Q:
Could you tell me a little about cork floor finishes, specifically the vegetable oil finish (Jelinek Cork Comfort Finish Flooring)?
A:
Cork flooring is not impervious to stains and oils unless it is coated with some sort of finish. In fact, an unfinished floor takes stain very well, thereby allowing the floor to be stained various colors before being finished. Once coated, the finish is what protects the floor from further staining. All cork floors need some sort of finish to protect them. The most common cork floor finish is polyurethane. Polyurethane is a fairly flexible finish that allows the floor to provide somewhat of a 'cork feel' while it protects. After that there are more rigid finishes such as aluminum oxide, vinyl, and epoxy (in order of rigidity). The more rigid the finish the more it protects the floor but the less the natural properties of cork are available. For example, one reason people purchase cork flooring is for the soft, warm feeling underfoot. A cork floor finished with epoxy is so rigid that you loose this feeling entirely.
The natural vegetable oil finish is the opposite of a rigid finish. This finish maintains the feel and attributes of cork while protecting against spills and stains. It does not protect against heavy pressure points which can cause indentations (eg. a heavy desk with narrow legs will create an indentation in the floor unless furniture pads are placed under the desk legs). The other nice thing about a vegetable oil finish is that it is a natural product unlike all of the rigid finish products - its main component is "safflower oil".
A floor can be coated with vegetable oil by hand (using a rag to rub the oil into the floor) or by a machine. It does not get heated. Multiple applications of the oil are applied to create the finished floor. If finishing the floor using vegetable oil by hand (can be done at home), 3 coats of oil are recommended. The same method is used to refinish a floor if it needed to be done. However, typically only one coat would need to be applied in order to refinish the floor. Cork floors finished with the vegetable oil finish need to be cleaned with a special cleaner (called Dergos natural oil cleaner, available from corkstore.com) about once a month. There is a very small amount of vegetable oil in the cleaner that enhances the existing finish. By doing this, you generally would never need to refinish the floor (rubbing oil into the floor). In comparison, a floor finished with polyurethane often needs a new coat of urethane every 5 years or so (depending on traffic). Recoating a urethane floor involves abrading the existing finish (using either a chemical abrader or a physical abrader such as sandpaper). The new coat of urethane is applied wet and allowed to dry. It is a day long process. With the vegetable oil finish, this type of recoating is not necessary provided the floor is maintained using the cleaner.
The Jelinek Cork flooring finished with natural vegetable oil is called the Comfort Finish line. Please contact us for further details or you can order online at corkstore.com
For more information on cork flooring visit http://jelinek.com/flooring.htm
Friday, May 29, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
The process of making a natural wine cork.
After the cork bark is harvested from the cork oak tree, how does it become a wine cork?
After harvesting the cork bark off cork oak trees, the bark is gathered and placed in large piles waiting to be loaded onto trucks and transported to the processing factories. The health of the cork oaks is not effected …. The same tree can be harvested over and over again every nine years.
The bark is cut into strips by a very sharp knife. The thickness of the strips determines the length of the cork stoppers. In the above photo the strips are quite thin …. about half an inch or 12.5mm. This means the stoppers punched from these strips would be ½” or 12.5mm in length, about half the length of a standard wine cork often used on olive bottles or spice bottles.
In this picture the stoppers are being punched from the bark strips by hand, the strips are about 1-1/2” long or 38 mm. These are wine stopper corks. The operator must be very precise. After the corks are all punched out of each strip the leftover strips (those with the holes in them) are called “cork waste”. This name is misleading because in cork there is no waste. These leftover strips are later ground up and turned into cork grain. Cork grain is further processed and turned into other products such as cork floors, walls, insulating materials, bulletin boards, coasters, and much more.
Punching stoppers out of cork strips can also be done by automatic machines such as the one pictured above. This is a safer and quicker process but not as exact as hand punching.
After the cork stoppers are punched out they are sorted into various qualities – usually seven standard qualities - by expert sorters who can quickly and effectively recognize the difference between each cork. Qualities are determined by the number of pores, cracks, or other imperfections.
