Cork wallpapers: consider their pros and cons

Gusevsky Andrey Anatolyevich

Photo of a beautiful interior

To give your home naturalness and naturalness, it is not necessary to live in a log house. There is a simpler solution - wallpaper for walls made of natural cork. A relatively new, environmentally friendly type of finish, which allows you to quickly and effectively fill the interior with the beauty of natural materials.

Types of cork wallpapers

Cork wallpaper for walls is a natural and at the same time high-tech finishing material, which has earned the recognition of designers, builders and customers:

• For the production of wallpaper using environmentally friendly material - cork oak bark.
• As a result of processing the bark, finishing materials are produced either in the form of panels and plates, or rolls.

The trading network presents several varieties of cork wallpaper:

• On a non-woven or paper basis.
• Baseless.
• Self adhesive.

Wallpaper with a base is a paper or non-woven backing with cork veneer fragments glued to it. Their thickness usually does not exceed 1 mm.

General characteristics

The base under the decorative layer can be either white or painted.

So:

• On a painted base, cork veneer may not fill the entire space of the canvas, but leave gaps, forming a unique pattern.
• In the manufacture of baseless coatings, the basis is a web glued from crushed cork chips.
• Bonding is carried out without the use of glue, the resinous substances released by the cork when heated provide sufficient strength.
• A new and most easy to install type of wallpaper is self-adhesive wallpaper from cork. They are a roll of self-adhesive film with a decorative layer of cork veneer.

Note. In any design, the surface of the cork can be additionally painted, protected by a wax or varnish coating.

Application features

Roll cork wallpaper: pros and cons, consider them in more detail.

Main advantages

Among the main advantages of cork wallpaper are the following:

• High decorative properties. The natural texture of the veneer forms a unique pattern. The soft colors of natural cork create a balanced classic interior.
• Environmental friendliness. In the production only natural materials are used, which makes this type of finish environmentally friendly and hypoallergenic.
• High tactile propertiesThe relief and natural softness of the cork are pleasant to the touch.
• Meets fire safety requirements, flame retardant and do not support combustion.
• Plastic roll, pasting of convex or concave surfaces is allowed.

Plugging cork wallpaper is quite simple, and does not take much time.

• The material is not electrifieddue to which it has a dust-repellent property.
• High soundproof properties. The embossed texture absorbs and scatters a significant part of the sound waves, and the cellular structure of the material is a good sound insulator.

Important. Good thermal insulation properties. The cork has a porous structure, so that the surface of the wall always remains warm.

• Have a moisture repellent effect, impregnation or a protective coating with varnish or wax prevents the absorption of water.
• Not susceptible to damage by fungus and other microorganisms.
• Wax-soaked materials do not absorb odors.
• Due to their thickness they can hide small wall defects.
• Long service life up to 20-30 years. With proper care, they retain their decorative properties throughout the entire period of operation.
• Cork coverings allow wet cleaning.

Minuses

Among the disadvantages of this material are the following:

• High price. A square meter costs from 500 rubles.
• Low strength. The cork is soft enough and can be easily scratched by children or pets.

If cork wallpaper is used in the kitchen, in the bathroom, in rooms with pungent odors, it is necessary to apply impregnated material.

Cork wallpaper in the interior

The use of natural materials always creates a unique interior space.

A variety of textures and colors allows you to create a natural decor for rooms for any purpose:

• Cork wallpaper is ideally combined with other natural materials and furniture: wood, bamboo, reeds (see Natural wallpaper: coating features).
• The color of natural veneer goes well with brown, sand, brown, beige tones.
• There are collections on sale, the cork on which is painted or tinted, which allows you to choose decorative materials for the interior in any color.

Note. Most often, cork coatings are used to create interiors in a classic or ethno style.

Cork wallpapers can be combined with other natural finishing materials - decorative stone, plaster, bamboo or textiles. In addition to continuous wall pasting, various applications, panels and decorative elements are cut out of the cork.

Cork sticking sequence

Sticking cork wallpapers with your own hands is quite simple.

Before starting work, they should be stored for several days in the repaired room, this is necessary to adapt to temperature and humidity in the room.

Tip. Immediately before gluing, the roll is cut into strips of the required length with a small margin and kept unfolded for several hours. It is necessary that the caking material in the roll is straightened.

Glue selection

For rolls on a paper or non-woven basis, ordinary glue for heavy wallpapers is suitable. If the roll is baseless, special glue should be used for cork products. The instructions attached to the roll contain manufacturer's recommendations on the choice of brand of glue.

Surface preparation

Walls must be cleaned of old coatings. In the presence of significant irregularities, the walls should be plastered first (see How to do wall plastering with your own hands) Then puttied and then primed. The primer strengthens and dedusts the surface, evens out the absorbency of the surface.

First step

The prepared wall surface is marked using a plumb line. The drawn vertical strip will be the starting one and will set the vertical for all subsequent stripes.

Second phase

The prepared glue is applied evenly on the back surface of the wallpaper, and, if necessary, on the wall.

The glue is applied with a brush or roller, the thick glue is leveled with a spatula:

• A strip of wallpaper is applied to the wall in accordance with the markings and smoothed.
• For smoothing use a rubber roller, a wide brush or a special plastic spatula.
• After smoothing, no air bubbles should remain under the sheet. Glue squeezed out from under the strip is carefully removed with a clean soft cloth.

Excess length of the strip is cut with scissors or a mounting knife. It is important that the knife is perfectly sharp, it is recommended to break off the blade section after each cut blade.

Docking bands

As a rule, cork wallpapers do not require fitting the picture and are glued just butt. At the outer and inner corners, the joining of the paintings is done by trimming in place using an assembly knife and a metal ruler.

After sticking, the wallpaper is allowed to dry for 1-3 days, depending on the glue used.

Cork wallpaper, how to glue horizontally?

The difference is only in the markup. It is necessary to draw a horizontal line along the entire wall using the laser level.

Plugging self-adhesive cork wallpaper takes less time and does not require dirty work with glue.

Their sticking does not cause difficulties:

• The protective film bends to a length of 5-10 cm and the edge of the wallpaper gently adheres to the wall.
• Next, the protective film is removed along the entire length of the strip while smoothing the strip to the wall.
• The ends of the strip are trimmed.
• After the wallpaper is pasted, the cork can be further protected by a layer of varnish or wax.

The video for this article shows in detail the entire process of working with cork wallpaper.