Speciality Flooring

Specialty

Specialty flooring varieties are beyond the norm. Many specialty flooring options have gained in notoriety in recent years due to environmental awareness as well as contemporary design trends and functional requirements. You can find qualities in these unique floor coverings that you won’t find in traditional options. If you would like to include a cutting edge floor in your home, consider bamboo, cork, rubber, or decorative carpet.

Silkroad Bamboo | Marmoleum | Rubber | Cork Flooring Toronto

 

Why Choose Bamboo Flooring?

Bamboo flooring is perhaps the most widely associated choice for environmentally-friendly flooring. Bamboo is not actually a wood, but is a grass that can be harvested in just three years (in comparison to 100 years for an oak tree), it regenerates without replanting, and as a crop it requires very little fertilization or pesticides. Because of bamboo’s strength and durability, it has been used in construction applications for thousands of years – but only in recent years has gained in popularity for flooring applications here in Canada. Bamboo naturally resists moisture and is resistant to mildew and insects.

To convert the bamboo shoot into flooring, it is sliced into strips and boiled to remove the starch. The strips are then dried and laminated. The adhesives used to laminate the bamboo most often contain formaldehyde. There are many bamboo flooring manufacturers that are continually developing more environmentally-friendly adhesives that are much lower in formaldehyde than federal and state regulations require. To achieve a darker color than the natural pale yellow of the bamboo, it is pressure steamed in a process called carbonization. 

Bamboo floors are available in both solid and engineered planks. Due to the manufacturing process required to make bamboo flooring, it is very difficult to sand and refinish. And due to both bamboo’s natural water resistance and the adhesives used in manufacturing, it is difficult to stain as it doesn’t absorb liquid. Therefore, it is predominantly only available prefinished.

• Pros
• Environmentally friendly (renewable resource)
• Moisture and mildew resistant
• Hard and durable
• Insect resistant

• Cons
• Difficult to sand & refinish
• Adhesives contain formaldehyde

• Cork Flooring in Toronto: Featuring Jelinek

 

Cork flooring is a little-known option in America, but it is gaining in popularity for its many qualities. Most notably, cork is becoming popular due to the increasing attention placed on environmentally-friendly products. Cork is a renewable resource – it is made from the outer bark of the cork oak tree that grows in the Mediterranean region. Though the bark grows back in three years after harvesting, each cork tree is only harvested every nine years. Cork oak trees have a life span of 200 to 500 years, and in fact, harvesting the bark stimulates growth of the tree. Cork is a natural insect repellant and is hypo-allergenic. Because cork is natural, it does have a tendency to yellow with age, and it can fade with overexposure to direct sunlight.

Cork is available in tiles or strips, both giving very distinct looks to a room. There is natural elasticity in cork, so it is soft and warm underfoot and has resiliency that makes it stand up well to heavy furniture and dropped items that might ordinarily dent a hardwood floor. In terms of safety, cork is fire resistant and is a non-slip material. The different stains available allow for a great variety in color options. Tiles can be laid in geometric patterns and in different colors, which add to the wide spectrum of design options that cork offers.

Toronto Cork Flooring:

• Pros
• Environmentally friendly (renewable resource)
• Natural insect repellant
• Long lasting
• Non-slip
• Fire resistant
• Many installation pattern options

• • Cons
  • Yellows with age
  • Can be difficult to clean
  • Must be sealed

Cork flooring Toronto Installation & Repair

 

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