Material
- 100% post-industrial recycled cork grain, highly compressed with a polyurethane binder
- 1-1/4” raw slabs are slightly oversize at 25 -1/2” wide x 36-1/2” long, so you can yield a 25”x36” finished slab
- Cork is rapidly renewable, fully recyclable and biodegradable
Applications
- Horizontal surfaces in commercial and residential interiors — including tables, bath vanities, kitchen islands, countertops, desks and other work surfaces. Suberra is suitable around sinks.
- Fills a void between low-priced, high-pressure laminate tops and higher-end, sustainable solid surface tops
Fabrication & Finishing
- Suberra can be cut, routed and sanded with woodworking tools and seamed with standard adhesives
- Suberra requires regular support and is not intended to cantilever or span long distances unsupported.
- Undermount sinks should be hung with brackets from the base cabinets, as with some stone tops
- The type of finish depends on the application and the customer’s preference. In most cases, we recommend three coats of OSMO Poly-x Oil.
- Suberra should ideally be fastened to cabinets or table bases with standard wood screws
Contributes to LEED® Credits
MR 6 — Rapidly Renewable
MR 4 — Recycled Content
EQ 4.4 — No added urea formaldehyde
Source & Manufacturing
- The raw material is culled by hand every nine years form the bark of the Cork Oak tree, which regenerates quickly.
- Cork Oak trees are protected by law in Portugal rom over-harvesting. Cork off-cuts from various manufacturing products are ground up, and that grain is compressed into slabs
- Cork is composed of cellulose, lignin and — most of all — a waxy, waterproof substance called suberin. Whereas wood gets its defining properties (including a propensity to burn) from a high cellulose content, it is largely suberin that characterizes cork.
Lab Test Results
- Slab density = 31 lbs / sq.ft.
- Heat resistant to 350 degrees
- Does not off-gas urea formaldehyde
- Class B fire rating
- Does not support bacterial growth (specifically no fungal growth observed after 28 days of exposure to several types)
- Prolonged light exposure has a “moderate effect” that “does not notably alter the original condition of the specimen”
- Good resistance to abrasion (no weight loss of samples due after a 200-cycle wear-resistance test)
- Good stain resistance (no effect on raw, unfinished samples exposed to coffee, tea, 50:50 ethyl alcohol, citric acid, ketchup, acetone, #2 pencil and wax crayon. Exposure to household ammonia, mustard and black shoe polish produced a stain that was difficult to see.)