Here you can see the sorters surrounded by wicker baskets. They pick and choose the corks and throw them into the designated seven different quality baskets without even glancing up. They seldom miss their shots, even those they throw side-handed or over their shoulders!
Following these procedures the corks are washed, branded with company logos, treated with a surface coating to make insertion into and out of bottles easier and smoother, and finally sterilized and packed in hermetically sealed heavy duty poly bags which are not opened until they arrive at the bottling line.
After harvesting the cork bark off cork oak trees, the bark is gathered and placed in large piles waiting to be loaded onto trucks and transported to the processing factories. The health of the cork oaks is not effected …. The same tree can be harvested over and over again every nine years.
The bark is cut into strips by a very sharp knife. The thickness of the strips determines the length of the cork stoppers. In the above photo the strips are quite thin …. about half an inch or 12.5mm. This means the stoppers punched from these strips would be ½” or 12.5mm in length, about half the length of a standard wine cork often used on olive bottles or spice bottles.
In this picture the stoppers are being punched from the bark strips by hand, the strips are about 1-1/2” long or 38 mm. These are wine stopper corks. The operator must be very precise. After the corks are all punched out of each strip the leftover strips (those with the holes in them) are called “cork waste”. This name is misleading because in cork there is no waste. These leftover strips are later ground up and turned into cork grain. Cork grain is further processed and turned into other products such as cork floors, walls, insulating materials, bulletin boards, coasters, and much more.
Punching stoppers out of cork strips can also be done by automatic machines such as the one pictured above. This is a safer and quicker process but not as exact as hand punching.
After the cork stoppers are punched out they are sorted into various qualities – usually seven standard qualities - by expert sorters who can quickly and effectively recognize the difference between each cork. Qualities are determined by the number of pores, cracks, or other imperfections.
Here you can see the sorters surrounded by wicker baskets. They pick and choose the corks and throw them into the designated seven different quality baskets without even glancing up. They seldom miss their shots, even those they throw side-handed or over their shoulders!
Following these procedures the corks are washed, branded with company logos, treated with a surface coating to make insertion into and out of bottles easier and smoother, and finally sterilized and packed in hermetically sealed heavy duty poly bags which are not opened until they arrive at the bottling line.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Vegetable oil + cork = Jelinek Cork Comfort Finish Cork Flooring
So what do you get when you take a beautiful cork floor and stain and seal it with natural vegetable oil? Jelinek Cork Comfort Finish cork flooring.
Cork, as you know, is an all natural product. It comes from the bark of the cork oak tree. Cork flooring needs to be finished in order to protect it from daily use. The most eco-friendly floor finish is a natural product -- vegetable oil.
Jelinek Cork's Comfort Finish flooring line can be stained various shades. The stain is also formulated from vegetable oil.
This natural and environmentally friendly surface finish protects the cork floor while maintaining the look and feel of the cork. The finish gives the floor a very soft feeling - some describe it by saying it feels like leather.
Typically, these floors do not need to be recoated - even after years of use. About once a month, the floor needs to be cleaned with a special cleaner which will reapply a small amount of oil to the finish.
So there you have it - cork flooring + vegetable oil = a truly environmentally friendly plus gorgeous floor.
Cork, as you know, is an all natural product. It comes from the bark of the cork oak tree. Cork flooring needs to be finished in order to protect it from daily use. The most eco-friendly floor finish is a natural product -- vegetable oil.
Jelinek Cork's Comfort Finish flooring line can be stained various shades. The stain is also formulated from vegetable oil.
This natural and environmentally friendly surface finish protects the cork floor while maintaining the look and feel of the cork. The finish gives the floor a very soft feeling - some describe it by saying it feels like leather.
Typically, these floors do not need to be recoated - even after years of use. About once a month, the floor needs to be cleaned with a special cleaner which will reapply a small amount of oil to the finish.
So there you have it - cork flooring + vegetable oil = a truly environmentally friendly plus gorgeous floor.
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