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All about Natural Cork Flooring

Innate properties do make Natural cork floorings an outstanding preference in most home conditions.

While many negatively think that natural cork flooring isn’t the best flooring choice, innate properties of cork do make it an outstanding preference in meeting other situations.

For starters, corks are highly resistant to liquid penetration since its cellular molecular structure is way too tight for water molecules to pass through. And since cork is a bark extract, it naturally has a resin element that aids in resisting moisture. In fact, corks are used to plug leaks and holes on the hull of barges and carracks in event of a storm during ocean voyages where ship repairs were being done hastily at the opens seas. And of course, they do seal wine bottles better for centuries than any other element. Cork also has a non slippery surface, even with a smoothened surface. That makes natural cork flooring highly recommendable flooring for wash areas and bathrooms or any other areas that deal with volumes of water.

Since its characteristic of tight molecular structure with a bit of elasticity, corks not only prevent water from passing through but also air and that makes natural cork flooring good mufflers. And it absorbs shock rather well. So in an event when you have a noisy neighbor downstairs, try muffling some of the noise down by installing natural cork flooring.

Having a low thermal conductivity makes cork an ideal heat conductor. It remains warm even when temperature gets zero degrees and remains cool when temperature heats up. Consequently, there would be lesser utility bill since heaters won’t be burdened with so much use.

It is important to remember though that corks are natural products. They also age, like any other wood, and they get discolored over time, though some rather like the looks of an aged cork floor giving it a rustic look. Corks will be ruined under direct sunlight as the sun will generally make it brittle. Corks have tiny pockets of air, that’s why they are so supple; but they to tend to ‘burst’ especially under too heavy machinery. And though corks are naturally water resistant, cork do tend to swell as water could invade those parts that aren’t sealed, such as the edges.

Natural cork floorings have a nice feel and an appealing look. It comes with a wide range of colors, from its familiar honey tones to green, red, chocolate and black. And most natural cork floorings are treated with chemicals to further its durability, giving it a non porous skin making cleaning easier. The fact that it is used as wine stoppers should suggest cork as having hypoallergenic properties.

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Peeking at naval history, aside from its primary use as fishing vessels, grandly made yachts where then luxury items surprisingly used by only the rich and famous. For naval warfare, yachts are schooners with light to moderate armaments, lightly loaded for more speed. They where used to harass bigger and bulkier ships during the Golden Age of Sail, against galleons and carracks that overpopulate most of European’s navies.

Today however, yachts’ most prevalent usage is as cruiser yachts. In the past, yachts are just too expensive for everyone to own and maintain. Wood harvested for shipbuilding is subject to several curing process that would make them water resistant. Then there is the actual ship building, the setting of the planks, the caulking of the hull. Shipbuilding was such a meticulous process that yachts suffer a high selling price. The next set of building materials, steel, is still an expensive process. And like the wood material, the steel yacht had to be painted with several layers of special paint to prevent corrosion of the metal. And yacht is still beyond the common man’s purse.

Then came the advancement of composite fibers.

With carbon fiber, fiber glass, and ferrocement, yacht manufacturing become less expensive. Then propped up several yacht builder businesses, all manufacturing yachts based on fiber glass and carbon fiber. Prices went down, and people now get to enjoy unlimited enjoyment in sailing and cruising.

Though cruiser yachts had been known since the turn of the century, it became only widespread with the lowering of prices for this sort of luxury. There are more cruiser yachts than there are ships a century ago.

So what would be your cruising fancy? Do you want to embark into a wild ride partying on a chartered cruiser yachts? Suffice to say, there are so many cruiser yachts available for charter that these operators will be competing over you. One fine example is the Caribbean Yacht Charters at www.caribbeansail.com. With enough charter cruiser yacht to accommodate hundreds of request, plus with no shortage of yacht choice, they are perhaps the best cruiser yacht charters on the Caribbean. Then there’s the American Yacht Special Wedding Package at www.boatmiami.com who creates an extra mile by promoting marriages on their cruiser yachts.

You can also have your own cruiser yacht, of course, since they are all affordable. Adrian Espin @Astonbury Marine Services have several cruiser yachts for sale on catalog, and some are exquisitely classic that they are hard to find these days. Check out the website Eastern Yachts.com, and you’ll see a wealth of choices for cruiser yachts.

Of course you can have them custom made, and the shipwrights at Oyster Marine (www.oystermarine.com) can help you reach a design. Or you could choose a ready made design.

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