Cork in general comes from a Cork Oak Tree. The Cork Oak tree is primarily grown around the Mediterranean. One of the major suppliers of cork is Portugal. Even as far back as Ancient Greece and Egypt cork was used.
They used it for such things as bottle closers for oils and wines. Also for things like fishing nets, insulation for ships, sandals and much more. In Africa it was known to be used for roofing. Sometime after the 1300’s Portugal was one of the biggest exports of Portugal and they put royal decrees so they could regulate it. They synchronized the harvest and protection of cork. They considered it to be one of the mainly valuable resources that occurred naturally.
Sometime during the 1930’s, there was something passed which was called the “Nine Year Law”, which essentially outlawed the harvesting of cork bark in any period other than nine years. This was not very good for cork. The harvest of growth cork tree virgins is illegal until the time the tree would reach sixty centimeters. Some cork bark is to this today still harvested from trees centuries old with ordinary hand tools.
This might be the question you’re asking yourself right now, on your way to adventuring through the challenge of getting to know all about cork tile. It’s a good question and you are asking it for good reason. Before you take on any home improvement project, or simply go on task to learn about a new product or feature of a one, you should do your homework and what better way then to get on the internet and start looking around.
You should be able to find out quite a lot about cork tiling, cork floor tiling, cork wall tiles and many other subjects from visiting this site and others like it. If you like what you hear about cork tile then you shouldn’t waste anytime and go purchase some and get started. There are places locally that sometimes offer you a chance to actually see cork tile and get a real understand of how it feels to the touch, looks in real life and with that you might have more confidence before you actually order any.
What I’ve found the best habit is to simply find someone who has already done the work and go visit their location. It could be a home, or lately I’ve seen some offices that take on a more modern feel start to use it and it’s really adding a nice touch to the decor of the entire place. Once you visit a site like this, there really is no other option if you like what you see, to start with the go ahead on your own project.
Some of the best cork tiling layouts I’ve seen started with looking at someone else’s work and improving or changing it to your liking. Most people who get into cork tile have already used other sorts of tiling options and are either unhappy with them, looking for a chance or trying something new. Maybe you are doing the work for someone who has hired you and prefers cork tiles to regular wooden, ceramic tiles, etc. If this is the case then you should get a better understanding of the job before you go on this task, because there are some differences to them than you might be used to.
Some of the benefits of having Cork Wall Tile is thermal insulation, and acoustical insultation, with noise resistance. There is such little space in the air space of cork wall tiles that it makes it one of, if not, the most effecient non-conductors of heat or cold. It has a very unique cell structure that is the building block for how that works. It normally will maintain a warm tempature naturally. It should always be warmer than other types of wall materials such as stone, vinyl, wood, ceramic and most definitely any type of metal. This has been proven time and time again by studies.
Cork Wall Tiles have approximately two hundred million air cells per inch, and sixty percent of that is simply air. It creates what could be considered a cushion of air, and absorbs sounds, vibrations and noises created by things like direct impacts. This makes it perfect for setting it up in a recording studio, music room, especially if that room contains drums which are notorious for being difficult to block sounds from. You could always put it over your other walls as well, just to add that extra boost of sound proof help. It will simply muffle sounds better than any other material you can get for your walls, and ideally is a lot less expensive.
Cork is totally and completely all-natural. It is harvested from the cork oak tree. It is ideal for green construction. Cork oak tree is the only tree that naturally regnerates after it’s been harvested. It can totally go back to itself normal unharmed self, even after being harvested. This is quite amazing. Because of the nine year law, you can only harvest cork from the cork oak tree every nine years.
This gives it time to naturally regenerate, and thus it’s never fully depletad. Think of it as the same reason there are rules for fishing, on what size you can catch and legal limits on length, weight, etc. One of the best qualities about Cork Tile is how incredibly soft it is to the touch. When you walk on it, you can feel the softness and it’s really quite impressive. It’s like walking in normal everyday shoes, but then changing to padding shoes, like those Gel inserts. That’s the difference in walking on hard-wood floor, and Cork Flooring.
It’s really quite amazing. It does all this without giving you that ’spongy’ feeling, like walking on sand at the beach where every step is just a litte more difficult. It can’t dent, and it’s also an ease to clean.