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WE ARE proud to bring you the beautiful Granorte ranges of cork flooring. Granorte was originally founded in 1972 to recycle the cork waste from cork stopper manufacturing. They rapidly gained a reputation across the world for the quality of their products. Besides cork flooring Granorte also specialise in granulated to agglomerated cork, cork rolls and wall coverings.
CORK IS the outer bark of the cork oak tree, Quercus Suber L, which grows mainly in the Mediterranean region of the world. The bark is a vegetal tissue composed of an agglomeration of dead cells filled with air and lined with alternating layers of cellulose and suberin.
THE USE of cork as a raw material dates back to the Phoenician and Greek times. Because of its use as wine bottle stoppers, cork began to be known all over the world. In fact, it is the only material that manages to make a perfect sealing during the ageing of the wine. Not surprisingly due to cork's attributes Cork has, over time, been applied to many purposes including flooring.
COMFORT
Due to the air within Cork's cellular structure is naturally shock absorbant.
This makes it the perfect choice for a kitchen or any location where you spend a lot of time on your feet.
INSULATION
For the same reasons that make Cork shock absorbant you will find Cork is a great form of sound and heat insulation. Unlike most hard floors such as wood, stone or vinyl based floorings Cork cushions the impact of falling objects and footsteps.
As there is 75% air inside the lumen of cork cells it's properties in heat preservation and heat insulation are good. It may decrease the invasion of hot air from outside in summer, and prevent the emission of warm air inside the room to outside in winter, thereby ensuring the surface temperature of the flooring kept at a constant level.
IMPERMEABILITY
The presence of suberin (a complex mixture of fatty acids and heavy organic alcohol) renders cork impermeable to both liquids and gases. As a result it does not rot and may therefore be considered one of the best seals available.
FIRE RETARDANT
Cork is a natural fire retardant as it does not spread flames and does not release toxic gases during combustion.
HARD WEARING
Cork is also remarkable resistant to wear and has a high friction coefficient. Thanks to the honeycomb structure of the suberose surface it is less affected by impact and friction that other hard surfaces.
HYGIENIC
Cork does not absorb dust and consequently does not cause allergies nor pose a risk to asthma sufferers. It is constitutionally inalterable and so its efficiency is guaranteed.
FOR MORE information contact us or visit the Granorte website at |
