Both hardwood and cork are beautiful flooring materials, and they are natural, renewable resources. Even though wood and cork are reasonable insulators, they will not provide as much insulation as carpeting over a thick pad. With the millions of tiny air pockets though, wood and cork flooring feels warm to your feet, and their natural [...]

Both hardwood and cork are beautiful flooring materials, and they are natural, renewable resources. Even though wood and cork are reasonable insulators, they will not provide as much insulation as carpeting over a thick pad. With the millions of tiny air pockets though, wood and cork flooring feels warm to your feet, and their natural rich appearance creates a comfy ambiance.

The insulation of the flooring material is less important than properly insulating the floor. If your home is built over a crawl space, the underside of the floor structure or the entire crawl space should be insulated. For a house on a slab, the slab perimeter should be insulated. If you have a basement, exposed walls should be insulated to several feet below the ground level.

By removing the carpeting, you will realize a savings by not having to run room air cleaners and a vacuum cleaner as frequently to remove allergens which thrive in carpeting. Very few people are allergic to the finishes on hardwood or cork flooring. Both can be cleaned with a damp mop to remove allergens and grit.

Hardwood and cork have somewhat similar properties and are durable and attractive. Hardwood is more commonly used and more types and styles are available. Cork, although it feels hard to the touch, is more comfortable to stand on for long periods of time. If you drop a glass on a cork floor, it generally will not break. This is one reason it is often used in kitchens.

If you decide on hardwood, buy “best wood.” Most people seem to feel that it is most durable and attractive, but there are significant differences among various flooring hardwoods. With children in a home, durability is likely your first priority. With proper care, it can hold up well under their little feet.

There are two characteristics which constitute durability. The first is hardness of the wood surface. A harder wood holds up better to foot traffic and resists dents from dropped items. Even if the surface finish gets scratched and marred, it can be refinished with very little sanding. A softer wood may require more sanding to level the surface.

The second characteristic of durability is stability. A stable hardwood will not change shape and size much with changes in humidity and temperature throughout the year. If you prefer natural ventilation to save energy during summer months with higher humidity, stability should be a consideration.

The hardest woods, such as hard maple, hickory, red oak, etc., may not always be the most stable. Always check on the specific wood species, not just a general name, such as cherry. Brazilian cherry is twice as hard as black cherry, but black cherry is more stable.

An environmental alternative to solid flooring is engineered hardwood. A veneer of real hardwood is bonded to several plies of other less expensive woods so fewer hardwood trees are consumed. This makes it more stable under varying indoor conditions than most solid hardwoods. The veneer is thick enough for several refinishes.

The appearance of the flooring is a function of the type of wood, finish and patterns. The newest design for do-it-yourself installation is a puzzle floor. The hardwood pieces are shaped as interlocking puzzle pieces. It is laid as a floating floor for easy installation.

For environmentally conscious homeowners like me, cork is the perfect material. The bark of cork oak trees is peeled off every nine years and the trees heal themselves and grow stronger. They can live to be 150 years old.
The natural colors of cork can range from almost white to deep, dark browns. A thickness in the 3/16-inch range is typical for the one-foot-square tiles. The darkness is controlled by how long the cork is baked.

Other colors, such as reds, greens and blues, are also available with varying grain definitions. These colorful cork tiles are usually made using a stained cork veneer cork layer over a natural-colored cork base. These have the same resilient feeling as solid (massive) cork tiles.

Massive cork tiles are the same thickness as veneer cork, but are not layered. They have an insulation value of R-2.8 per inch thickness, so they save energy over an uninsulated slab floor. Fewer colors are available because they are not stained.

The following companies offer hardwood flooring: Boen Hardwood Flooring, 800-783-3309, www.boen.com ; Briggs Engineered Wood Products, 800-750-5563, www.puzzlefloor.com ; and Junckers Hardwood, 800-878-9663, www.junckershardwood.com. And, cork flooring: Dodge-Regupol, 800-322-1923, www.regupol.com ; Jelinek, 800-959-0995, www.jelinek cork.com cork.com ; and Natural Cork, 800-404-2675, www.naturalcork.com.

Send your inquiries to James Dulley, Country Lines, 6906 Royalgreen Dr., Cincinnati, OH 45244, or visit www.dulley.com.