a better vintage.