Cork Flooring

Cork has been used as a flooring material for more than one hundred years. Cork flooring is durable, it provides acoustical and thermal insulation, it cushions the foot, it is resistant to moisture damage and decay, it is fairly easy to clean, and it is harvested from trees in a sustainable manner. Though imported and thus energy-intensive to ship to North America, cork flooring is worthy of consideration for use in low-environmental-impact buildings.

Quercus suber, which grows in the Mediterranean. Open, savannah-like cork oak forests cover approximately 2.2 million hectares (5.4 million acres) primarily in seven countries: 30% in Portugal, 21% in Algeria, 20% in Spain, 16% in Morocco, 5% in France, and 4% each in Italy and Tunisia.