What does Wine and Wood have in common?

Ok there is the obviouis stuff... woody bouquets of flavour of a nice red wine but what else?  Well its the cork of course ...

Yes cork comes from an oak tree and other than wine stoppers cork flooring is a very sustainable flooring option in todays environment.  Cork Flooring - with all the laminates, solid wood floor and other flooring options why should we choose cork. Well let me speak from my own experience.

Being married to a floor sander for over 20 years I have seen my fair share of amazing Auckland wooden flooring options, ranging from native solid wood, imported woods like Jarrah and Oak, engineered flooring, laminate flooring, parquet flooring and vinyls that look like wooden floor planks.  

So when we built our new home what was my first choice with a young family.  Of course it was carpet in the rooms and hall but for all the wet areas including the kitchen, dinning, wash house and bathrooms it was cork tiles.  Despite my builders recommendations to go with porcelin tiles, my preference was cork tiles and I did not regret it.   Not only are cork tiles warm to walk on in comparrison to other floor tiles but items bounce on the cork.  Yes my days of broken dishes from the kids dropping them and also dented or chipped tiles were over.  

Cork tiles are not only ascetically pleasing but they are practical for young families. Cork flooring is definitely a personal choice with the new flooring products out today, so many of our customers have found themselves living in homes where cork tiles are present. There are a few things we all need to know about cork flooring. It does come in tiles and a good tile is usually 6mm which would allow for around two re sands. This means that the history of your cork floor is important. The integrity of the cork is also important although we often talk to customers who are unsure of how many times the floor has been sanded previously. To be honest because of the this specialty knowledge, many of today's Auckland floor sander's and even Hamilton floor sanders will not re sand cork and will recommend a full floor replacement. At Nufloors we have Hugh who is our Cork floor guru, he can look at a cork floor and tell you if there is room for sanding or not.
What we cant be sure of is the integrity of the cork. Cork is a porous substance and any lengthy exposure to moisture over the years can break down the structure of the cork. The extent of this is not known until the floor is sanded. There is a chance with cork that our floor sanding machines could disintegrate the cork. Extreme care is required when Nufloors sand cork tiles, however we advise all customers that there is a risk of disintegration and that liability is not one we carry. Should a customer want their cork flooring sanded and recoated we will advise if we think it can be done but also the risks. The options to the customer are to risk it for a new coloured floor (cork tiles turn mustard in colour over time) or lift all the tiles to replace them with another flooring option. As we all know finances dont always allow for the second option. So this is when you can ring us at Nufloors. We will give you an honest professional opinion and you can decide from there. But while we are here we can say to date Hugh has never sanded through a cork tile floor yet.