What a cork tree looks like

I was just looking into various flooring options, and Cork Flooring seemed to me to be the best (even over something like Bamboo flooring).  The following article discusses the pros (of which there are many) and the cons (really just long-distance shipping): Cork Flooring.  To give a brief summary, cork flooring is much more sustainable than traditional hardwood flooring in that “the material is acquired by stripping most of the outer bark from the cork oak tree. This regular harvesting does the tree no harm, and the bark grows back, to be stripped again every nine years.”  This is in contrast to the 60+ years required for similar traditional wood floorings.

Some interesting properties of this very practical surface:

• Soft like suede, insulating qualities and resiliency of carpet, the easy-to-clean surface of wood or tile
• Scraps are collected for reuse, so almost nothing is wasted
• The material is waterproof, and the natural waxy substance inherent in cork, called suberin, makes it mold and mildew resistant
• If someone in your family suffers from allergies, a cork floor could provide a soft and warm alternative to allergen collecting carpets
• Cork is naturally flame-resistant
• Acoustically insulating properties keep foot traffic quiet.
• Costs as low as $2/sq. ft. (which is cheap, though like woods they do have expensive options)
• Can be used in just about any room

All of the aforementioned benefits would seem useful for MAGIC, and the fact they come from Europe, which is really the only negative here, won’t matter if their house is being built over there anyways!  I think we should look into this material.