How Durable is Natural Cork Flooring?

Cork flooring is categorized as a resilient flooring type.  Resilient types of flooring offer many benefits that other floors don’t offer.  Natural Cork flooring has a memory, unlike a wood flooring.  For instance if you drop a glass on a cork floor the glass might break, maybe not, but you will not have an unsightly ding in your floor like you would with hardwood flooring.

The reality is all flooring types will have the ability to scratch or get dinged up, even concrete floors.  Any salesperson that tells you differently is providing misinformation.  Cork flooring is ideal for clients that treat their floors with respect.  This typically means cleaning once a week as the more often dirt and granules are cleaned up the less wear as they are not ground into the floor.  Removing your shoes at the door is another great policy for cork flooring owners.

If you are looking for a bullet proof flooring cork might not be the best option for your home project.  Strand Woven Bamboo flooring is a flooring option that offers a much higher level of durability when it comes to heavy wear situations, such as kids and dogs.

However,  Cork offers so many other benefits that bamboo or concrete do not offer.  The feeling of cork under foot should be the number one reason why you will love cork flooring.  Cork has some give so it feels really good underfoot and is much easier in the knees.  This is why it’s a perfect material in a kitchen or bathroom (glue down cork only in high moisture situations, such as bathrooms).

Furthermore,  Cork flooring maintains a relative temperature of 70 degrees all year round.  This results in a warmer floor during the winter and a cooler floor during the hot summer months.  Many of our clients have found cork to be excellent in a bathroom, an area where you are often barefoot, due to the inherent warmth qualities of the flooring.  Often our clients will consider using a heating element under tile flooring.  When comparing costs of the heating system with the tile compared to cork our clients almost always choose cork.

We have attached a quick chart that compares the characteristics of cork to other flooring materials.  Hopefully, you will fall in love with cork much as I have in my home.

COMPARISON CHART
Natural Cork floors combine the best characteristics of hard surface and soft surface flooring.
NO OTHER FLOORING OPTION COMPARES! See for yourself: